“Grasses in Snow”
Heatherwood Winter
When most bushes and tree branches are covered with snow, grasses still break through the snow blanket to show off their golden winter color. These grasses above our waterfall provide a contrast of warm golden brown after a fresh snow fall. Many gardeners like to cut their grasses back in the fall to have a nice neat garden bed. I much prefer to let them show off their autumn color and seed heads through the winter.
“Daydreaming from Office”
Heatherwood, Winter
I find myself often turning around from my office desk to gaze out my window. There is always something to see and catch my attention. Frequently my gaze turns into a daydream. A beautiful winter morning is a gift.
Neighbor’s Pasture
Heatherwood, Winter
Yesterday I awoke to the ground covered with about 6 inches of snow. A light fog covered the surrounding hills. Snow covered objects blended into the background. From the top of Heatherwood, I saw our neighbor’s trees mysteriously transparent on the hillside. It’s nice to live in the country.
“Kotoji in Winter”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
I think winter is finally here. The first five weeks of winter have been very mild with temperatures often in the 40’s and 50’s. We have had several very light snowfalls that have melted within a day. Sunday night we received this snow. More is scheduled for this week and coming weekend. Heatherwood is beautiful this time of year. It creates a very peaceful feeling. All the new plants provide a striking contrast to what was just a lawn and pasture setting two years ago.
In this image, the Kotoji lantern silently watches over the dry stream bed. In a couple of months the steam will be active with flowing water and waterfalls.
Patiently watching a silent bed,
Kotoji waits for spring ahead,
With rushing water soon to come.
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Weather changes pretty rapidly here in Eastern Washington. Saturday was bright and shiny in the 40’s. This morning I woke up to a light snowfall. I couldn’t resist grabbing my camera and taking a little walk around Heatherwood.
This is one of my favorite garden viewing vantage points. It is peaceful now with a little ice covering the pond. The white snow separates the trees and shrubs from the ground. A light fog blurs the background hills which also helps pop out the deciduous trees at the edge of our garden. Green, yellow, and golden brown color still highlights the winter scene.
In two months, the spring activity level will start. The water will be turned feeding the two waterfalls emptying into the pond. Hopefully early spring bulbs planted last fall will start to emerge. If the weather holds, we will start our spring planting.
South of Sentinel Gap
Central Washington State
After passing through Sentinel Gap on our Saturday drive, I arbitrarily picked a side road and headed west toward the Columbia to see if I could get a different perspective of the Gap. The road ended up at a small boat ramp on a backwater pond near the river. The sun was just about ready to drop behind Umptanum Ridge. The late afternoon created a beautiful glow on the grasses and winter tree trunks. As a little bonus, I was able to get a piece fo the western ridge of Sentinal Gap in my image. For reference, the height of the water in the Columbia River approached the top of this ridge during the Missoula Floods. The area where I was standing when taking this image was at the bottom of Ice Age Lake Lewis. The water would have been several hundred feet above my head during the floods.
Othello Channels
Central Washington State
Yesterday was a beautiful winter day here in Central Washington. I woke up with a desire to get out and do a little exploring. Mary and I hopped into our car and decided to wander through part of the path of the Ice Age floods. The landscape in Eastern Washington is amazing. Understanding how the different formations were created takes a lot of imagination.
The basalt bluffs across the valley are about 150-200 feet high. Imagine a wall of water 100 to 200 feet higher than the bluffs rushing and swirling through this channel at 50 plus miles per hour. The water swirls as eddies carve out “pot holes” like maybe what the small lake covers. The turbulent waters gouge through the basalt, picking up and carrying the rock out of the channel.
Beebaum Multi-exposure
Fountainville, PA Garden
While searching through old images to help me come up with new ideas for enhancing our meadow for Heatherwood, I came upon several images of an arrangement of red and purple beebaum perennials. Aha! … the images blurred in my mind and I came up with the above abstract.
More practically, the image did give me an idea. We currently have red beebaums in the garden. They are relatively sparse and the tall blooms droop after a wind. The purple beebaum is a lower growing species and will prop the taller growing red blooms up as well as provide a nice complement shade to the arrangement.
Garden Path
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
One day I wake up to a beautiful sunrise like in my previous post. The next day I wake up to a short blast of snow. By early afternoon, the snow had melted and it was warm enough to be outside with a light jacket. I feel blessed with changing weather. It keeps me on my toes to see what’s new or different that I can photograph. I very seldom get bored!
“Heatherwood Sunrise”
Today started with a bright sunrise as a harbinger of the start of a new chapter. Biden’s Inaugural speech on “Unity” was a bright way to start the path for the new Administration. Patience, persistence, honesty, compassion, compromise, and a lot of hard work will be required by all of us.