A nearby Arboretum has neatly-arranged beds of asters and other meadow flowers; this is one of the stalks left standing:
The seedheads are small, maybe the size of a quarter, but something about their branches makes me think these might be some relative of yarrow.
Because the weather has still refused to produce snow, I couldn’t get any nice sharp shadows of these against a white ground. Someday.
On the other hand, the children playing outside seem perfectly happy to shriek and frolic, and the squirrels are stalking one another up and down the trees. Some good comes of almost everything.
Rethorykal Questions 