A rare, quiet moment for the Russian sage; it’s been a hotbed of bee activity for weeks. I love to see our new garden buzzing with pollinators – can’t wait till the butterflies come.
213/365: russian sage
sidewalk
printmaking
Nature as artist.
203/365: maple leaf imprint on concrete
teach your children well
As parents, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. I’m sure we all dwell on what needs improvement. But it’s a tough job and I think most of us do the best we can. Which is why it’s good to also recognize the things we do best.
For me, one thing I know we’ve done right as parents is nurture Sawyer & Zola’s love & enthusiasm for the outdoors; they may suffer from messy room syndrome but they will never come down with nature deficit disorder!
154/365: zola with caterpillar
alternative gardens & cracks in the sidewalk
Lately I’ve been thinking about how much I enjoy the juxtaposition of natural subjects and human-built elements. It’s one of those common sightings that we often take for granted but there is something interesting in the tension that exists between these elements. I guess I like to see how we can all co-exist, how it looks when we allow nature to have its way sometimes.
148/365: sidewalk crack with prairie flax
sidewalk impressions
I’m always charmed by imprints in the sidewalk. Throughout the neighborhood there are leaf prints, dog, cat, & squirrel tracks, and human footprints. It strikes me as accidental art – recording that one moment in time when a mark could be made and someone was there to make it.
119/365: footprints in the sidewalk
sunny days & drawings
There’s a quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne that I like: “Sunlight is painting”. It’s very true when the landscape is lush and full of color. But when the world is still in a spare, naked state at winter’s end, sunlight is drawing. Beautiful, strong, graphic line drawings everywhere you look.
85/365: chain link shadow
03.24.13 remnants
It’s strange how one minute, something can be part of our daily life – a familiar piece of home – and the next, be street-side garbage. The minute it hits the curb, it loses its belonging. That thing that was part of every day becomes only a trace, a glimpse you might catch in a photograph or a memory. It’s just stuff. But it keeps on changing just like everything else.
83/365: moving out
03.17.13 muddle puddle
Reflections can be so much more than mirror images. The pictures you see on the surface of the water place the sky at your feet and lend a glossy luminescence to even the drabbest of subjects. Then all it takes is the slightest disturbance – a drop of water, a hint of breeze – to set off waves of shimmering distortion, confusing reality into brilliance.
76/365: architectural reflection
avant garden 365 