Weekly Photo Challenge: Details
I have always liked how purple cone flowers hold their pollen in a circle all around the outer edge of their bright spiky center. This particular flower’s petals were only partially unfurled showing off those spiny looking sepals hiding underneath as well.
It’s no wonder my kids call them “the pokey flowers!”
In the winter we live in a world dominated by black and white. Then, come spring, when your eyes finally spy those first green shoots, you can feel something sigh within you as your gaze rests on the welcome color. For awhile each new spot of green in the landscape is a welcome sight but now, now are the days when the earth explodes.
Last week we were still enjoying the soft fuzz of new leaves, spring flowers, growing grass and emerging plants. This week, after a few days of rain, the amount of green is no longer a relief to the eyes but an assault. 
Plants have grown inches, new leaves are everywhere and the spring flowers that were the focus of the landscape have become hidden under the flush of growth. There is no doubt about it, the growing season has arrived!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Dinnertime
One evening, right around when I should have been fixing dinner, I couldn’t go inside. I was stuck on the deck, captivated by all the different kinds of bees flying through a patch of scilla looking for their own dinner.
The girls and I laid on our bellies and watched honey bees, bumble bees, mason bees and assorted flies until our own dinner was severely delayed.
We couldn’t tear ourselves away from the show until I discovered how to use the time lapse feature on my camera, then to keep our shadows out of the picture, we walked away.
When we returned, ten minutes later, dinnertime for the bees seemed to be over and we finally headed inside to start on our own.
My mom tells people that her house is decorated in “Early Cottage” style. This is not so secret code for “Yes, our furniture is mostly made up of unwanted pieces from the summer cottages, half of which may border on antique, but that’s merely by happenstance.” The cottages are old.
There was a time in my life when this embarrassed me to no end.
Of course that was during those years where the fact that I had parents that interacted with other people embarrassed me to no end.
Those times are gone.
I now happily go out in public with either of my parents and have a house complete with a few “Early Cottage” touches of it’s own
I love my “Early Cottage” rug and thought it would be a perfect addition to this weeks Mundane Monday even if the clouds did roll in before I caught the beam of sunlight that often falls across it.
The snow melted and we lurched out of winter and landed, with a giant squelching plop, right in the mud season.
Mud season, where we have weeks of grey skies and squishy ground, cool temperatures and muddy dogs. Weeks where even the emergence of the first snow drops can only boost a mood so far.
But, I found if I stand in the green house and look at the grey skies and bare trees from just the right angle it can be a remarkably pleasant view.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Seasons
These socks have super powers.
I know, they look like your run of the mill, slightly dirty SmartWool socks.
They are.
The little hearts have nothing to do with their super powers, either. Though, they have kept them in my possession and off someone else’s stinky feet more than once. Which is pretty great but hardly worthy of super power status.
No, you can’t tell it by looking at them, but these socks exacerbate the effects of gravity on the wearer.
Super socks.
I have a fading bruise to prove that they should not be worn while attempting to move quickly.
I have lingering toe pain from proving that they are unsafe to wear while standing still.
And I have a suggestion from my husband that I no longer wear socks unless I’m sitting down and putting my boots on.
He thinks it’s because I don’t have the coordination to be a sock wearing, functioning human being, but I’m telling you.
It’s the super socks.
Linking up with PhoTrablogger’s Mundane Monday challenge again. Because if dirty socks (even ones with super powers) aren’t mundane I don’t know what is!
A few years ago evidence was found that humans have been using fire for a million years.
A million years.
A million years of warmth.
A million years of cooking.
A million years of fires…
… and those moving flames are still captivating.
You would think a million years of experience ought to turn something mundane. Or, more realistically, a winter’s worth of fires in the wood stove, but I still get stuck watching the flames. Thanks PhoTrablogger for hosting another Mundane Monday Challenge!
Walk out our door and in three out of four directions you’ll find a field of corn stubble before you find a road. Take the fourth and you’ll need to walk down the driveway and cross the road before you hit the stubble.
This is a good thing, for I am a field watcher.
This isn’t my favorite time of year to watch the fields. It’s not like spring when you can watch to see the mist of green appear when the seedlings first come up. Nor is it like early summer when it feels like you can see the plants grow right before your eyes. The remains of the stalks have none of the sea rippling beauty of the tall plants in a late summer wind. Even late fall when a strong wind can send a twisting flurry of corn leaves through the air is more exciting than the fields at rest for winter.
But I still watch them.
The turkeys have flocked up for the winter. A group of twenty or more is hard to miss in a field of stubble, if you are looking. The deer stand out in silhouette on the field edges. And I am always looking, hoping to see them before they bound into the road.
Some afternoons (crazy, warm, rainy, December afternoons) when a little sun peeks through the dark, grey and blue storm clouds and sets the stalks to glowing, I watch them just because they are beautiful.
A field of corn stubble may be my most mundane-ish thing so far. Head over to PhoTrablogger and see who else is finding beauty in the mundane this week!
Behind the Willows 