bleu, blanc, rouge

the bushes to whom these three berries belong were all bunched up together on my morning walk, each about head-height and loaded with berries. most americans, when they see red, white, and blue together think of the american flag. but i always think of the tricolor blocks the french flag first–bleu, blanc, rouge–liberté, égalité, fraternité. perhaps it’s the relative simplicity of those thee blocks of color that make it my first association. the american flag is busy. and busy is less sticky than simple.

buckthorn berries, viburnum nudum berries, high-bush cranberries

busy day

i had a busy day. a lot of pent up social commitments. so while i did not get out for a walk, this image composed itself on my kitchen floor. the hackberry leaves from a few days ago, piled on top of some white pine needle i have been saving for a rainy day. the juxtaposition is interesting. it’s nothing i would have set out to compose…but these two subjects found each other on my kitchen floor, and it kind of works. i can’t explain why. but it works.

white pine needles and hackberry leaves

rooted

i don’t photograph roots much. while they are certainly interesting, they are not always beautiful (in a traditional kind of way). but this tangle of buckthorn roots had a certain attractiveness i thought. it would have been nice to photograph the whole circular mess, but this was a large rootball, and i couldn’t get high enough above it without a ladder. and i was simply too impatient to get a ladder down from the garage rafters where it lives. buckthorn, as you know, is my nemesis. it is wildly invasive and extremely difficult to eradicate. i am one a one-person mission to do what i can on my three acres. but it is back-breaking work. and i am 59 years old. we will see whose roots are more stubborn.

buckthorn roots (Rhamnus cathartica)

in a learning mindset

i must be in a learning mindset, because i am seeing so many new-to-me things. like these lily of the valley berries. what in the world? my side-yard is loaded with lily of the valley, which i excitedly await each spring. but clearly, i must all together forget about them after june, becaue this is the first year i have noticed their orange fruits. how in the world did i overlook something so clearly trying to get my attention? those orange berries, against the dark green leaves is a perfect complement–they have been shouting at me to notice them. i am going to blame it on all the virginia creeper vines that tend to dominate and cover most of my understory come summer. otherwise, it is a little embarrassing.

fruiting lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis)

trendy, but…

dahlias are trendy. if you spend time on social media, dahlias are the flower of the moment. my inner-rebel wants to not like dahlias. but, damn it, dahlias are pretty. so here i am, photographing dahlias.

want a few factoids on dahlias? i thought you would never ask. lol.

• The dahlia was declared the national flower of Mexico in 1963.
• There are now more than 57,000 registered cultivars of dahlia, which are officially registered through the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). The official register is The International Register of Dahlia Names 1969 (1995 reprint) which is updated by annual supplements. The original 1969 registry published about 14,000 cultivars adding a further 1700 by 1986 and in 2003 there were 18,000. Since then about a hundred new cultivars are added annually.
• Dahlias are cousins to the sunflower, daisy, chrysanthemum, and zinnia.
• Their great variety results from dahlias being octoploids—that is, they have eight sets of homologous chromosomes, whereas most plants have only two.

dahlia detail