Tag Archives: trees

Heatherwood Japanese Garden Stroll #21 – Conclusion

“View From the Perch”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Before settling down in the “Perch’s” Adirondack settee, our visitor takes a few moments to enjoy the scene that folds out below. From here, the stroller can view the Selah-Yakima gap, the rural Selah valley and rolling hills, and the Heatherwood landscape as a background to the Japanese garden stream and waterfalls. The dense cloud cover provides a contrast to the normally bright blue summer skies of the Yakima Valley. It is now time to sit down, relax, and enjoy a little peace with the rushing water and the song of birds providing nature’s wonderful music.

This posting is the conclusion for our stroller’s walk through Heatherwood’s Japanese Garden. There is much more to see and enjoy, but those will be left for a future stroll.

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Tracking Clouds … A Great Way to Pass the Time

“Lone Trees & Clouds”
The Palouse, Washington

I have many wonderful memories of my childhood growing up at the “Ranch.” Many times I spent what seemed like hours, laying on the lawn, gazing up at the clouds, watching them move across the sky changing shapes. Some things never change. On my recent trip to the Palouse, I saw these two trees out in the middle of endless hills of green fields. The bright blue sky was filled with puffy white clouds. I stopped and watched the clouds move across the sky casting shadows on the green hills. An hour went by like a flash as I watched and waited for the shadow patterns in the background to frame the tree while not shading the tree itself or the area in front of it. What a great way to spend a peaceful early afternoon in a beautiful part of our state.

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Stark Mystery

Neighbor’s Pasture
Heatherwood, Winter

Yesterday I awoke to the ground covered with about 6 inches of snow. A light fog covered the surrounding hills. Snow covered objects blended into the background. From the top of Heatherwood, I saw our neighbor’s trees mysteriously transparent on the hillside. It’s nice to live in the country.

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A Wide Perspective

Limber Pine Cones and Waterfall
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Every time I walk through our garden I get a different perspective. This day, I chose to walk around with my camera and a wide-angle lens. I saw huge (8-inch) pine cones on one of our Limber Pines. With my wide-angle lens, I started searching for something interesting to complement the cones. Moving around the tree, our pond and waterfall appeared.

As I explore our garden I sometimes focus on details, sometimes on wide views, and sometimes on whatever catches my eye. Walking in the garden is always an adventure.

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A Different View

“Mary’s Perspective”
Yakima Area Arboretum, Washington

This image is Mary’s view for my previous post. She sees the world through “bright and shiny” lenses, hence the beautiful tones of aqua and yellow. The following is her perspective:

Extraordinary

Sometimes reality just doesn’t do it for me.
I want to see a world as I think it should be
and, maybe, not exactly as it is.

One of my favorite colors is teal or almost any
combination of blue and green.  Those colors conjure
both seawater and plants, some of the real necessities for life.

So why not make the tree leaves teal?
It’s true that they don’t usually come in that exact shade.  
I know that, but just once I want this tree to be how I want it to be.

Thank you for playing around with the color
and making blue/green leaves and warm, yellow light peeking through.
It’s a little thing and maybe a trick, but I think it is beautiful. 

For a few moments, this tree is just a little bit extraordinary. 

Mary Dahlin Graf

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The Oak Grove

“Looking Into the Oak Grove”
Yakima Arboretum, Washington

This image of oak trees in the Yakima Arboretum found me this spring before the Covid-19 restrictions. Luckily the Arboretum was allowed to remain open during this period. I was able to make several other visits to see the cherry tree bloom, the magnolia bloom, and the crabapple bloom. Several times I felt that I had the Arboretum to myself. It was a great time to just wander and let images come to me.

My walks through the Arboretum help me visualize what our little place in Selah could be in 15-20 years. This spring we planted five oak trees. We have spaced them out to create a grove where we will be able to watch them grow. It will take several years for them to be tall enough to support an understory of smaller trees and shrubs. In the meantime the grove will look bare, but I will be able to squint my eyes and imagine what it will be like when they mature.

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Crabapples, A Look to the Future

Crabapple Grove
Yakima Arboretum

The Yakima Area Arboretum has one of the largest and oldest crabapple collection in the country. In the Spring, the blossoms create a mass of whites, pinks, purples, and reds. The trees are all mature and the blossom display is gorgeous.

The Yakima Arboretum collection is the stimulus that has led me to try to develop a little crabapple grove as part of our home landscape. This Spring, we planted a small grouping of six crabapples, all different varieties. Being young, their spring bloom was just a harbinger of what will be in the next 10 years or so. Over the coming years I look forward to watching them grow and mature. I plan to gradually develop an understory that will pull the grove together and complement the individual trees.

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A Tree

“A Tree”

Walking into a narrow canyon in Capitol Reef National Park, I stopped and turned around to view the path I had taken. This tree was perfectly framed by the canyon walls and the cliff in the background. The shapes, colors, shadows and highlights created this image. All I had to do is place my tripod down and push the shutter. Nature is amazing.

My future bride wrote the following poem to describe how she felt when viewing the image

A Tree

Growth is everywhere, even underneath the layers
of rock where years of rain, wind, and river water color them
a bright reddish, with lines and splashes of experience.

The tree winds and tangles to the sun as if it wants
to be seen up where the air is clear and open, a place
it stretches to yet cannot see.

It is a ghost-like journey, this quest to become. The journey,
with its twists and branches, is the story that is not yet written,
not yet told.

Mary Dahlin

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Winter Trees

Roadside Near Prosser, WA

Bare branches against a winter sky always catch my eye. Last week I was driving along the Interstate when I saw an interesting pattern on the Horse Heaven Hills.  I took an exit to explore with my camera.  After a little walk, I looked up and saw these tree branches against the sky.  It gave me a cold, gloomy feeling.  I couldn’t resist the opportunity.

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