corky scabs embossed

corky scabs embossed

on a green Asian pear --

abstract fungal art

One fortunate result of this summer's drought is that fungus has not had much chance to attack our fruit trees, since it needs wet weather to infect. I have found only one Asian and one Kieffer pear with signs of scab. When it just affects the surface and doesn't crack the skin, the fruit is still edible. I know it's considered unsightly, but my artist's eye finds beauty in the crusty patterns, like rocky continents interspersed on a planet with green seas.

buckeyes in a blue bowl

buckeyes in a blue bowl

glossy cordovan seeds splitting

their spiky shells

After a summer of drought, the palmate leaves of buckeyes are already turning orange in August and the nuts are falling to the dry, cracked ground. I bring a few home and watch as they split open. Smooth, shiny seeds peak out from their armored shells like chocolate bon bons. But raw horse chestnuts have another defense, tannic acid, toxic to humans. However, squirrels will chew off the thick husks and "sample" a few bites of the nuts. They can be eaten if roasted like chestnuts, but I have not tried this.

no one planted them

no one planted them

or watered them through the ongoing drought

a bouquet of pale purple petunias 

growing from a crack in the concrete curb

Coming out of the bank, I almost step on them, but I'm arrested by a dozen purple eyes looking up at me. How did they get there, a clutch of petunias growing out of a crack in the curb? Certainly no one planted them there. True, there a window boxes on the bank's windows, spilling over with a riot of petunias. But none of them are this lovely shade of lavender. For sure, no one watered them through this long summer's drought. Yet they are flourishing, delicate but indomitable, Nature's everlasting bounty.

ripped apart and stained

ripped apart and stained

blue by fungus, a tree trunk

opens to the sun

On a walk around the Big Island, a flash of blue catches my eye. A fallen tree, its trunk twisted open, reveals fibrous strands of the inner bark, like hair or dead grass. Part of the sapwood has turned pale blue, evidently the work of blue stain fungus, slowly consuming the heartwood. The complimentary colors of blue and green against orange and yellow make a pleasing composition out of the wreckage of a fallen tree.

shifting vision

shifting vision,

morphing into dragonfly 

eyes and millefleurs

At the mall, having fun with the fun mirrors. Self-portrait multiplied twenty-four times.

Like Alice in Wonderland, growing from short to tall, surrounded by melting millefleurs.

Around the corner, another strange vision. Whose hands are those sticking out of a locker?

old man with a cane

old man with a cane

resting by the entrance to

permanent collections

Touring the Vivian Maier photography exhibit at the Des Moines Art Center, I fall into the Vivian mode, taking candid shots of people and places. Vivian shot a lot of photos of herself, the original selfies. Often she used reflections in windows and mirrors, or she included the shadow of herself taking in the photo. So I took a few myself. 

Shadow

PUSH

Bench

Finding Vivian Maier

Whose Streets?

Three Figures

Spiral Staircase

Gray Chair

Black Chair

White Windows

Window Shade

Exit

first snow, a cardinal poses

first snow, a cardinal poses

on white pillows in the goumi bush --

red on white on green

First Sunday in December, waking to a white world. Soft cotton balls falling straight down. A male cardinal perches among the still-green leaves of the goumi bush, white pillows on black limbs.