Autumn Leaves, Sedum, and Thyme
Heatherwood Winter
Even the ground is covered with winter color and textures in our garden. Purple woolly thyme provides the base of this vignette. The red new growth of Tri-color sedum highlights the image, while the fallen autumn leaves create a gentle overlay.
Enjoying this little scene provides a stimulus to add more and more ground covers to our spring planting plan! Spring is less that a month away.
Abstract Art in the Garden
Heatherwood Winter
Garden art is all around me as I walk through Heatherwood. I just need to discover a way to display it. I saw this combination of ornamental grasses in the foreground, red twig dogwoods in the mid ground, and yellow twig dogwoods in the background peeking through the red twigs. I thought of an abstract watercolor painting of beige, red, and yellow brush strokes. I played with a series of multiple exposures and “voila”, an abstract painting appeared.
Have a happy day!
Red Pine, Red Twig Dogwood, Crabapples
Heatherwood Winter Contrast
Contrast is more than color. What caught my interest in the above image is the textural contrast between the needles of the red pine, the thin stems of the red twig dogwoods and the smooth bark of the crabapples. The green and red color didn’t hurt either. Heatherwood is full of winter interest.
Zafiro, Valley Cushion, and Red/Yellow Twig Dogwoods
Heatherwood, Winter
The combination of evergreens, ornamental grasses, and deciduous shrubs provide winter color and contrast to our Heatherwood garden. The blue, tight needled, Zafiro blue spruce and the green Valley Cushion mugo pine coupled with the yellow and red twig dogwoods and beige ornamental grasses create a colorful and textured contrast to this little vignette.
Midwinter Fire Dogwoods
Heatherwood, South Bed
The south planting bed separates Heatherwood from our neighbor’s yard. To maintain our neighbor’s view of the surrounding hills, we have planted a combination of various dogwood shrubs and ornamental grasses. The midwinter fire dogwoods provide an orange highlight along the border. They are grouped together with other yellow and yellow twig dogwoods. Together with the ornamental grasses, they provide both our neighbor and ourselves an attractive winter scene.
Red and Yellow Twig Dogwoods
Heatherwood Woodland Garden
Today I took a two hour stroll through our garden with my camera. With one month left in winter, I decided to focus on the winter garden highlights throughout Heatherwood. Throughout the woodland area we have planted red and yellow twig dogwoods. They provide an understory of winter color. Winterberry and mahonia (not show in the above image) provide additional winter color in other spots in the woodland.
Hydrangeas in the Fog
Heatherwood Winter
Many times I wake up early in the morning and my mind is in a fog. It doesn’t worry me though. I close my eyes and think what is right about the world around me. I open my eyes and up pops an idea or thought that I can focus my day upon. It’s a much better way to start the day than brooding on something that is outside my influence.
I often use a similar technique when I photograph. I will be walking around with my camera enjoying the world around me. I feel good, but nothing is popping up that focuses my interest. I close my eyes and clear my mind. I open my eyes and just look around. Then there it is, something captures my eye and off I go!
Pahoehoe Lava Sculpture
Kilauea Lava Flow, Hawaii
Pahoehoe lava flows and cools slowly. It forms ropey type patterns as it cools. Walking over the Kilauea lava flows provides an infinite source of vignettes for creating images. My mind wanders as it gazes over the terrain. I discover pattern after pattern. Each one is unique and my imagination goes wild. I get lost and lose track of time. Each time I have walked the flows with travel partners, they have patiently(?) waited for me with stern faces by the car ready to drive to the next stop.
Sunset over Anaeho’omalu Bay
Wiakoloa, Hawaii
We were gifted a beautiful sunset on our first evening of our 2024 Hawaiian vacation. It was like a movie, with a colada in our hands we toasted to a beautiful welcome to Hawaii. It was followed by a romantic dinner with a local musician playing near our table and the gentle tropical breeze flowing through the palm trees.
Chief Joseph #2
Heatherwood Winter
Chief Joseph #2 is our visual target at the end of our Japanese Garden pathway. Because of their seasonal interest, we have placed them at strategic places in the garden. Chief Joseph #1 shown in an earlier post, is located at the corner of a bend in our upper Japanese garden pathway. It is the focal point walking both up and down from Heatherwood’s Perch.