Tag Archives: Heatherwood

Heatherwood Fall Colors #3

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Liquidamber Styraciflua ‘Worplesdon’ (Sweet Gum)
Heatherwood Fall

A pair of liquidambers frame the entry area to Heatherwood. I planted them three years ago, before we added the other entryway planting areas and replaced the flowering plum trees with Green Vase Zelkovas. I am attracted to them because of their prominent upright shape, their brilliant fall color, and their “spikey” fruit.

I first planted three liquidambars in our Woodinville, WA garden 25 years ago. I did not have much luck. The first winter after I planted them, we had a very wet snow storm followed by a freeze. The trees still had their leaves and the weight of the snow and ice bent them over to the ground. While we lived there, they never regained their form. Our first year in Fountainville, PA we planted a row of five liquidambers along the road in our front yard. They became the star of our front yard landscape. So when I moved back to Selah, I had to add a pair to a prominent place in our landscape.

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Heatherwood Fall Colors #2

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Oak Leaf Hydrangea
Heatherwood Fall

Oak Leaf Hydrangeas are my favorites with their four season interest. In the spring, their dark green leafs unfurl. Summer brings out their beautiful conical flowers. Brilliant fall colors surround the faded brown blossoms in the autumn. In the winter most of the leaves drop leaving their exfoliating cinnamon-brown bark and their brown flower heads. A light dusting of snow highlights their beauty.

Heatherwood displays several Oak Leaf Hydrangeas throughout the garden, including a few in the Oak Grove.

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Heatherwood Fall Colors #1

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Oribe Japanese Lantern
Heatherwood Fall

The Oribe guide post lantern leads one to a quite place dedicated to a tea ceremony. The form was created by Lord Furuta Oribe (1544-1615). Lord Oribe was a famous tea master who practiced the Sukiya way of life. In our Heatherwood Japanese garden, the Oribe marks a wash basin for one to wash their hands prior to a tea ceremony. At this point, Heatherwood deviates from a traditional Japanese garden. Instead of a tea house, we have a lounging area with Adirondack chairs were we frequently have a glass of wine instead of a cup of tea.

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Harbinger of a Beautiful Day

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Cherry Tree Silhouette Against Early Morning Sunrise
Heatherwood Fall

As I watched the sun rising, the cloudy sky turned a brilliant yellow orange. I just knew it was going to be a crisp beautiful autumn day. As soon as it got light enough, I grabbed my camera and went out to try to capture a feeling of the changing colors in our Heatherwood garden. I will follow up with some of the color I witnessed in my next several posts.

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Early Morning Sunrise

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Sunrise on Southern Ridge
Heatherwood

As the sun rises over the eastern hills, these lenticular clouds lit up like they were on fire. A glorious fall day was on its way.

I saw the sun rising to the east as these clouds were moving in from the west. I quickly grabbed my camera with a long telephoto then stood and waited until the clouds moved over the trees on the southern hill crest. A few seconds later the clouds broke up and the sun rose above the western hills. The moment was gone.

It pays to have a camera with the right lens ready when the moment arises. I typically have 3 cameras with different lenses ready most of the time.

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A Little Brightness for the Day

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Yellow Rose
Heatherwood Rose Garden

Our rose garden is still full of color. However, most of the blooms are past their prime and are a little tattered. It is hard to find a full crisp fresh rose without a few defects in the petals. So with my macros, my focus is on color, shape, and lines. I am continuing to work with creating “softness” with some of my rose images. I combined two images, one in focus, and one out of focus and blended them together to achieve the above result.

So here’s a little brightness for your day! There is always something in the world to celebrate.

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Soft

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“Soft Beauty”
Heatherwood Rose Garden

As I was photographing in our rose garden, I came across these two roses snuggled together. I remember thinking, “How soft and peaceful.” In post processing I tried to enhance that feeling.

There are so many interesting things to focus on in our Heatherwood garden. I have a difficult time really working a specific image since there are so many other distractions all around me. I tend to hop from one flower to another flower, vignette, or view constantly. When doing so, I tend to fall into a “photo-snapping” mentality and loose my contemplative creativity. I really need to work on this.

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Blue Skies and Green Grass

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“Future SW View Area”
Heatherwood

After 3 weeks of smoke-filled skies and hazardous air quality warnings, blue skies finally emerged. The local and other western state wild fires had filled our little place of peace with a heavy layer of smoke. It was hard to spend much time outside without a burning sensation in my lungs. Finally a strong breeze pushed the smoke out of †he valley. It felt so good to walk around our garden and breath fresh clean air.

The point where this image is taken is the future site of a small outdoor room/sitting area from which we can hide and enjoy a peaceful view of our garden, house, and ridge above. The lawn area will be closed in with shrubs and small trees providing a private shady area for a cozy bench. It will be a peaceful area to take an afternoon break in the shade and enjoy the scene above. Planning for the future keeps my imagination going.

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Hmmmmm

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“Hummingbird and Bee Balm”
Heatherwood Meadow

One of my favorite memories of our garden in Eastern Pennsylvania was watching hummingbirds flicker from bloom to bloom in our patch of red bee balm (Monarda). Having a grouping of bee balm in our Eastern Washington Heatherwood perennial meadow was a priority. We planted about 6 plants and sure enough, bees and hummingbirds flocked to sample the sweet nectar.

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What I Am Trying to Achieve (Continued)

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“Lower Waterfall in Early Morning Sun”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Continuing from my prior post, this image illustrates the design opportunities that we have to create my vision for the stream, waterfall, and pond. We have laid the foundation for the stream’s surrounding areas with a few conifer trees and shrubs. To compliment these, we need to add contrasting shapes and textures along with a lot of ground cover. I hope to achieve this with interesting evergreen and deciduous shrubs and a few more deciduous trees. I am looking also for fast-growing ground covers to keep the bark in place. When we have a strong wind, the surrounding bark is blown into the stream and pond, causing quite a mess and a lot of maintenance work. While adding framing plantings, we need to make sure that we allow “windows” for morning and afternoon sun to highlight the flowing waterfalls. Plant placement will be critical.

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