the whole package

my morning walk down to the lake, to water the pots of tomato plants we put on the dock this summer, has me more in touch with my aquatic plants than i typically am.  i have photographed and dried many lily pads over the years. but usually i do it later in summer, when the lily pads are the size of dinner plates. now with my morning walks down to the lake, i am noticing for the first time these little silver-dollar sized lily pads sprouting up everywhere. the two different colors are simply the top-side and under-side of the lily pads. growing from umbilical cords attached to rhizomes in muck at the bottom of the lake, and floating contendely on the surface of the lake all summer. i am really quite enamored with lily pads: ingenuity, uniqueness, form, color…wonder and delight.

dried lily pads