Crystal balls

It rained in San Francisco a few days ago. That’s unusual for this time of year. Just as the rains were passing, I noticed some mysterious pearls on my lupinus arboreus outside:

And I was happy. Later I looked a little closer at the picture, and was a little surprised at what I saw.

I began to make out something in the large ball in the middle.

Then I looked closer still.

Myself! And the sky, and the lattice on our back porch that the lupin claims as its home. What else is in there?

Another of the crystal balls shows a self-portrait of the lupin. It’s not shy.

Even the smallest of the spheres reveals a glimpse of a secret world. The following photo shows the locations in the original picture of the previous three clippings, starting with orange, then cyan, then red.