defamiliarization
One of the things I enjoy doing here on STILL is presenting familiar subjects in an unfamiliar way in order to help you resee the beauty of nature. Just a little reminder of the magnificence of this place we all call home. When I do workshops on The Art of Noticing, I sometimes refer to this as learning to see below the ordinary to the infra-ordinary: Learning to resee the things we have become so habituated to, that we actually stop noticing them at all. Recently, I heard an author being interviewed and he used the term defamiliarization, and I thought “That’s it! That’s exactly what I try to do!”, defamiliarize the subject so you can see it anew, as if for the first time. Case in point, this photo of foxtail barley seedheads.
wild foxtail barley seedheads (Hordeum jubatum)
dental day
I had major dental work done today: a new root canal on the left (#14), and oral surgery to repair a problematic root canal on the right (#30). So this is all I got for you today.
As the saying goes–“You get what you get and you dan’t make fit.”
white pine with new and old pine cones (Pinus strobus)
Time for more Tylenol 3. See you tomorrow.
xoxo Mary Jo
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Wow!! That’s a lot for one day! Take care, rest, and maybe some ‘escape reading’?
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Ouch !!!
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I have defamiliarized myself with these things as I plucked them my late Toby’s fur and a couple of times from his nostrils
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here, there, everywhere
Yesterday’s wild bee balm bloomed in my kitchen.
We have bees. We don’t do the beekeeping, the U of M does the beekeeping. We are one of their field research sites. We’ve been doing this with them for about 12 years or so. We get the honey, they do what they want with the hive, collect data, and keep us graciously in the loop. Their method for keeping the whole system living over our harsh northern winters involves a two hive system where queens and colonies are swapped back and forth as needed to keep everyone alive and thriving. It is only July 13, and our hives are taller than I have ever seen them in the whole time we have had bees. Each time the bees fill a box with honey, the beekeepers will add a “super” to the hive. Usually by this time in summer, the hive will be the two bases boxes, and 1-2 additional supers–so each hive is maybe 4 boxes tall. Right now, we have a hive that is 8 boxes tall! It looks like a skyscraper, and it is only JULY! And the bee balm only bloomed yesterday and the goldenrod is a whole month away. If the hive gets much taller it will become tippy, so I am guessing the U of M beekeepers will actually start taking boxes to the extraction lab soon. Three cheers for happy honey bees!
wild bee balm (wild bergamot)
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It’s so pretty and such a delicious color! And how cool to be involved, in a minor way, in the U of M’s project. How much honey do you typically get each year? Sounds as if it’s gonna be a bumper crop this year. I grow the native Eastern beebalm, which looks very much the same as yours. It blooms in May and, delightfully, has taken over a corner of one garden bed. Love the seed heads, and i know you do too!
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Wow! I learn something new here every day. Thank you.
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one, two…then a million
Yesterday I did not notice any monarda (bee balm) on my comings and goings. Today I say it everywhere. In abundant quantities. Clearly, everyone in the bee balm organization got the memo on the same morning and went right into action. Impressive.
Wild Bergamot, aka wild bee balm (Monarda fistulosa)
a tragedy, then a gift
My friend Kristin has (had?) a robin that makers a nest every year over the light at the entryway to her house. Interestingly, my Mom has the same thing. This year, Kristin’s robin made her nest, laid this vibrant clutch of four eggs, and then went missing never to return. Today, Kristin finally took the nest down and brought me the eggs. The beauty is–once again–overwhelming to me. I am so sad these eggs didn’t get a chance to hatch, and I am so grateful to have gotten this close-up look at such perfection. I can look at a robin’s egg and imagine the infinite.
American robin eggs (Turdus migratorius)
