Author: Kelli Ann Wilson

Advent 2024 :: Week Two :: The Light of Plants

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Light of Plants 2024 - 1 Light of Plants 2024 - 2

This week we’re meditating on the Plant Kingdom, with which we share the qualities of living and growing. Usually I add some moss to our nature table this week, but my cats have been a little too involved with the display this year, so we’re just going with some well-secured evergreen sprigs and some wooden trees.

I also added my St Nicholas figure this week. Technically, he doesn’t belong in the scene yet (since we haven’t gotten to the Light of Humankind), but this year I thought maybe it would be neat to add the Advent Saints to the table as their feast days arrive. I’m going with St Nicholas & St Lucia, but other options could be St Barbara and Our Lady of Guadalupe. I like the idea of them accompanying Mary on her journey.

Advent 2024 :: Week One :: The Light of Stones

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Advent is here again. This week, we’re meditating on the Mineral Kingdom, the world of the elements. Did you know: About 99 percent of the human body is made of just six elements? These are the very same elements that can be found throughout the Mineral Kingdom, in all the world’s “crystals, shells, and bones.”

We’re starting to build our Nativity Season Table this week by adding in some beautiful crystals, as well as our lovely Blessed Virgin Mary on her donkey. She will follow the star-lined path during the Advent season, leaving little roses in her wake as she passes.

Next week, we’ll add aspects of the Plant Kingdom to our little scene. Wishing you all a Blessed Advent!

Natural Wonders :: Landscape Laid Bare

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Natural Wonders :: Landscape Laid Bare

A bare tree stands with roots at both ends . . .
—Kiran Bantawa

The world looks very different as the cold weather sets in and the plants and trees lose their leaves. This series of photographs attempts to capture both the emptiness and the complexity inherent in a leafless landscape. November is a great time for walking in nature. In the absence of foliage you can really see and study the lay of the land. You might be surprised by what you notice—things hidden and yet there all along.

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In the Woods :: Spring Ephemerals

Kelli Ann Wilson in the woods, photo post, spring 0 Comment
In the Woods :: Spring Ephemerals

Spring here is at first so wary,
And then so spare that even the birds act like strangers,
Trying out the strange air with a hesitant chirp or two,
And then subsiding. But the season intensifies by degrees,
Imperceptibly, while the colors deepen out of memory,
The flowers bloom and the thick leaves gleam in the sunlight . . .
—from “The Late Wisconsin Spring” by John Koethe

* * *

Then shall the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord . . .
—1 Chronicles 16:33

One must have impeccable timing if one wants to see the spring ephemerals—the delicate flowers that appear on the forest floor in early spring and vanish seemingly overnight. We were out on the trails last week and only the speckled leaves of the trout-lily were showing. But, I knew the blooms wouldn’t be far behind, and I remembered from previous years that they show up right when I can see (from my kitchen window) the trees’ new leaves foaming green on the other side of the pond. And, that’s what I saw today, so I knew it was time for a walk in the woods.

In reality it could be dumb luck, but all the old favorites were on display: Jack-in-the-pulpit, mayapple, wake-robin, violet, and trout-lily. There were a few wild oats, too, and everywhere we looked the golden spiral of a fern leaf was unfurling. One plant new to me this year is the two-leafed toothwort or crinkleroot—apparently it’s a member of the mustard family and tastes a bit like horseradish. I tend to leave plants where they’re rooted, but it’s always fun to take pictures and then learn about them later.

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in the woods - ephemeral collage 1
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Plant specimen I.D.’s (from top): fern, jack-in-the-pulpit, crinkleroot, fern (close-up), mayapple, wake-robin, common blue violet, trout-lily, trout-lily (close-up).

Cross-posted at my personal blog: In the Woods // Spring Ephemerals