three multiheaded alien birds with one foot each and spindly toes, raising their wings a little bit in mild dispute about who smells sweetest. the answer: they all do.

lily of the valley

turtle lake, shoreview, minnesota

one of my husband’s least favorite plants is spirea. i didn’t know that when i grabbed this cascading tumble of delicate white flowers from my mom’s side yard. then i worked with about a dozen different variations on this photo. submitted them to merciless photoshopping, hated all of them, worked with a different set of photos, didn’t love them, went back to one of my original photos that i didn’t like at first but which grew on me. and now, spirea is one of my least favorite plants too.

bridal wreath spirea

saint paul, minnesota

organized. minimalist. geometric. understated. utilitarian. natural. with a view. in a word: home.

wasp nest

turtle lake, shoreview, minnesota

i picked this prairie grass stem on my walk today, mostly because the zippered seed head caught my eye. however, part of the mission of  STILL blog is not just to display, but to identify, the flora and fauna that appear each day. so when i got home, i sat down at my iMac and got to work. i knew it was one of the many tall stem prairie grasses, but i didn’t know which one. i searched every reference i could think of…indian grass, bluestem grass, switchgrass, bottle grass, timothy grass. after many dead ends, i finally landed on foxtail barley grass. i am pretty sure that is what i have here. but i’m not entirely certain, because, as vast as the internet visual library is, it seems photographers have only wanted to photograph this plant (backlit) in its full feathery late summer glory. (google it. you’ll see.)  so, i feel as though i am performing a minor civic duty by posting to the internet a foxtail barley grass seed head before it opens. internet, you’re welcome.

foxtail barley prairie grass

rice creek, saint paul, minnesota

sensitive
i like to tease my husband about his occasionally being a s.n.a.g. or a “sensitive new age guy.” on the other hand, trying to respond to the world as any kind of artist sometimes feels as if i am the female equivalent of a s.n.a.g.: a “sensitive new age gal.” some days i feel like a single heart, suspended and exposed, with my skin peeled away, and a single delicate lobe of nerve endings left hanging in the lacerating winds of daily life.

bleeding heart flower

saint paul, minnesota