Tag Archives: Heather Heights Garden

Getting Ready …

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Dogwood Bud
Heatherwood Spring

I have been keeping a close eye on our dogwood tree buds. A few are getting ready to start their bloom. The sepals on this bud are starting to pull back. Soon the blossom will start to appear. The yellow blur in the background is a Wintersonne Mugo Pine. I had to stand on my tip toes to line the bud up with the Wintersonne. It was hard to keep the camera steady on my toes. (I was too lazy to go in and get a tripod.) I took a million images to get one that was reasonably crisp. It was a good way to pass the time!

The last couple of weeks, I have been spending way, way too much time sitting around. My excursions have been short trips to the garden to take a few images. I have made a resolution to be much more active in April as we will be pretty much staying at home.

  1. I will take a daily walk or mini-hike with Mary around our neighborhood and hills around our home.
  2. I will work/play a bit each day in our garden to get it ready for spring.
  3. I will experiment with new techniques and approaches with my my camera to improve my overall skills.

And above all I will make the most of each day as I enjoy the wonders of the world around us!

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Immersed in Warmth

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North Star Spruce
Heatherwood Spring

This image just gives me warmth. The warm spring sun was highlighting a Wintersomme Mugo Pine. It was radiating its bright yellow winter color. My assignment was to find something interesting to put in front of it. The tip of a young North Star Spruce called out “Here I Am.”

The Coronavirus and “Social Distancing” will be with us for quite some time I am afraid. To me, “Social Distancing” is the wrong term to use. “Physical Distancing” is really what we should be addressing. With all the means we have for remotely communicating including social media, there is no reason that we need to lock our minds and souls up and quarantine communication and connections with others. Physical distancing is important in today’s time, but nothing is stopping us for reaching out and saying, “Here I Am!”

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“The Chief”

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“Chief Joseph”
Lodgepole Pine

In my last post, I described the path up to the top of our Japanese-style garden. This is the “Chief” that I mentioned at the the first turn of the upward path. The brilliant gold of this small pine stops me in my tracks. It is absolutely beautiful against the cold winter snow. It is a jewel in this area of the garden.

Bright and light it captures me.
Gold shines apart from the surrounding land,
Everything else is a background blur.

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Patience

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Kotoji and Yukimi Lanterns

I have learned so many new things as we have been designing and implementing a Japanese-style garden here in Selah, Washington. The biggest thing that I have learned is how little I know and how much I need to learn. Studying and learning is a big part of the enjoyment that I am receiving from this project. Patience is a key element that I am balancing.

Walking through a Japanese garden is an adventure in discovery. To get to the point where this image is taken, I take a meandering stroll. I enter the garden from our driveway along a gentle bending path and come to a fork. I choose to walk up a gentle slope. The path curves upward to a wide level space where I pause to closely observe a brilliant yellow “Chief Joseph” limber pine. I turn around and see our pond in the distance. I continue to walk up the path to another wide area at the top of a stream. Again I pause to look over the now dry stream bed and over the valley below. After several moment, I cross a large basalt rock bridge over the stream. I turn to my right and see this vignette of the Kotoji and Yukimi lanterns. One leg of the Kotoji is anchored in the stream. The Yukimi is placed on a rock extending over the edge of the pond. On a bright day (without ice or snow covering the pond), I can see the reflection of the Yukimi on the pond. I feel like it acts like a guardian for the koi in the pond.

After I take the photograph, I step back upon the stone bridge. Looking down on the stream, I consider the options that are available to landscape around the stream to create a natural setting. Ideas flow through my mind. Nothing quite gels at the moment. There is no hurry to come up with a design. A landscape is developed over a period of years. It is never completed. Now is the time to have patience and just enjoy what is in front of me.

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Touch of Winter Color

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Kotoji in Winter
Heather Heights Garden

As we developed the design for our Japanese Garden, winter color was an essential element. Throughout the garden, we added several conifers that turn to a brilliant yellow to contrast against the greens of other shrubs and trees. We also selected deciduous Japanese maples and other trees that have color in their winter bark. The soft light browns of key rocks add to the color contrast. However, these were gifts, not necessarily part of our planned design. We just got lucky here.

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Borrowed

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Kotoji in Winter

One Japanese garden design technique is to used “borrowed scenes” from the area around the garden. As much as possible the background elements should look like they are part of the near and mid-range scene, giving it additional depth. As we laid out our Japanese garden last summer, we identified several elements for which we positioned them to take advantage of the background hills and landscape. In this image we used our neighbor’s large front yard tree, their pasture, and their fence to give depth to the Kotoji landscape view.

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Art in the Garden

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Japanese White Pine

As I walk around our garden, little pieces of art show themselves to me. Most of the time, I am just wandering when they appear. Something makes me stop and look closer. I imagine how I can best treat the gift appropriately. Sometimes they need to be accurately represented with fine detail. Other times they can be converted into an abstract blur. Still other times they are best processed by photoshop manipulation. This time I used a touch of Photoshop and Topaz Degas adjustments to achieve the end results.

I love to walk in our garden and enjoy all the little gifts that are given to me!

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Ouch!

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“Hoarfrost Spikes on Japanese Maple”

Hoarfrost is amazing. The small ice crystals build up on each other as the frost forms. Here, the hoarfrost continued to build up over a two day period. The frost looks like multiple sharp spikes on the exposed Japanese maple branches.

I was prepared for a sharp prick when I touched a branch. As soon as I got close the frost melted. No pain!

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Remember It Is Winter…

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Hoarfrost on Maple Leaves

The weather continues to be warm. It almost feels like spring. I need to remember that we are just starting the third week of winter. I am sure that the real winter weather is yet to come. So to keep things in perspective, I reflect back several weeks ago when a cold spell hit and we had two days of hoarfrost. It was beautiful but very cold. It was too cold for me to mess around with a tripod, thus my images are not as crisp as I would have liked.

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