“Maple Leaf and Raindrops Abstract”
Heatherwood Garden
Simple images are fun to play with. I first photographed this vignette as a simple image of a leaf, a few branches, and raindrops. I liked the image, but then went beyond and asked myself, “If a single image was nice, how would multiple images combined look?” Sometimes more is better.
“Raindrops on Hana Matoi Abstract”
Heatherwood Spring
Yesterday, my post was of individual raindrops on our Hana Matoi Japanese maple. Today’s image is what happened when I added a little motion blur to the image. A little playful creativity can make magic.
Note: the little white curves are individual raindrops.
“Raindrops on Hana Matoi”
Heatherwood Spring
A rainy day in Yakima, Washington is not a common occurrence. And on this day, it rained ALL day. Since I have moved back into the area in 2016, I cannot recall it raining ALL day. But, my memory can be questioned from time to time.
On this rainy day, I was cooped up for most of the day. I couldn’t stand it much longer so I grabbed my camera and rain jacket and went exploring for rain drops. Walking through the garden among the trees and shrubs was like walking through a wonderland. Droplets were hanging down from the delicate bare branches of our Japanese maples. If I looked close, I could see an upside down reflection of my camera on the droplets. It was a day to create and experiment.
“Lilac Abstract”
Heatherwood Spring
A Different Way of Seeing
A rainy day,
An open mind seeing,
Wonder appears
“Daffodils and Red Twig Dogwoods”
Heatherwood Spring
This is one of my favorite early spring vignettes. The view is looking through our crabapple grove to a wall of Spartan junipers in the background. In the mid ground are the brilliant winter red twig dogwoods. In the foreground are drifts of yellow daffodils. Any day now they should burst out in their yellow blooms. As the daffodils fade, the crabapples start to bloom. Then soon after, the leaves emerge on the dogwoods. We have a continuous change of spring color in this part of our Heatherwood garden. We are still looking for a solution to cover the ground after the daffodils die back.
“Almost Opened Daffodills”
Heatherwood Spring
Today we will host our family Easter celebration. We will have three generations of Grafs, Downeys, Pecks, and Powells with us this year. The older generation will relax and laugh as we watch the youngsters search for the Easter eggs. There are plenty of spots to hide them in our Heatherwood garden. While we relax and laugh, the middle generation parents will nervously make sure their kids don’t get carried away.
While we enjoy the day, we will all thank our Lord in our own way for the life He has given for us.
Happy Easter to all!
“Yukimi and Siberian Iris”
Heatherwood Spring
The early spring blooms of the Siberian iris signal that spring is here. This year’s display is much more sparse than previous years. The early hard fall freeze and the late winter snow may have discouraged many of the bulbs from rising above the ground. We will probably need to refresh the area by planting more bulbs this autumn.
The small Japanese maple is forming buds. It will be another 3 to 4 weeks before the leaves burst out. I keep reminding myself, patience, patience, patience!
“Looking West From Meadow”
Heatherwood Spring
It is nice to live in the country. Heatherwood is surrounded by small farms with hay fields, horses, cows, chickens and rabbits. Red-tailed hawks constantly hover above in wide circles looking for their next meal. Coyotes cry out in the evenings. The surrounding hills and our neighbor’s homes are a nice backdrop for our Heatherwood garden. We enjoy the peaceful, bucolic countryside.
“Emerging October Glory Maple Leaves”
Heatherwood Spring
Here come the new leaves as a few of last year’s leaves hang on. Last fall we had some very warm weather, then a severe cold snap hit. Many of the maple leaves did not even get a chance to turn color. They just turned brown and hung on to the tree. When an early snow hit at the end of November, it loaded up wet snow on the leaf-covered branches causing several large branches to break. We are watching closely this spring to see if we need to do any additional pruning to help the trees recover.
“Forsythia”
Heatherwood Spring
As the Farmer’s Almanac says, “When the forsythias bloom, it is time to prune the roses.” I will be busy this coming week.
I spent a couple of hours walking around our garden with Mary today. She gladly volunteered to be my sherpa. I worked with two cameras, switching back and forth between a macro and a telephoto zoom. While I was using one, she held the other. It sure was a lot easier than changing lenses back and forth. Thank you Mary!