wooly bear caterpillars are undulating slowly across sidewalks and bike paths everywhere, like rusty, pulsing bottle brushes. they refuse, despite our folk-wisdom attempts to employ them as barometers, to predict any weather at all. what they do quite reliably is to undulate slowly across sidewalks and bike paths, and, when prodded, to contract into bristly, rust-colored pillows.

woolly bear caterpillar

rice creek regional trail, saint paul, minnesota

i photographed the pattern on the right, full frame, for STILL.  then i picked up my iphone and snapped a photo of the scene “in process” to post to instagram. i liked my instagram photo better than one i had taken with my real camera for STILL. it’s not the first time that has happened. so i re-shot the STILL photo showing the order that had exploded out of the chaos.

ash tree seeds and blue berries from an unidentified shrub

ash seed from rice creek regional trail, saint paul; and blue berries from park city, utah

the temperatures are dropping and the few remaining bugs are noticeably sluggish. this variegated meadowhawk came inside for some warmth, i imagine, but ran out of bugs to eat in our living room and kitchen. i watched him land on a stack of papers on my desk last night, and this morning, he was still there, frozen. i’m thankful for all the mosquitoes he ate before coming inside for a final visit.

dragonfly in october

in my home, saint paul, minnesota

this year i am noticing all the complementary colors that nature serves up for us in autumn:  orange maples set against cloudless blue skies, purple asters lining paths blanketed with yellow cottonwood leaves, and red and green oak leaves growing old together on the same branch.

pin oak leaves in october

saint paul, minnesota

by mid-winter i will be sated with these brittle twiggy remnants of summer. but right now, they feel like a welcome bit of visual breathing room, amid the vivid opulence of fall foliage.

a gathering of autumn stems from my daily walk on rice creek regional trail

saint paul, minnesota