Yard bunny

Bunny in our yard, allowing me to get relatively close before it scampered off.

Longing

Salvatore longing to go outside and hunt. Those time when he actually does manage to escape through the door, however, he typically freezes up just a few meters from the door, allowing himself to be scooped up and brought inside.

Frosted lawn

Spring frost on our lawn, putting tiny jewels of ice on leaves.
 

Patterns of cultivation, West Branch, IA

 Patterns of cultivation in a bare field.

Bare winter fields, West Branch, IA

 Bare fields at the end of winter, awaiting spring and new plantings yet to come.

Bird house

 Colorful birdhouse in the woods fringe beside the Hoover Nature Trail.

Mouse trails

Another branching segment of the trails on the surface of the turf.

Mouse trails

Burrowed trails in turf, just emerged from the melting snow. I believe they were made by foraging mice or other rodents during the winter.

Metal treads

Pile of massive metal treads, ready to be wrapped onto construction equipment to help it avoid sinking into deep spring mud.

Cup array

Toddler arrangement of cups and lids, just behind my laptop while I was working.

Pompom train

Duplo train car, decorated with embedded pompoms.

Rabbit poop

The residual heat in the poop from our yard bunnies drills them straight down into the snow in perfect little cylindrical tunnels. I find it to be equal parts fascinating and disgusting.

Chair melt pattern

The snow in these chairs melted inward from the edges for some reason, leaving a tall thin wedge in the middle of each chair.

Santa rock, Iowa City

Santa rock, found chilling beneath a bridge in the middle of January.

Bald eagle

 Cold bald eagle in the winter, surveying a river for signs of fish.

Round barn in snow

 Round barn in the snow.

Snowy woods road

Long straight dirt road through the snowy woods.

Ice-flow tree

Tree embedded with flows of ice, below the corner where a frozen-over gutter was no longer able to channel the melt flow right.

Icicles

Clusters of icicles handing from a roof.
 

Ice crystals

 Fine crystals of ice grown out from the surface of a branch.

Icy Branches

 Little feathers of ice growing out of a branch in our back yard in January.

Spiral Cat

 Veronica curls into a tight swirl in the middle of a favorite spot upon an ottoman.

Paw

Salvatore sticks his fluffy hairy paw out through the stairway railing.

Cinnamon sticks

 Whole cinnamon has such elegant curls. I love its form as it stands here in this jar.

Bay leaves

 A pile of big flat bay leaves, some folded and broken in their sheets and layers.

Curry leaves

My final favorite of the whole-spice set, curry leaves, cumin, and cardamom fried in oil are my go-to base for flavoring anything I want to give an Indian sort of flavor to.

Rosemary

A thicket of little spicy sticks of rosemary, looking like a bed of pine needles, which, in truth, is what they are. I find this a very challenging spice to use, except in marinades of meat (a thing that I do rather rarely, though).

Peppercorn

 An explosion of wrinkled forms of peppercorn in several shades.

Cardamom pods

These wonderfully wrinkly dried pods of cardamom, concealing little hard balls of tiny seeds inside, are another of my favorite whole spices to cook with, right up there with cumin. My daughters hate to crunch them but I find that I don't mind.

Dried ginger

 Dried ginger shreds, fibrous and irregular in their jumbling.

Sesame seeds

Flat crunchy, tasty sesame seeds. I think these lovely little pointed discs are an under-appreciated ingredient.