do what you can

wow, the disruption from having a 12 ton oak tree dropped on your roof is more than i expected. i am crawling with contractors over here. and it is going to go one for months i fear. i will have to establish some new routines…in the meantime, i am grabbing pockets of STILL times whenever i can. hang with me. i should be back on seasonal attentiveness (obsessiveness?) soon.

cutting corners

i try to avoid store bought subjects here on STILL. it throws the whole seasonal rhythm off for me. and the colors never look quite right in my feed. too tropical. too citrusy. too too. BUT, i am still dealing with he 100 square foot hole in my roof (the tree has been removed, but it took two super-sized cranes lift it up and out).  so, i am lowering my standards, and bringing you store-bought gerbera daisies. native to south africa and now widely domesticated throughout the world.

gerbera daisy flowerheads

molting again

our sandhill cranes are molting again. i just looked up how long it takes for them to grow back their molted feathers, and it looks like it is about 2 months (45-70 days). that makes sense to me, as they will be getting ready to migrate in early october. molting is painful and dangerous. so it is only done during periods of mild weather and abundant food. the lifespan of sandhill cranes in the wild is 20-30 years!  this is our second year with this pair (they mate for life, and return to the same nesting grounds every year). i am hopeful we will enjoy many years with them, but i have resisted giving them names yet, as i will be devastated if anything happens to them and naming them would only make it worse. but they are are such a large part of lives and conversations now, that it is getting inconvenient to not have a short hand for referring to them. so, if you have any name suggestions please put them in comments. it may be time.

sandhill crane feathers

some days, shit happens

this was almost the first time in 11 years that i almost had to break the STILL chain. yesterday, we had a storm pass through with 60 mile per hour straight line winds and an enormous oak tree fell on the house crushing the roof and part of one exterior wall.  we were all home, but no one was hurt! the hole in the roof is about 3 meters wide. so, in addition to the immediate physical damage, we had 3 inches of pouring rain sheeting into the house. at first we thought we had been struck by lightening, because the noise was deafening  and shock reverberations felt like an earthquake . if your are curious, i think i might post a photo of it on instagrm in a bit (i am on instagram as @maryjohoffman).  so, the house was crawling with tree removers, insurance adjusters, and mitigation contractors. with my nerves frayed, i was going to pass on STILL. but alas, as there always is in times of crisis and chaos, there were many moments of hurry up and wait. so during a pause, i walked up the driveway and picked the first subject to catch my attention; tiger lily buds which will probably start opening tomorrow with all that rain and all. 😳

tiger lily buds (Lilium lancifolium)

reaching for the sun

this is the time of year when my i surrender my one-person war against the advancing profusion of virginia creeper. it’s voracious and indiscriminate reach outpaces my ability to protect my precious ferns and wildflowers. as mad as i get, i still have to admit that these relentless vine tips are quite lovely in their delicate curves and new-growth coloration. and in a few more months i will enjoy the carpet of red leaves.  it may be a hostile take-over, bat at least the new owner isn’t all bad.*

virginia creeper vine tips (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)

* in my former life as a corporate aerospace research scientist, i lived through a hostile take-over. it was touted as a merger, but it was in fact an unwelcome buy-out. and the new parent company was even worse than virginia creeper (think kudzu). so i have a little experience with take-overs. and sometimes, the best option is to admit defeat and move on.