“Emerging Serviceberry Bud”
Heatherwood Spring
As our early cherries start to bloom, the serviceberries start putting forth these funny-looking things. They soon will turn into sets of blossoms and leaves. In a few days, the emerging bud will unfurl as shown in the following image.
“Pink Flair Cherries”
Heatherwood Cherry Allee
Eight Pink Flair Cherries are enough to provide a border for Heatherwood’s Cherry Allee. The Pink Flairs break out in bloom shortly after the Akebono cherries in our spring garden. They, along with the yellow twig dogwoods planted between, frame our “Bright and Shiny” perennial bed. Spring is well on its way!
“Akebono Cherry”
Heatherwood Spring
Soon after the daffodils start to bloom, our Akebono cherry trees start to break out in blossoms. Heatherwood has several different types of flowering cherries. Some are early bloomers like the Akebono and some flower 3-4 weeks later. Throughout the garden we have 18 cherry trees. Most are single trees spaced out in different parts of the garden. Others are grouped together to form an allee.
“Daffodil Sea”
Heatherwood Spring
I am always trying to create an image that reflects what I see and feel when our sea of daffodils are in full bloom. This view is from the southeast corner of our property looking north to the surround hills and a couple of our neighbor’s homes. The daffodils are planted in a grove of crabapples. We still researching for a ground cover solution for the grove when the daffodils have expired.
As I walk around the daffodil bed and focus on the mass of blooms, I get a little dizzy. With a little help from my camera, my vision appears.
“Daffodil Dizziness”
“Daffodils and Meadow”
Heatherwood Spring
Where have I been? It has been over two weeks since my last post. A lot of things have been happening here at Heatherwood. I will try to catch up in my next several posts.
Our sea of daffodils have peaked and are starting to fade. They are still attractive at a distance but are starting to get a little tired and hanging their heads. The perennials in the meadow area are poking their new foliage above ground. Some of the grasses are starting to grow, while others are waiting for warmer weather. The red twig dogwoods in the background of the above image are just now starting to get their first leaves. Overall, it seems like we are 2-3 weeks behind a normal year.
“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.