tomatillo

The Plant, Chicago Back of the Yards

blueprint

Architectural seed pods.

leaf green

After a light rain.

"Oh earth, you're too beautiful for anyone to realize."

~ Patricia Lyons Simon Newman 2013

squash blossom

in summer clothes

pearls

This morning I failed to notice the pearl-gray moment just before sunrise when everything lightens; failed also to find bird song under the grinding of garbage trucks, and later, walking through woods, to stop thinking, thinking, for even five consecutive steps. Then there was the failure to name the exact shade of blue overhead, not sapphire, not azure, not delft, to savor the soft squelch of pine needles underfoot. Later I found the fork raised halfway to my mouth while I was still chewing the last untasted bite, and so it went, until finally, wading into sleep's thick undertow, I felt myself drift from dream to dream, forever failing to comprehend where I am falling from or to: this blurred life with only moments caught in attention's loose sieve - tiny pearls fished out of oblivion's sea, laid out here as offering or apology or thank you ~ Alison Luterman, Because These Failures Are My Job

prairie school

medicinal garden

This garden came up to meet me in the breeze, in the nose and in the mind - I knew it by scent before I saw it with my eyes.

The Cloisters of the Metropolitan Museum, New York : "[The Bonnefont] cloister dates from the late 13th or early 14th century, containing capitals and some columns from the Cistercian abbey at Bonnefont-en-Comminges and other local religious foundations in southern France. The herb garden contains more than 250 species of plants which were grown during the Middle Ages. Its design, including raised beds, wattle fences, and central wellhead, is typical of a medieval monastery garden plan. Even the fruit trees outside the south wall are in character, as monasteries were often surrounded by orchards. Tender species such as aloe, lemon, and bay are grown in decorative pots which can be moved inside for the winter, a common gardening practice in northern Europe throughout the late Middle Ages."

summer fantasy

Physostegia virginiana (Obedient Plant or False Dragonhead)

"Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." ~ Henry James (1843 - 1916)

a sense of space

almost lilies

A lily bud floats in early evening above hydrangea macrophylla Jogasaki, a double-flowered Japanese lacecap. The sterile inner blooms [of macrophylla Jogasaki] are surrounded by open-faced outer blooms evocative of "miniature pink water lilies floating atop a pond" (see 2008 July).

summer canvas

Late day sun, through old glass, on an old door.

walking the High Line

Light plays on grass / river / glass in High Line park

Notes on stained glass installation: Inspired by the Hudson River, The River That Flows Both Ways (Spencer Finch) documents a 700 minute journey on the river in a single day. The title is a translation of Muhheakantuck, the Native American name for the Hudson that refers to the river's natural flow in two directions.

On June 12, 2008, from a tugboat drifting on Manhattan's west side and past the High Line, Finch photographed the river's surface once every minute for 700 minutes. The color of each pane of glass was based on a single pixel point in each photograph and arranged chronologically in the steel mullions of the old train tunnel. Time is translated into a grid, reading from left to right and top to bottom, capturing the varied reflective and translucent conditions of the water's surface.

spiritual path

Mount Moran, Wyoming

"I never weary of great churches. It is my favorite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral." -Robert Louis Stevenson

water lily

A lily floats, in the midst of searing outdoor temperatures (up to 103 Fahrenheit). The pistil seems to be on fire.



june / louisiana
Sunlight through old glass, warm and cool like a shallow stream.

happy birthday

Moon, plum blossoms,

this, that,
and the day goes
- Issa

electric blue

hakonechloa macra aureola
shimmering in August

The Summer Day, by Mary Oliver ... I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Chicago, impressionist

Japanese Bridge, Claude Monet 1899
Outdoor room No. 2, Sean O'Keeffe 2009

muriel's birthday

Fuji chrysanthemums @ ladies' lunch out. So very ... Martha

Saturday in the park ...

I enjoyed a wonderful 4th of July with friends ... dining al fresco at Karma Cafe in Hoboken, hiking along the waterfront, up past 33rd street ... for a heady impressionistic display of fireworks against the Manhattan skyline. All on the loveliest of summer evenings. (Photos, not my own!)