usually the making and arranging of my STILL blog images is a form of pure play for me. on the best days, it even becomes a form of deep play–that meditative flow state where you get so absorbed that you lose all sense of time.  well, that didn’t happen today. i had gathered these twigs on a walk yesterday, and woke up knowing exactly what i was going to do with them. i made tea. i put on music. i cleared my desk of everything except my pile of colorful twigs and a pair of snips. i was relaxed. i was ready.  i had visions of  detailed striped patterns filling in each v of the twigs.  i placed my first twig. success. this was going to be fun. i placed my second twig, trickier but i got it. i placed my third twig, and the first two fell out. i started saying to myself, “there is no hurry, you have all afternoon.”  after an hour, i called in twelve-year-old joseph, who shares a kind of genetic patience with his father, though not his mother. joe had more success than i, but after 45 minutes he too was defeated. after two hours we raised our white flags, and photographed the measly results of our afternoon of all work and no play. thank goodness february has an extra day this year so i can give myself a mulligan.

winter twigs laddered with smaller twigs