Michaelmas daisies for Today's Flowers

My Today's Flowers offering is a large pot of blue Asters (Michaelmas Daisies). I always buy them in September in honor of my mother who loved asters and I look for the bluest ones I can find for me--so we both win. Visit Today's Flowers, the idea of Luiz Santilli who says on his site:

Its so hard to find someone who doesn't like flowers.

Flowers represent all our best feelings.

Today's Flowers is a virtual flower shop.

illustration by Cicely Mary Barker

Finally, Something for Everybody and a Garland for the Year, a Book for House and Home by John Timbs, 1866, quotes an old saying.

'In the Autumnal garden, the day (St. Michaelmas) is florally commemorated:

The Michaelmas daisy, among dede weeds,
Blooms for St. Michael's valorous deeds.
And seems the last of flowers that stood
Till the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude.'

On the road again -- Skywatch Friday

A couple of Saturdays ago we rode our bike north to a motorcycle rally and poker run sponsored by the Freemen, a sobriety motorcycle club from Anoka. The poker run took us along scenic back roads to a town called Pine City, along the Snake River. Leaving the Twin Cities toward Lake Superior, the lay of the land changes from water to a more wooded, rural area full of gentle twists and turns. And it was a perfect day--cool temps and beautiful blue skies. I took these shots on the back of the bike. [p.s. Dave won first place in the poker run with three nines!]

To see more awesome sky views from avid photographers and sky watchers, visit SkyWatch here. Happy Friday!

a poem lovely as a tree

If you've visited my blog before, no doubt you know I'm smitten with trees. They inspire me, protect me and sometimes are so full of beauty that I turn to mush. So, if you're thinking, here I go again with more photos, you're right. They're my choice for Favorite Things Thursday.

Trimmed, pruned and shaped, they are still able to bloom even under the most strenuous conditions.

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.
Willa Cather

I walk past this oak tree almost daily year round and wonder what has brought it to such a twisted--yet healthy--state. A true survivor on the bank of the lake. In the fall it drops acorns all over the sidewalk which I step on to make the work easier for the squirrels.

Minnesota is rich in birch trees which shimmer and shine year round.

Utilitarian for the rest of the forest population and a source of wild imaginings for humans. Who lives here, after all?

I've read on more than one occasion that trees 'communicate' to each other from their underground root system, sensing if one is in trouble, ill or if they hear the sound of a chain saw. I don't know. . .

I think I am most in awe of trees as they weather the harsh winter season, especially up north. Their bark is cold to the touch then, but they stand dormant and always make me think of horses asleep standing up.

Message on the Winter Air

Long shadows on blue snow
Warm sun stepping around trees
Life’s mysterious light and dark.

Trees standing tall
Uncovered faces in the wind
Snow collecting in the cleft of boughs
Sap deeply stored.

Feetless birds, round as tennis balls
Perched facing the warming sun
Random song--

Reassuring their own kind
Reaching limb to limb,
Barren bark remembers melting snow
Turns to buds in spring.

Stand tall, reserve sap,

Accept visitors,

Wrap the bird song like a scarf .

Visit Blue to see what other bloggers fancy. . .you'll be inspired. Happy Thursday!

word-less Wednesday

'It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.'

Laura Ingalls Wilder had the right idea.

Today's ABC Wedneday letter is "G"

Like green apples on the ground where deer come to eat.

--for me,
G for Green.

A lime green coleus in my loon planter.

Green Heron and guests.

Spring green Ginkho leaves.

and my very favorite color: turquoise green on a Vespa.

See more G photos and commentary by ABC Wednesday participants, hosted by Mrs Nesbitt.

Woman Seated in Chair / Pablo Picasso, 1915

I was tagged, quite awhile back by Beth at Beth on the Road to play along by listing six unspectacular quirks of mine. So, my tendency to over-think everything has caused me to be sorely remiss in sharing, or. . .let me put it another way: thank your lucky stars! All you have to do is visit Beth and see her great smile and the twinkle in her eye which will make reading her quirks even more of a delight. Mine, on the other hand, not so much. So, off we go:

1. I detest reading those little instruction pamphlets in twenty different languages that come with just about anything you buy that plugs into the wall. I file them away, look for the on/off switch, and I'm in business. Excuse: I can't read the fine print!

2. I leave selected, old phone messages on our answering machine for, umm, years. Excuse: I want to remember the voice of family and friends, o.k.?, especially my daughters wishing me happy mothers day or an old friend who still calls me Morticia.

3. I read newspapers and magazines from back to front. Luckily I read books from beginning to end. Excuse: I don't want to miss anything.

4. Whenever I take a daily walk I visually mark my boundaries using trees at the beginning and end of my time. Then I lovingly pat the trees when I pass. Further quirk: sometimes it turns out to be a telephone pole. Either way, I've had passersby look at me funny. What!??

5. I talk to birds and woodland creatures only when I have their attention (leftover from having kids) and have been known to stop the car and scold a squirrel that I nearly hit because he couldn't decide which side of the road to visit. Very embarrassing to my aforementioned kids.

6. When I eat cottage cheese, which is usually daily (special: two quirks in one) I mix in a couple of tablespoons of plain Greek-style yogurt.

I can't make up my mind who to tag...so I'm taking the coward's way out and leaving this open to anyone who wants to play. Come on, it'll be fun! Just remember the following and don't do what I did with nos. 4 & 5:

1. Link the person who tagged you.

2. Mention the rules on your blog.

3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.

4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.

5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Happy Tuesday!

Today's Flowers blooms again!

Who can look up at sunflowers in a clear blue sky without thinking of our old friend, Vincent van Gogh and how he saw sunflowers? To compliment my photo, below is a reproduction of a painting by Paul Gauguin, called Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers. Gauguin supposedly found Van Gogh's painting style intolerably messy and indicative of his bouts of insanity.

I took my photograph yesterday when the sky was really that blue and this sunflower was actually reaching for the sun. Their size and stature are a surprise at first. And then their color always leaves me speechless, where I remain, at least until I find the next flower.

See more flowers at Luiz's meme, Today's Flowers. You'll see beautiful flowers from all over the globe, places we only dream about visiting, and then. . . you'll want to join in the fun!