it is fun to make a beautiful image of something that’s beautiful in nature. but it might be even more fun to make a beautiful image of something that is ugly in nature. fall webworm nests look like someone took all the dust bunnies out of your vacuum cleaner bag and wrapped them around the extremities of tree branches. they lack all the elegance of orb spider webs and then some. they are not only ugly themselves, but they make beautiful trees ugly by infesting them. which makes me all the happier about the delicate ghostliness of these leaves, caught in the silky jaws of a monster.

leaves caught in webworm nest

arden hills, saint paul, minnesota