Seeds at Solstice, Deep Dreamy Time

I scooped up a handful of pods and seeds from the back porch table this afternoon.  It's icy and windy today as befits a day just before winter solstice, and I wanted to check on the seeds.  The water pickerel that I cut in half last fall is popping seeds out, each looking like a glossy miniature eggplant. The ones that got sliced in half are mildewing, whereas the intact seeds are firm and glossy, which tells me that the deep aubergine skin is waterproof and protects the inner parts of the seed.  The spiky pod has spewed all of its small black seeds, which now lie in the bottom of the bowl.  The shiny black bee-bee-like seeds are still attached to a central stalk, but the outer petals of the flower have long since turned transparent and brittle and have fallen off.

Joining the seeds and pod fragments are two Femo clay faces made by a woman at the Delany fair.  She uses them as faces on spirit dolls that she makes, and she sold me these two dreamy ones that are like the sleeping seeds in deepest dark winter.