craftsmanship

after two weeks of having craftsmen in my house, i’m starting to see everything differently. my switchplates are a mess, for example. my floor is uneven, and the base molding doesn’t quite sit tight against it, i’ve learned. my cabinet inset is not plumb or square. the corner bead on my fireplace is popped. and on and on. so now i’m looking at this woodpecker’s  asymmetrical and haphazard work on this birch bark and thinking, “pretty shoddy, my friend. you need to tighten things up a bit. are you trying to make a round hole or a square hole? make up your mind and do it right.”

birch bark

sucker lake trail, saint paul, minnesota

skeletonize

i just discovered that what the japanese beetles did when they feasted on this leaf was to “skeletonize” it. one more entry in my personal “scientists are more poetic than poets” dictionary.

beetle eaten wild grape leaf

turtle lake, shoreview, minnesota

rainy october day

this was a rainy october day, and i’m not sure any words could describe  a rainy october day more effectively than this picture of slick, wet, autumn oak leaves.

white oak leaves in october

turtle lake, shoreview, minnesota

safety first

i first imagined i would take this photo of just the main stem and the penitent curve of the head of rye. it would be a visual statement, a pleasant shape, and a prettily graphic composition. but then i came across this version of the photo, and decided that the second stem made the whole thing look like a safety pin, and suddenly there was a little story, or a little playfulness to the image that hadn’t been there in the other shots. i am also insisting on talking about playfulness, and art, and aesthetics because i can’t do a single thing about what a horrible day this was in so many other ways, so i can either feel helpless and sick to my stomach, or i can try to do one thing well that i know how to do. or, maybe more accurately, i can try to do one of those things, despite the other.

wild canada rye

rice creek trail, shoreview, minnesota

prevailing winds

you can find yourself bent out of shape by external forces, or by internal ways of thinking. these leaves look as if the wind is blowing them into cowering forms, but their shapes are simply the result of drying. of being cut off from the life force of the roots that nourished them. what are the prevailing winds in your life? have tough circumstances molded you, or have you curled yourself into something other than your best, sap-filled, life-embracing shape?

(unidentified) autumn leave

sucker lake, saint paul, minnesota