Celebrate the Colors of Spring

Seven full days of sunshine!

That's all we've had since January 1st!

I'm not saying we haven't seen sunshine

on other days, we have, 

but those days were mostly cloudy or partly cloudy.

Only seven full days of sunshine in over two months . . . .

no wonder my Vitamin D level is low!!

I'm saying that to explain why my sister, sister-in-law and I made the trip to Garvan Woodland Gardens on a misty, overcast day. We wanted to see the daffodils before they were frozen by the way-below-normal-temperatures in the forecast.

There are several paths you can take through the garden. We came for the daffodils, so we headed that way first.

On our way we spotted some pretty red tulips that were just beginning to bloom. We'll need to go back in a few weeks to see all the tulips in full bloom.

On the way to Daffodil Hill we pasted by thousands of hyacinths. I don't remember ever seeing the darker purple ones before.

We ventured down the Camellia Trail to see if there were any blossoms left and there were! Some very pretty ones.

Finally we came to Daffodil Hill! This is only a very small portion of the daffodils scattered across the hill. No matter which way you turn on this small hill, you can see daffodils.

As I mentioned before there are several paths you can take through the garden. We didn't take this one. It looked much to slippery, not to mention very steep. We sure didn't want to chance a fall!

A new addition to the garden this year is the tree house in the Evans Children's Adventure Garden. This pictures doesn't begin to show how large it is. I should have asked my sister and sister-in-law to go up in the tree house and wave at me! The 500 square foot structure is 28 foot tall. Adults can stand on the first two levels with no problem at all! The third level, well we didn't go that far. You have to climb a rope net to the crow's nest. A small area that gives you a bird's-eye view of the woods. Josh Siebert, the architect, describes the idea behind this modern looking tree house by saying "Our concept was a tree house in the woods and amongst the woods. It floats, it's mysterious, but it's also modern." I'll admit when I first saw it, I wasn't impressed. I'm not real keen on modern architecture, but the beauty for me was on the inside.

  

I love the repetition of the yellow pine ribs and the spectacular views. 

As you leave the tree house, there are some really cool mirrors set in the railing. They reminded me of fun house mirrors at carnivals. They each made you look a little different and sometimes silly. I avoided the one that made me look short and rather plump!!

We wandered back to the front of the garden to eat lunch at the Chipmunk Cafe. As we waited for our food, we watched three very friendly, not-scared-of-people peacocks. Or I guess I should say one peacock and two peahens. Last year there was only the peacock. Maybe with the addition of two peahens, little pea chicks may be in the future.

You have to be patient, but they will eventually show off their feathers.

Despite the damp, chilly air we enjoyed our day out. This day was also a celebration for me. I am one year cancer free. It's been a long year, sometimes difficult, but I feel like I've passed a milestone! 

The Good, The Random, The Fun

It seems my blogging has really slowed down recently and I don't like that. I enjoy posting here, showing you what my part of the world looks like and sharing the beauty of nature. There's a blog I've been following for quite a while that has a Monday link-up entitled, you guessed it . . . The Good The Random, and The Fun. It seems the perfect fit for me. Just a quick post with three pictures and a few words. I always have random pictures that I would like to share.  I'm hoping this will inspire me to bring a little more activity to my space here. So here goes!

The Good

I found a new path at my absolute favorite garden in Arkansas, Garvan Woodland Gardens. I've been close to this path several times, but never walked it and didn't know it had this beautiful waterfall. 

The Random

I discovered a new flower at the garden. Doesn't this just make you smile? You can see where it gets it's name, Bat Face Cuphea. This tiny tubular bloom is only about an inch long with the "face" about 1/2 inch across. Just image a plant that's about 18" tall full of these delightful blooms.

The Fun

Peeking in the houses in the fairy garden hoping to see a fancy fairy.

Linking up with...

Every Fifteen Steps

I began the story of my trip to Garvan Woodland Gardens in last week's post. I went to the gardens with a list of intentions: things to photograph for four classes I am taking.

Mission #2

This exercise was for a class I'm taking called A Year With My Camera. It started with the basics of taking your camera off automatic and then moved forward into light and composition. Most of those first lessons were things I knew, but it never hurts to review. The lesson for this past week was a creative one. She gave us several options to pick from. I chose to go on a photo walk taking a picture every fifteen steps. 

As you can imagine a photo walk through a garden would bring endless possibilities of photos every fifteen feet. Knowing that, I chose to take a woodland path where there weren't many flowers blooming.

Sometimes as I stopped I had to look very closely to find something interesting to photograph. This lesson was not about taking amazing photos. It was not about learning our camera. It was about looking closely, what I call seeing. It was teaching us to let our eyes slowly scan the area instead of taking a quick look and snapping the shutter at the first pretty view.

I took a total of sixteen pictures for this exercise. My last steps brought me back to a paved path that led to the welcome center. And who was there to welcome me back? George, the peacock greeter! He's been at the gardens for several years. Last year he was alone, but this year he has two peahens to keep him company and oh, how he loved to show off his feathers for them! He was the perfect ending to my photo walk!

"We look at the world and see what we have learned to believe is there.

We have been conditioned to expect . . .

but, as photographers, we must learn to relax our beliefs."

~ Aaron Siskind

Setting Intentions

It seems life is sometimes slow and easy and then other times there’s so much to do! Photographically speaking, this week has been a very busy one. I participated in four different photo groups. Two of them are weekly, one is monthly, and the last one was for this week. Whew! It can be overwhelming sometimes, but I enjoy each one of them.

This week I was able to complete the exercises for all four groups in one trip. I had them all written down and the paper in my pocket so I wouldn’t forget what I was looking for. I thought a good bit, mostly in the middle of the night, about where I could go for a photo walk. I decided to go to Garvan Woodland Gardens which is about an hour’s drive from me. This was the first time I’ve been to the garden by myself, which is strange since I’m always going places by myself. Anyway, I usually go to the garden with my two best friends who happen to be my sister and sister-in-law. We have such fun together laughing, talking, eating, and pointing out what catches our eyes. It’s a splendid place for walking and talking, but this time I needed to be focused on my mission, fulfilling the four exercises!

Mission #1

I’m part of a group on Facebook who are taking a yearlong adventure through Kim Manley Ort’s book ADVENTURES IN SEEING. I’ve taken this class on line with Kim several years ago, but she has recently turned the class into a book; a good book which you can find here. The adventure for this week was to go on a photo walk with set intentions. We were to walk looking for something specific. There were a lot of things I could have focused on at the garden: flowers (not much of challenge in a woodland garden!), animals (there are more in the garden than you think!), water (beautiful waterfalls and creeks abound here!) or landscapes (maybe?). What I finally decided on was to find flowers and rocks together, which was a little bit more of a challenge than flowers or water.

I think I’ll let you scroll through the pictures of what I found. No words are necessary! I’ll meet you at the end.

Kim also suggested in her Facebook post that we keep our eyes open for red. Red is a color that will quickly catch your eye. Here are the shades of red I found in the garden.

There is one other picture I want to add. It’s not a rock or a flower, but it is hard-as-a-rock!! While walking I noticed a lady with two small girls staring into the woods. The girls were excited. The mom was taking pictures. As I approached I asked them what they were looking at. It was five armadillos! I’ve never see a real armadillo other than at the zoo. They are not so pretty, very noisy, and fascinating!

I tried to do each of the four exercise separately so I could concentrate only on it. Exercise number one was completed, now it was time to move on to the next one. To keep this post from going on forever I’ll tell you about the other three exercise in future posts.

“All the technique

in the world doesn’t compensate

for the inability to notice.”

~ Elliott Erwitt

Spring Has Sprung

Our spring seemed to come early this year. Maybe because we didn't really have a winter. So, I wasn't even thinking about a trip to Garvan Woodland Gardens to see the tulips until it was almost too late. My sister, sister-in-law, and I made the trip to see if any tulips were left. Some of them were already gone, but they plant so many, I'm talking thousands, that there was still plenty to see. It wasn't the best of times for photography. The wind was blowing, the sun was too high creating dark shadows, and pollen covered everything including my camera lens! I included the photo below just to show you how everything was covered in pollen. 

So, if everything looks blurry give credit to the wind, if the colors looked washed out give credit to the sun, and if they look a little cloudy give credit to the pollen. In other words, these are not the best of pictures, but it was the best of days and that's what's important to me!

As many of you know, I love hearts found in nature. My sweet sister-in-law knows this and has a great eye for finding them. She pointed this small one out to me. It's a broken pine needle caught in a cedar tree. She saw this right as we began walking the trails. This was a great way to start my day.

Like I said there were plenty of tulips to see. I love the beauty and lines of tulips. In fact, I thought I liked them more when the petals were upright and closed together, but I think I've changed my mind. Their petals gracefully open and their beautiful centers stole my heart. 

I was standing looking at the tulips when I witnessed one of those wonder moments of nature. In the picture below notice the yellow tulip and the light that seems to come from within. As I mentioned earlier the wind was blowing. As it blew the tree branches above, the flower would be in the shadow, then the branch would move just enough for the flower to be in the light. It was as if this lovely tulip had a lantern inside that was going on an off. It was amazing to see. Now I wish I'd gotten a video of it!

The 210 acres of Garvan Gardens are on a long peninsula. The winding trails lead to the tip of the peninsula where there's a beautiful overlook landscaped with flowers, rocks, and waterfalls. We took a little break, ate a snack, listened to the water, and enjoyed the beauty of Lake Hamilton and Mount Renati in the distance.

Although I went to see the tulips and they were incredibly beautiful, it was the cherry blossom that took my breath away. I've never been at the gardens when they were blooming. I don't know a way to describe them, simply breathtaking!

We had a great day together. We saw incredible beauty, we walked, we talked, we laughed, and had a wonderful lunch at the park. The only thing that might have made it better was less wind, less sun, and definitely less pollen!   Achew!! 

Seeking Color

I anxiously await as I go through the long hot summer for cooler days and the brilliant colors of fall. Only this year in Arkansas, it didn’t happen. There are a few trees that have some color, but overall we didn’t get fall colors. We’ve had an abnormally warm fall and have been very dry which has caused the leaves on the trees to just turn brown, curl up, and fall to the ground. As far as fall colors go, this year was a bust! So, I had to turn to other things for autumn color such as pumpkins and mums. I knew just where to look for them . . . Garvan Woodland Gardens.

Not only were there pumpkins and mums, but the azaleas were blooming and the coleus was beautiful.

Notice in the picture below how green everything is. Of course, the garden is watered daily, but my goodness this is the middle of November and everything is still so very green. The plants are loving the warm temperatures.

It was quite a busy day at the gardens. I almost waited too late to see any fall colors, they were quickly being replaced by Christmas lights and decorations. The garden begins its Christmas light show this week. It was quite a challenge to take autumn pictures without Christmas lights in them. 

The Camellia trail was quite beautiful and led to the end of the garden where there’s a spectacular view of Lake Hamilton.

Well, I finally got my fall color fix, so I’m ready to move on. In fact, after watching with fascination, the Christmas decorations being put up I’m ready to go back and see the lights. I’m going to wait a couple of weeks, hoping it will be colder. It just doesn’t seem right to walk through a Christmas wonderland of lights in a T-shirt, capris, and sandals!

"I go to nature to be soothed and healed,

and to have my senses put in order."

~ John Burroughs