saw the country
and returned—now deep at night
i lie in bed and
fields of mustard flowers
bloom before my eyes
and i see them so clearly.
sometimes when i look at the very tiny details of this world i wonder at the improbability of it all. here's a very small seed making its way across an icy landscape in front of my home. to what? possibly to end up finding soil in a month or two. perhaps snagging itself in that soil and becoming a plant. and then beginning the incredible process of turning sunlight, water, and the micronutrients it will find in the soil into stems and leaves and more seeds.
or not.
like people.
lichens and mosses are among my favourite living things. they are beautiful at a distance and equally beautiful when seen up close. this beauty caught my eye on an errant boulder deposited here by a long past glacier during the last ice age. i believe boulders like this are called glacial erratics. the day i took this picture was very very cold and yet here was this beautiful gathering of little plants, surviving against all odds.
2 comments:
I don't happen to share your fascination for lichens and mosses, but your first photo, combined with your thoughts about the future of that little seed, captured my imagination.
What I find really fascinating, Steven, is when I see a tree growing out of what appears to be solid rock.
yes goldenrod! there are some amazingly hardy weeds and grass that can find the teensiest tiniest crack in my driveway and start growing merrily away. trees on sheer rock faces astonish me.
steven
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