Noon
Hay is for Horses, Corn is for Cows
that’s what the Ursuline nuns at the convent school i attended said whenever anyone preceded someone’s name with the word “hey”. well, this corn is for humans, grown a mile away from here by a farmer who puts it out fresh-picked every morning at his serve-yourself stand by the side of the road. thirteen ears for five dollars. the sweetest, most tender ears you will find without growing them yourself and fighting off raccoons after dark while they ripen.
Lay Down That Boogie and Play That Fungi Music Till You Die
a thoughtful neighbor (who has been following my color studies) left this birch polypore fungus for me to find on the path to our camp.
for an interesting article on birch polypore fungus, see this: https://theconversation.com/natures-first-aid-kit-a-fungus-growing-on-the-side-of-birch-trees-117290#:~:text=That%20fungus%20is%20the%20same,until%20there%20is%20nothing%20left.
and some facts about Otzi (who had pieces of the fungus in his ditty bag): https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131016-otzi-ice-man-mummy-five-facts/#close
Evening
In Love With a Bad Character
despite its deserved reputation for being an invasive species, i am in love with purple loosestrife. it quickens my pulse. it dazzles me. it urges me to don gum rubber boots and wade into boggy ditches where it thrives. for a few short weeks every year i am under its spell, completely unashamed of this forbidden passion.
Lichen and Moss
it’s everywhere around our camp – on deadwood, on stone, on living trees. the astounding range of colors fills several pages of my notebook, with just one example shown below.
i visualize a bedroom furnished in these colors and i imagine that sleeping there would feel like sleeping in the forest. adding a soundtrack of a great horned owl (we’ve had one visiting our woods lately during the night) would make the experience complete. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Horned_Owl/overview
Morning
Broken Focus
the phone rang and i stepped away. i returned to this exercise thinking i was done. but when i reviewed my photo i realized that the anthers of the flower were orange, and that a kind of red-black was at the heart of the blossom, both of which i had intended to include but missed because my had attention slipped.
Hard Hat Season Under The Pines
they ripen. they fall. they konk me on the head. they dry out. they open. they disperse their seeds.
Holds As Much Water As A Natural Squirrel
that’s the description that came with my new number 10 brush. who measures how much water a natural squirrel can hold? do they use live squirrels? do they dunk them in a bucket and wring them out? how do they even catch them? and what is the difference between a natural squirrel and an unnatural one? these important questions have been plaguing me all morning.
i feel a little like a squirrel myself, gathering color from nature and storing it up for the winter.
Walking on Paint 