highbush cranberries line the banks of a favorite trout stream in michigan. there seem to be good vintage years and not so good ones, but a handful of the tart but juicy berries can be a perfect treat after a long day of stumbling over slippery cobbles, and getting your shins knocked into submerged logs by the current.

highbush cranberries

saint paul,  minnesota

i am in a rut. well, truth be told i am in several ruts, like my closet full of striped shirts. (i am not in the kind of rut that the 14 point whitetail buck in my back yard was in yesterday, as he trotted urgently around the neighborhood with his nose to the ground like a hound dog.) the particular rut i am referring to is is my desire to make patterns. i find myself doodling patterns, painting patterns, photographing patterns, and pinning patterns. i see patterns everywhere: gridded, alternating, haphazard, overlapping. i like them all. i’m so smitten by patterns lately that my most recent pinterest board (here) is nothing but. speaking of patterns, i hope you like the one above.

pattern of white cedar leaves

my yard, saint paul, minnesota

this feather was interrupted in the process of unfurling. it was a developing feather called a pin feather, or sometimes a blood feather if it still has a blood supply flowing through it. as the young owl preens, it removes the waxy coating of the shaft and the feather unfurls, and the blood supply recedes to the base of the shaft. since starting STILL i have come across several blood feathers on my walks.  before STILL, i had never heard of them.

juvenile great horned owl pin feather

ely, minnesota

these disapproving seed pods, with their pursed mouths, are convinced they are better than you, but they don’t seem to realize they’ve forgotten to shave.

nigella damascena (or nigella sativa) seed heads

saint paul, minnesota

i didn’t intend for the northern half of this photo to look so frosty, and the southern half to look so tropical, but it works so well, i’m going to pretend that i intended it all along. with a fierce northern wind blowing outside my window right now, i’m also going to pretend those colored leaves are the chile peppers they resemble, and i’m going to daydream about fiery summer salsas.

fronts and backs of weeping willow leaves in november

turtle lake, saint paul, minnesota