I still play that game where one looks up at the sky and hunts for hidden shapes in cloud formations. It’s not always easy living in an urban area. It’s best done with a panoramic view of the sky, so the cityscape poses a challenge. It’s also best done sitting or lying down, and I prefer to be actually touching the grass, not separated by a lawn chair. (This might be the farm girl in me. Growing up in rural Illinois, I had pretty much unfettered run of about 340 acres—40 of my family’s and 300 of my best friend’s—so I spent many hours lying and sleeping in pastures.)

And while winter days can be bright and winter skies filled with clouds, winter temperatures are a deterrent. You can look up at the clouds and scan for creatures and objects, but it’s hard to relax into the moment.

Yesterday, my rotting pumpkins turned into a cloud-like canvas for noticing. As I framed photos of them during my morning jaunt outdoors, and as I scanned those photos later while writing about the pumpkins and the coming solstice, I started seeing shapes in the brittle and icy remains of the rotting squash.

That’s a fish up top, the first shape I found. That’s actually all that’s left of one of our Halloween pumpkins at this point; I didn’t frame up the photo to emphasize only a fraction.

The other pumpkin retains the basic shape of its original incarnation, albeit it almost completely flattened. I didn’t notice this shape until I was looking at my photos: a bird!

Not only has this one kept its round shape; the leaf and debris pattern on top of it has recreated a kind of Jack-o-lantern face. And there in the center(ish) of its face is a Christmas stocking.
If I turn the original fish on its side, I see a different kind of bird. This game could occupy me for a while… maybe even until it gets warm enough to lie in the grass again.