blue spruce in blue light

we have a set of six clerestory windows high above the single space that serves as our living room, dining room, and kitchen. the windows face south, and the light that shines through them moves in two perpendicular directions on two separate schedules. through the course of each day, the light travels eastward across our counters or our floors, as the sun makes its way toward the western horizon. and over the course of each year, between the summer solstice and the winter solstice, the light advances a little bit farther into the room each day, as the sun’s arc grows shallower in the southern sky. just a couple of days ago, i noticed the sun in my eyes as i sat at my computer, in the same location, and at the same time, as i have sat there for weeks. it was a little seasonal reminder that had been almost six months in the making.

blue spruce branch in winter sun

not really jonathan adler

when i first put these goldenrod galls in line with each other, i thought, hey, they look kind of like a jonathan adler sculptural room divider, with the bulbous shapes fitting into each other’s hollows. how cool! and then i thought, hmm. jonathan adler. glam. bright. playful. palm springs. and i thought, ok, no. in fact, these goldenrod galls do not remind me of jonathan adler.

goldenrod stems with galls

how i got here.

outdoorsy tomboy to soccer player to engineering major to astronautical engineer to wife to mom of one to section chief to mom of two to homemaker to nature lover to dogwalker to photographer to blogger to artist to product designer to . . . outdoorsy-tomboy-blogger-artist-dogwalker-nature-lover-wife-mom-of-two. this is why i have trouble with some self-help books. they don’t encourage you to get lost enough before you find yourself.

ribbon of locust leaves

small things

i’m grateful for small things on this american day of thanks. among other things, i’m grateful for whatever forces of life and death bent that fascinating little thorny arm into just exactly that shape curved, threatening and yet defensive shape.

winter thistle stem

p.s. happy thanksgiving to all my american friends!

the shotgun approach

i am a rapid prototyper. part of what i love about having to create a daily image is that i can send out a lot of images into the world, and let their accumulation generate a few really good results, rather than agonizing over every photo in order to make perfection every time. but sometimes i do wonder who is out there, and what effect these daily posts are having, and often assuming that the effect is, if occasionally grateful or intense, quite localized and small. then one of the thousands of little shotgun pellets scores a direct hit, and I get to open the new york times, as i did yesterday, and see my nature photos, printed on sheets i developed with target corporation, on a bed in a beautiful minimalist house on orcas island. and that is joyful fuel for a lot of work over a lot of months to come

common mullein (Verbascum thapsus)