awe

at some point maybe a few hundred thousand years ago, some slightly strange humanoid stopped foraging for long enough to stack a few rocks into a careful tower. i think of him or her pausing for a minute and looking out from an elevated spot, where a new, not entirely translatable feeling came swarming suddenly and overwhelmingly out of the landscape, and this person’s response was to make something that said, “i was here, and i was a part of this.”  at least, that’s how i visualize it, when i think about goethe’s great statement: “the shudder of awe is humanity’s highest faculty.”

collected beach rocks

from beaches on lake superior and the mediterranean sea

hell on a stick

our minnesota state fair has just started. it’s the biggest state fair in the country, and we tend to be both proud of it, and a little sheepish about some of the hokey folksiness of it. the fair is also a food destination, both high- and lowbrow, and among the innovations each year is some new food served on a stick. not just corn dogs, but alligator, and steak, and apple pie, all on a stick. this virginia stickseed looks like something that would get invented for the state fair. like maybe edamame on a stick. or sweet peas on a stick. but if you’ve ever walked through  a meadow full of these burs in late summer, and then tried to pry them loose from your clothing that evening, then you know there is nothing appetizing at all about them. the “dish” in this photo is nothing but hell on a stick.

virginia stickseed burs (Hackelia virginiana)

st. paul, minnesota

ripeness

our daughter is visiting home with her boyfriend before she heads back to school in california. she is nineteen and so adult in so many ways and then, in so many other ways, she is not quite adult but is moving surely along the rails that will guide her into a sane and fulfilling adulthood. this tomato is green. but if you look closely, you can see the first blush along its flanks of the deep mature red it will inevitably become.

green tomato

turtle lake, shoreview, minnesota

you’re invited

in three more months these raindrops will be snowflakes. but let’s not jump ahead too quickly, first we have a pageant to attend.

raindrops on cedar

turtle lake, shoreview, minnesota

throw your hands in the air

so i gave my creative mornings talk this morning, which i wasn’t dreading in any way, but which was a source of anxiety. and then this afternoon, i had to go to the hand specialist to have a monstrous sliver removed from my palm (like 2-3 inches long and completely embedded). and that was a source of absolute dread. so now i’m just home from a beautiful dinner with my family and a good friend, and it’s all behind me, and i feel like this jack-in-the-pulpit, with my arms thrown wide in relief and joy. now i’m going to sleep for about 12 hours, and then i’m going to start soaking my hand in epsom salts. so it goes…

jack in the pulpit seed head

turtle lake, shoreview, minnesota