So is this life as we know it now in Minnesota – life in the “polar vortex”? We are cold. We are exhausted by the sheer amount of effort required to put on so many layers and articles of clothing. The ground is covered in snow, and the sky is pale, gray, and dreary.

If you need warmth and color brought back to your daily scene, how about some patterns from nature, in the shade of green?


– Ricciocarpus natans floating, undated


– Lunularia, undated


– Maidenhair Fern, nearer view, undated


– Camptosorus rhizophyllus, Walking Fern, January 25, 1947


– Spirodela polyrhiza, near view, Greater Duckweed, undated

(From the Ned. L. Huff Lantern Slide Collection in the Department of Botany records)