[ I posted this title with the wrong text and photograph on the 17th of last month. Somehow I copied everything from the post published on the 13th. Everything except the title. I have corrected that mistake, but since it was so long ago, I am posting the correction today and will leave it up for a week or so, so everyone has a chance to read it.]

Pushing out over the sidewalk and dead leaves. I’m reminded of a study done more than fifty years ago that monitored eye movement over photographs. One of the more interesting results involved fishnet stockings and specifically men’s eyes. Women responded quite differently. Women seemed to assess the legs, moving up and down the central portion where more of the leg was visible. But men’s eyes went almost immediately to the periphery, the edge where the fishnet pattern started to condense. Men saw the outline of the leg more than the leg itself, and they did this not just a small percentage of the time, but almost the entire time. So, perhaps when I see plants growing over the edge of the sidewalk, I’m seeing with masculine eyes. When we planted the patio a few months ago, I made sure to plant some of the starters close enough to the edge that they would grow over it and onto the patio. In my mind, that would give them something that they otherwise lacked. I didn’t think about it, it was just something I did. But now that I do, I think it is the edge itself which is most visible, where the eye is drawn. At least, where my eye is drawn. Like this leftover bloom on the edge of the sidewalk.