#WinterBranches

[missedmilemarkers]

[angelheartcottage]

This lacy fungi decorates the branches of trees during the cold months in the Pacific Northwest. It pairs beautifully with dark green moss & pale green lichen. From a distance our deciduous trees look like they’re blooming. #thechroniclesoffarnia #thingssoamazeme #magic #wonder #socurious #mothernature #fungi #fungilover #blooming #moss #winter #winterbranches #beautiful #lacy #pnw #pacificnorthwest #lovethis https://www.instagram.com/p/CpcBIncuHt7/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[g-marcus]

Winter Simplicity One of the appeals of winter photography on the prairies is the simplicity of the landscapes. It’s a world of the bare minimum. #silos #winterbranches #blackandwhiteart #minimalisticphotography #albertawinter #mytravellinglens (at Hay Lakes, Alberta) https://www.instagram.com/p/CofJqWOrnfa/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[kvetchlandia]

Max Waldman Merce Dancing His Own "Winterbranch," Costumes by Robert Rauschenberg, New York City 1970

[lettersfromleslie]

Winter of the Mole / The World-Famous Poetry Store / & Another Turn of the Wheel

Down come the leaves, into the drear. The goopy rains are here, the trees half undressed & half still leafed, deep damp reds and ochres with black slick skeleton winterbranches beginning to poke. My New York friends tell me there's been a drought on back East… No such thing out here in Seattle. It's been about as wet as I've seen it. My North Sea DNA is responding well to the slime, but my busker's heart knows the lean months are here. The better-organized performers have started heading for warmer climes. Hawaii, San Diego, Arizona, New Orleans. I'm staying put. I'm getting ready for the Winter of the Mole.

Not sure what animal we'd name the summer after, but it was a nice one. There was much of the usual - playing markets and gigs and parks and airports, a few trips to NY and back for gigs - as well as a lot of the outdoor time - which really was the chief reason for moving out here - paddling about on kayaks, walks in the woods.

New schemes too, however. I think my future memories of the summer will center on the many eves I spent moonlighting as a street poet on Ballard Ave with my new pal Dusty. Dusty is an Alaskan wild man, jazzed-up by a decade of winters in New Orleans and summers in Seattle, fueled by coffee and weed, hustling for his living much as I do but maybe moreso. By way of his strange hypnosis I suddenly found myself typing alongside him one day in late spring, and before I knew it I'd bought my own typewriter and was attempting to play stride piano and learning Hoagie Carmichael tunes. It seems he does this to people. As far as cults go it's a pretty benign setup. And he's surely one America's great remaining street hawkers: "Welcome to the world famous poetry store! Come on over sir, yes you, come get a poem about all the wonderful dirty things that mustache does! That's right, my mustache brother! Come on over, name your price, name your topic, I'll type you a poem! … Awright, have a drink and go think it over … You'll be more truthful with a couple drinks in ya … Tell you friends! … Poems for your loved ones, your sweetheart, your friends in jail! … Jazz lessons! … Oh sir! Sir, your mustache fell off! Right there on the ground! … World famous poetry store, any subject, any price! Ice cream poems, ice cream poems! How's that ice cream? What flavor did you get? … Have a good night! I miss you already! … Ma'am, would you like your tarot read? Would you like your tarot blue? Is that your man? Get that handsome hunk a poem … OH! SIR! SIR! Bet you a dollar I can tell you where you got those shoes at ..! …They're on your feet!!! You owe me a dollar!"

The process of writing the poems is a great bit of free-association. You get your subject, do your best to shut out everything that's going on around you, and rattle away. Sometimes the flow catches, sometimes it's just blather. It being a tip-based thing makes it feel reasonably fair. A new way to remain on the bum … Shoutout to Dusty. Love ya, ya fucking weirdo.

Simmering the background, the state of the nation. Grim & feverish. Always in flashes… Thinking of the moment when I walked into Washington Square Park in June and Peter the poet - a colleague now, I suppose - helloed me with a "Robert! Trump's been shot!" ... Or the Biden-Harris switcheroo ... The ever-nastier tone of things, bleakness & bile. And now the here-we-go-again vertigo of another four years with America's favorite aging bigoted TV huckster. Most around me claim not to have been surprised by the result. I was. It seems like a pretty definite vibe shift at any rate, the end of the old liberalism. Once could be a fluke. Twice, with eyes open…

And what to make of this new style of American government? It seems each faction of Trump's supporters have a different idea of what's going to happen - and all of them are seeing what they want to see. The Wall Streeters and finance bros and crypto entrepreneurs see a boon to business, deregulation, mergers & acquisitions; the poor see lower taxes, higher wages, the same govt services and an end to inflation; the bosses see unions busted and oversight reduced; the heartlanders and the working class see a return of industrial dignity and good-paying jobs; the anarcho-futurists see an era of big ideas unchained, of enlightened space despotism; the alternative health crowd see Big Corn Syrup brought to heel; the farmers see environmental deregulation without climate change; the bigots and white supremacists and religious nuts see their old imaginary 1950s main street scrubbed clean and lawns green and all the weirdos and foreigners safely back wherever they came from; the immigrants see their American dream realized fair & square among people who've worked on it hard, as they have (unlike the riffraff that's coming in); the military men see victory; the isolationists see peace; and I daresay almost everyone who voted for Trump II sees a bit of extra dough coming their way. Good luck with that soup of contradictions... But why be consistent, eh? The whole style is to do it on the wing. You say what you want and the crowd obliges by hearing what they want and everyone enjoys the jagged thrill of contradictions and dissonance. Eventually it all shakes out - if it shakes out well, it was planned, if poorly, there'll undoubtedly be someone to blame. The unknowableness of what's real and what's bluster makes a perfect realm for magical thinking, and the true reality of it all is somewhere way up ahead, off in the fog, like heart disease and credit card bills.

I guess it could be the start of America's strongman era, but there seems to me about an equal chance that they cock it all up again. The actual policy proposals look like a clusterfuck in the making. They wanna bring down prices while cutting taxes, raising prices on imports, and deporting the country's lowest-paid workers?

Still, the election result makes a kind of twisted sense if you look at the choice as a single, momentary thing, as a lever you pull one way or another. Then it becomes Ineffectual Establishment vs Crazy Outlaw. And we know who Americans tend to root for. Look at how it's been going with mr. CEO shooter. Left and right seem to agree on that one more than anything else: the big shots have it coming.

Oh well. In any case, here we go again. All eyes on the egg charts.

As I said, I was surprised by the results. Maybe twas a useful jolt, in the sense that realizing your powerlessness can be empowering. Finding meself politically in the minority, I feel an almost cozy isolation falling. Fuckem then, thinks I, do your worst, good luck, I disengage from the nation, from here out I'll look out for myself & those I love. I've picked up on a similar feeling of resignedness and disengagement around me. I think that's alright. It seems to me the kicking in of healthy defense mechanisms. Back to the neighborhood. The larger order shifts. The post-cold war neoliberal establishment take a bow. One last hurrah - there stand the Bidens, the Cheneys, the Bushes, the Clintons, the woebegone Obamas, the woulda-coulda Kamalas, handing over the keys.

And chances are we'll miss them yet, eh? It's easy to pooh-pooh an idealism that doesn't live up to itself, but at least it's an ethos. What rules will future debates revolve around? Will there even be meaningful debate, or do we fully stop pretending it wasn't always about power? They're nihilists, Donny!

Oh, sod it… What with the stage set for a cold, cold winter, we'll have need of those inner flames, and they need tending in quiet darkness, so here we go, we've hashed it out, now we exit the vortex, tune out the hubbub, reject the hijacking of our imaginations, and dig deep like the mole … that's my plan, anyway … One size does not fit all, of course … if you have the energy you could make like the monkey, flinging the turds of fortune back at them that crapped em … I have thought of it … (Ariel's got me jamming to Amyl and the Sniffers) … embrace the spirit of the gibbon, shrieking by day and soaking by nite in ancient hotsprings, being dusted what soft snows our modern winters still flurry down for us, pondering … considering the poopoo … or you could make like the pelican & flap off faraway, to the places that are still conducive to dreaming, and where one can cram one's gular skin with exotic crabs at favorable exchange rates …

And come crocustime we'll flap & stagger back out with the meltwater, moles & monkeys all, banana slugs & penguins, and we'll haul our sleepy carcasses back up to the wheel, human beasts still after all, and give er a spin. And around and around she goes, that wheel of fortune. "Here it is again, the Great Reversal: the first ending up last, and the last first." Ronald McDonald said that.

[itreeschicago]

"In winter, I plot and plan. In spring, I move." — Henry Rollins . . . . #plannow #plantlater #winterplanningmode #beautifultrees #wintertime #winter #thinkingofspringthough #hawthorn #winterfruit #persistent #treeaofinstagram #henryrollinsquotes #thursdaythoughts #motivationalquotes #treesarelife #plantatree #beautifyyourworld #ornamentaltree #accenttree #winterbranches #treearchitecture #thoughts #thursdaymotivation https://www.instagram.com/p/B8OsGJRhFSJ/?igshid=87wwojbrpzqj

[agi-art]

Winter was good too. Probably is time to go visit Europe again 😂 . . . #tb #winter #germany #düsseldorf #europe #europetravel #branches #park #winterview #aroundtheworld #chillinginthepark #coldwinters #colour #bluesky #peoplewatching #gloomy #tree #winterbranches #instagermany #instaeurope #holidayseason #德國 #旅行 #winterlover #dimsky #winterpark #冬天 #europestyle_germany #houses (at Düsseldorf, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/BqzRZYSAK6m/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=131erav50sf9v

[petitefina]

winter🌸🌸

[unlikelybailifflightdreamer]

"Old ways wont open new doors." -No filter on this one, just nature as it is ❣ #lifequotes #lifequote #sky #bluesky #blueskyes #wintertrees #wintersky 🖤 #winter #winterskyline #trees #leaf#leafs #brownleafs 🖤 #branches #branch #winterbranches #zima #nebo #nature #nature_photo #naturebeauty #simplynature #naturecolors #natureshot #naturesky #sky_lovers #skyview #countryside #crystyphotography ❣ https://www.instagram.com/p/BuUJQIBHh1m/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=2z92kbdupozg

[las-microfisuras]

Carolyn Brown en "Winterbranch" parte de la producción de Merce Cunningham Dance Company durante BAN Spring Series 1966

Foto: Jack Mitchell

[necrida]

Another one of my characters in Guild Wars 2: Xanat Ramainvierno (Winterbranch). She's from a new race called sylvari who recently had "awaken" to this world. They tend to be naive and extremely curious, but don't let their innocence fool you! You can easily end up impaled... You've been warned!

The game is free to play now and I obviously recommend it : 3

Deviantart 🎨/ Furaffinity 🐺 / Ko-fi ☕ / Patreon 😈 (+18)

[stevensoshea]

California Native Buckeye Tree Branch Pattern Abstraction, No Filter #buckeyes #buckeyetree #californianativeplants #californianative #creek #stream #winterbranches #treelover #treelovers #abstract #abstraction #abstractart #abstractlovers #minimalism #minimalist #minimal #kennedygrove #kennedygroveregionalrecreationarea #elsobrantehills #eastbayhills ‘ ‘ #blackandwhitephotography #blackandwhite_photos #blackandwhite_perfection #bnw #bnwphotography #bnwmood #bnw_captures #bnw_society #bnw_planet #bnw_perfection (at Kennedy Grove Regional Recreation Area) https://www.instagram.com/p/Brw4e2ags1p/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=s6977vf0c57v

[angelheartcottage]

Wee birdie in bare winter branches. And still he sings. #thechroniclesoffarnia #thingssoamazeme #magic #wonder #beauty #bird #winterbranches #winter #stillhesings #birdsong #winterbirds #look #listen #awalkinthewoods #joy #december https://www.instagram.com/thechroniclesoffarnia/p/CXUz848lxpm/?utm_medium=tumblr

[photoincubator]

Early Bloom #snapshot #winterbranches #grandopening

[kvetchlandia]

Max Waldman     Merce Cunningham Dancing His “Winterbranch,” Costumes by Robert Rauschenberg, New York City     1970

[natural-stitches-blog]

Busy working on my new pattern 'Winter Branches'. Soon to be up on my Etsy page. #embroiderypatterns #winterbranches #winterembroidery #etsy #etsyshop #etsysellers #etsysellerofinstagram #handmadeisbetter #handmade #handcrafted #embroidery #frenchknots #satinstitch #crafts #craftaddict #crafter #craftaholic #embroideryinstaguild #embroidelicious #embroideryhoops #handembroidery #dmcthreads #etsytoppicks #embroiderymagazine