the color purple

make the frame. break the frame. then use color to unify.

a burst of energy

the temps dropped below 80, and i had a burst of energy as a result. one of my favorite expressions for composing is “make the frame. break the frame.” it’s similar to, but slightly different than, another favorite of mine:  “a little order within the chaos.” today i got a burst of energy and made several of these broken boxes (frames) in different color-ways. this one was my first. i’ll be sharing the rest in the next few days. you’ll have tell me which one you like best. in the meantime, always remember “make the frame, break the frame.”

assemblage of yellow and orange botanicals

false hopes

i was so excited when i found these irises among our cattails this week. i just assumed they were wild and native because of their similarity to the native blue-flag irises we have been so devotedly cultivating along our boardwalk. but alas, they are not native to minnesota. they are indeed invasives from europe. this whole thing with native versus invasive plants has my head spinning. there are non-natives that become so naturalized these seem like natives–lilacs and dandelions, for example. and non-natives that we are all suppose to eradicate at all costs, like buckthorn and garlic mustard. these yellow irises seem to fall in the middle of those two extremes.  i am not going to eradicate these yellow irises. they feel more like a lovely gift from someone who just came back from a trip to france, than an unwanted visitor.  tell me where you fall on the native/non-native plant spectrum?

wild yellow iris (Iris pseudacorus)

even the grasses are flowering

did you know grasses flower? yes, grasses flower – but their flowers are a reduced form of the showy flowers with petals because grasses are wind-pollinated, so they do not need to put energy into developing a look-at-me showy flower to attract pollinators. these roadside grasses (probably tall fescue?)  are hanging out their sex parts this week. it’s a short few days. see if you can catch it. it often goes unnoticed.

tall grass inflorescence

traveller’s joy

when i sit down to post my daily image and write these little missives, i will almost always look up my subject on wiki. one of my unexpected delights is when they list the “also known as” names of my subject in other parts of world. the names are often far more descriptive than our english name. clematis, for example, comes from the greek word for climbing plant. it’s a fine name. but the brit’s call their native species traveller’s joy. now that’s a name i can remember. and it fits both the climbing (traveling) vine and the joyfulness of those oversized blossoms (and buds) on such a delicate vine. you say tomato, i say tomato.

clematis flowers