joseph is 10 years old and he is surrounded on one side by a lake and cattail bed and on the other by our neighbors’ 30 acres of open hardwoods. sometimes joseph is unproductively dreamy, as we recently heard from his piano teacher. sometimes he is productively dreamy, like right now, sitting across the table from me, drawing everything he can think of, and drawing it in perspective–the aftermath of a particularly fruitful lesson from a favorite teacher in art class this week. this afternoon, dreamy joseph disappeared into the snow for a while, in stocking cap, jacket, snow pants, and sorel boots. he was gone a long time. i would catch glimpses of him, swinging sticks, jumping off of snow banks, or just drifting through the woods on crusted snow. unproductive? even if he hadn’t come back with a barred owl feather snared by a twig, i wouldn’t call his afternoon unproductive.

limb snagged owl feather (probably barred owl)

saint paul, minnesota