another minnesota winter has preserved us more or less intact. it’s time to thaw out, shake off some dead petals, and bloom.

over-wintered daisy

st. paul, minnesota

this may look like a scrap of red pine bark, but look more closely (or google venus of hohlefels), and you will discover that it is really a venus figurine, flaunting its ample hips and showing off its vast child-bearing belly and drawing attention to the place where all human life begins and generally showing the world what it has to reckon with.

red pine bark

vadnais lake, saint paul, minnesota

imagine each of these asters growing on opposite stalks, on two different stems in two separate visual planes. now imagine trying to keep them all in focus at the same time. that’s how i sometimes feel about the multivalent life my husband and i have chosen. it never quite feels as if we can keep everything in focus at the same time. and it can look a little messy at times. and maybe it’s just unfocused, or maybe when you focus on what you can absorb at any one time, all of the hazy rest of it sits beautifully in the background waiting its turn. i don’t know.

winter aster stems

vadnais lake, saint paul, minnesota

these bundles of grape twigs act as filters inside wine vats. they keep the grape skins away from the faucets that drain the vats. they also turn a spectacular red dogwood color from the staining effect of the fermenting juice. then, just afterwards, they happen to be possibly the most aromatic grilling embers in the world. so, in other words, they grow the grapes that make the wine. they filter the wine in the vat. they spend a brief time as art objects. and then they flavor the grilled meats that go best with the wine of the region that began as grapes on bunches hanging from themselves. that is a circle of life i can get excited about.

wine stained vine tendril bundles

autignac, france

my eighteen year old daughter, eva, is home for a week for spring break. she’s in her freshman year of college out in california. when we left for our six month stay in france last august, she came with us for three weeks, then flew back by herself across the atlantic to minneapolis, and from minneapolis to san francisco. we haven’t all been in our house together since that moment when we watched her wind her way through the security line in the barcelona airport on her way to a new life. this is my way of explaining why i spent the day hanging out with eva, and not making a still blog photo. instead, i pulled this test shot from my archive. it was the first photo i took on a black background, in order to decide if i might like the idea. i did. i do.

fig leaves

autignac, france