Autumn Moon Maple
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Walking through a narrow garden path, I brush up against overhanging leaves. I can’t help but stop and admire. I enjoy the leaves at my fingertips as well as the ferns and other leaves below. I reach down, hold a leaf in my hand, and feel the details, shape, color, and textures. After several moments, I continue my walk and look for more details to admire.
Hostas Along Secret Garden Path
Heatherwood Late Spring
At times I get a little moody, especially after a busy intense period. It feels good to just sit back and reflect. In this image I attempted to create this feeling by selecting a quiet corner and adding a little moodiness through texture overlays. Beauty still abounds in the world around us.
Garden Path Vignette
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Walking along our secret garden path I look down beneath a crabapple tree and discover this little vignette. Beneath the tree I see a combination of color, tones, shapes and textures with a little bit of garden art. The vignette is comprised of Japanese hollies, Japanese forest grass, white bleeding hearts, and an art piece from a local artist, Michelle Wyles.
Intimate vignettes like above usually cause me to stop and explore details of a garden. I sometimes drive my strolling partners nuts as they wander through the grand views of a garden. They have to wait for me to catch up. Many times, the detailed landscape views are what I recall from a garden or nature walk.
Secret Path Entrance
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Heatherwood has several paths that wind through the garden. Each curve introduces a sense of curiosity. Before exploring what is around the corner, I first stop and enjoy the scene of what is in front of me. Throughout the garden there are windows that guide a visitor’s view to another part of a garden to explore later. What I see through this window is a path that I may take tomorrow. But now, what is around the corner? The answer is … look back to my previous post.
Garden Path
Heatherwood Spring
This curving path winds through the most mature part of Heatherwood. It is my first attempt at designing a Japanese-influenced garden. Initiated in 2017, the trees, shrubs, and understory plants now fill around the eastern side of our home. The shade of the house provides an environment for a shade-loving plants. I look forward to several such little sanctuaries throughout our garden as it matures. For now, it is our little secret place.
Lower Garden Path
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Trees, shrubs, and ground covers frame the lower path of our Japanese garden area. I can hear water rushing, but there is no sign of it. What lurks around the corner of the path? Trees and carefully placed bends in the pathway obscure what is beyond.
The garden is filling in. It is hard to realize that only six years ago that this area was a grass lawn. ‘Visioneering’, imagination, design iterations, and some hard work formed the structure. Mother Nature did the rest!
Purple Rhody and Beyond
Heatherwood Upper Garden
Many times I stroll through the garden with my camera just enjoying the beauty without really searching for images. Then an image just pops up. I stop and enjoy the scene before me. I see shapes, textures, and colors. The individual subjects blend together to create a feeling of beauty. I enjoy the moment. Then I bring my camera up to my eye and create an image.
Looking Through the Japanese Garden
Heatherwood Spring
A narrow stone path leads around the corner of our house. Immediately my eyes are flooded with spring color from Japanese maples, a flowering viburnum, a Japanese umbrella pine, and a weeping white pine. Then the Kotoji lantern by our hillside stream pops into view. It feels like the lantern is a scout looking over the garden.
The view as I walk around the corner is almost too much to take in all at once. Do I focus on the trees, shrubs, and ground covers that surround me? Or, do I look up through the trees and see the surprises peeping out through the foreground? Or, do I just pause and take it all in one little piece at a time? I usually do the latter.
Daffodils and Flowering Pear
Heatherwood Spring
Today is a time to pause and think about what is right with the word around us. It is a time to be thankful of what our Lord has given us. It is a time to be with family and friends and enjoy life. Happy Easter !
Jelena Witch Hazel
Heatherwood Late Winter
The witch hazels are the harbinger of spring in our garden. They are usually the first blooms of the year. Soon they will be followed by our Cornelian Cherry dogwood and the star magnolias. We have already seen tiny tips of the crocus and daffodils popping up from the ground. Spring is just two weeks away!