gathering nature

my favorite way to collect nature for this blog is by taking a walk somewhere near woods, prairie, or water, and preferably all three. someplace where i am more or less likely to come across a feather, a seed pod, a beetle chewed leaf, a skeleton, a flower, a graphic or dramatic stem, an interesting stone, a fungus, a butterfly wing. but nature does not always mean picturesque nature, and sometimes nature finds itself inside, not outside, the perimeter of my four walls and that doesn’t make it any less nature, or any less worthy of still blog. in fact, i may just love these dessicated daddy long legs (mostly found caught in spider webs or curled up in corners of my basement) as much as the showiest summer lily, or the most intact wood duck feather.  they are perfectly expressive, dramatically graphic, a coherent collective, and a whimsical group of unique individuals all at the same time. sorry it had to happen this way guys. but you are perfect in your strange troubling awkward beauty.

daddy long-legs spiders