Page Four

Pointed mariposa blossoms (Calochortus apiculatus) are a member of the lily family. In late spring and early summer, they dot the open areas profusely, little white gems in a field of green.

Contrasts again. The juxtaposition of stone and foliage just keeps drawing my eye over and over.

These are wild rose blooms. I see them everywhere I walk. In the late summer and early autumn, the blooms are gone but the rose hips (fruits) turn bright red. I use rose hips in tea from time to time for extra vitamin C.

These are some species of lily, but I couldn't tell you exactly which one. They're pretty, though. These particular lilies are in a corner of a former backyard, courtesy of some previous tenant.

This is pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), a member of the Aster family. It looks a lot like pussytoes, which is what I thought it was for some time. This is often used in dried flower arrangements, and I understand it also has a number of medicinal properties.

One autumn, I noticed for the first time the progression of the birch leaves' change in color. It fascinated me, somehow, the way it started distant to the veins and spread inward to them gradually.

The color change of the apples caught my attention, too. These changes are such little things, yet sometimes that's what makes it even more special: noticing the details of a process no one else seems to consciously see. Feeling that you are the only one in the world to see this small, beautiful thing makes it precious.

The very start of winter gives this mushroom a cap of ice, before the snows come to cover it completely.

As the temperatures drop rapidly on a humid day, cold mist coalesces rapidly. The mist in these pictures hadn't been present 15 minutes earlier, and within another 15 minutes the sun was gone and it was just cold and foggy.

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Fog in temperatures below freezing turns into ice crystals. This freezing mist will cover all surfaces cold enough with a rime of ice or, in the case of plants, cause an intricate icy "fuzz."

During a very cold night, the frost can make incredible patterns on glass. In the third of pictures, the sun rises just enough to begin shining through the ice crystals; within minutes, the patterns began to disappear as the sun melted the frost.

I love this time of evening when everything in the world is blue. I even wrote a poem about it, but I won't inflict it on you.

Right after a snowfall, before wind or melt changes the picture, every branch is limned in snow. It's so dramatic, somehow. I never get tired of looking at it.

All photos are � 2003-2007 to M. Anderson

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