Kaseys Korner

garden tour photos

June is garden tour season, one of my favorite pastimes (besides the actual act of gardening itself).  If you have a willing body and spirit (& the leisure time to partake) there's a tour every weekend of the month.  It's my hope to participate in at least two this year.  Already I'm halfway to achieving that goal with the first one completed this past Saturday ~ a walking tour thru the gardens of a phenomenal historic district in a nearby town.  As always, it was extremely inspiring.  All the work I've been trying to do in my own back garden had left me feeling sore, tired & more than a little worn out but, after the tour, I came away feeling re-energized.  Mission accomplished, right?

So many things to share with you ~ I thought I'd just put my favorite photos out there.  A couple trends I noticed were (1) everybody is vegetable gardening now and (2) fireplaces are the new hot commodity.   I also learned that I CAN have a dogwood tree in Colorado ~ it is not the impossible feat I always thought it to be:

I did not take any macros on the tour with the exception of the dogwood above and the peony below:

I'm not even sure I captured the color accurately?  It was the most fantastic shade of salmon-peach-pink I've ever seen.  Simply exquisite.  I wish I knew the name ~ I would already have one on order.

The tour consisted of eight gardens which covered the gamut from English formal:

to blazing hot southwestern style:

I took my 75 - 300mm lens that day which I won't do next tour.  It frustrated me to no end since sometimes it didn't allow me to get far enough away to capture the whole view.  My mistake.  The photo above is a case in point.   Defying the heat on a sweltering southern-exposure wall were these gorgeous containers above a flagstone table top & two rustic chairs.  With the limitations of my camera lens, I had to snap the scene in sections, none of them doing it justice.  Below is another section showing a portion of the table & one chair:

The entire area was SO picturesque but maybe you'll have to take my word for it?

The advantage of a walking tour is what can be seen while heading from one featured garden to the next.  Along our route this blooming hardscape caught my eye ~ created when the homeowner planted campanula between the crevices of a stone retaining wall:

Very attractive way to "soften" the stone and a bonus to know it could flourish so nicely in such sparse growing conditions. 

I also noticed the fancy trellis below which I'd love to someday copy around the exterior of my own home:

Then there was a homemade greenhouse that seemed to be constructed primarily for the purpose of housing an enormous bougainvilla vine:

Sometimes you wished every garden along the way would be open for meandering.  There were just so many inviting ones.

Back to the tour, a lovely potting bench complete with sink:

A beautiful, private dining alcove:

I'm imagining many a leisurely summer meal has been ingested there.  The only thing missing (in my opinion but I like over-the-top) was a chandelier hanging from the pergola roof:

This garden was our favorite on the tour.  Everywhere you turned, there was another delightful vignette to photograph or enticing seating area to wish wistfully for a sojourn:

By the end of the day, I was ready to recline here:

Sun or not.  It was exhausting in the best possible way. 

We capped off the tour with some greenhouse shopping ~ the dreamy ending every gardener appreciates.

touch of fall

in the midst of summer ~ a floral creation I couldn't wait to assemble, inspired by a new (to me) website called Twigery:

 

I knew just the place to harvest the cattails too:

fields and fields of them surround the perimeter of a lake very near our home. 

A beautiful evening, with beautiful (coveted) light, in an exquisitely serene spot at the base of the Rocky Mountains:

It doesn't get much better than this...

Dusk descended softly after we harvested our cattails.  I turned the camera in the direction of our house and captured what I could.  

Least you think I live in the country (like the photo above eludes), one quarter turn to the left, reality hits:

If I didn't work from home, I wouldn't be opposed to working here (once construction is complete).  You can't beat the surroundings even tho it's sad the area has to be developed at all. 

Besides the cattails, there's an abundance of milkweed too:

 

I was happy to see so much but couldn't find one caterpillar or chewed leaf? 

All too soon, it was time to leave ~ a final parting photo before heading home:

On this night, in the midst of this spectacular scenery, I couldn't think of any where else I'd rather be. 

Be sure to remind me of that sentence come winter!

Creating photo displays

Yesterday morning I got up and discovered one of my kitchen cabinet hinges had broken during the night ~  the cabinet door was hanging by the bottom hinge.  It's the second time that's happened to one of my cabinet doors in this house.  Something I've never experienced in any other home.  Strangeness. 

Anyway, after taking my daughter to school, I headed to Lowes for replacement hinges and saw so much spring yumminess I could hardly focus on the purpose of my visit.  Bulbs in boxes for forcing (cool bulbs too like Scillia, Dahlias, Callas, etc.), awesome garden lanterns that I've never noticed them carrying before, bazillions of orchids and of course tons of seeds and all the starting stuff that goes along with them.  In a way I was glad my hinge broke ~ I hadn't planned a visit but now I'll be back to browse again. 

 

Scillia peruviana from Spring '09

After securing the hinge and rehanging my cabinet door, I got back to work on my latest project ~ a wall of photos.  I see tons of AMAZING photos on the blogs I read and I always wonder what the photographer does with them.  What do you do with your photos??  Something I've been wanting to do forever is frame and hang my favorites.  Finally, I'm doing it!! 

 

For this particular area, I'm using color photographs so I have to keep a consistent palette in mind but I am thinking I might replicate the idea with florals in black & white elsewhere.  What do you think?  Do you do this in your home?  What happens to all your beautiful photographs?  I'd love to hear.

Gardening by Letter

On the 4th, I promised you a look at my "Gardening by Letter" loot but unfortunately I was so busy meeting a deadline on the 5th that I didn't have time to do a proper post.  I decided to wait another day when I could do the contents of my package "justice!"  It was quite a package too ~ wait till you see.  You'll all wish you had signed up for Anna's project.  I hardly expected anything so lavish.  I always knew gardeners were generous people but you all really kicked it up some notches. 

There were books on assembling scarecrows (the pressure is on for this Fall!), seeds, coffee, cookies, and even slipper socks (see that little scrap of pink at the right edge of the photo?)

 

Beautiful handmade cards (which you know I appreciate), a lavender sachet that smells absolutely divine, a friend ornament, napkins, and the list goes on....

Fabulous needlepoint gifts (these are a labor of love & time ~ thank you), gorgeous soap ~ too beautiful to ever use, more napkins and lovely cards with the nicest messages written inside.  Still, I'm not done!  What did I ever do to deserve all this?

Have I mentioned seeds?  I received so many seeds there is no excuse to not have the most glorious garden come summer.  It's extra special that many are collected from your own gardens and are ones I've actually drooled over in pictures from your blogs!  I love the idea of turning your own photos into cards like the card on the left ~ done by Shutterfly.  Cool idea!  I even got a CD!  Besides being generous, gardeners are multi-talented!  I can't wait to take a listen.

Fancy butterfly stickers, more seeds (in my favorite, fabulous color ~ pink!  Yay!) postcards and photo cards.  Everything was just wonderful.  Thank you to every one who participated and extra special thanks to Anna, who organized the project.  Seriously, I was blown away by the contents (and large size of the package) when it arrived.  I've gone thru the envelopes time and time again, marveling at all the treasures inside them.  I'm trying so hard to keep everything together that came together so I can go around and personally thank you on your blogs.  I hope I haven't mixed anything up.

In case you don't know about the Gardening by Letter project, it was organized early last spring by Anna, of FlowerGardenGirl blog fame (who has now most ambitiously created a new phenomenal site called Decorate a Garden).  I believe there were 11 (or 12?) participants.  Each participant was assigned a month.  We mailed Anna cards for each month and she so graciously took on the task of mailing out the cards to that months recipient.  It was a big job for her to keep us all on task and tackle the shipping.  The project is finishing up now ~ Anna's turn is this month then it's officially wrapped up.  I have to say, it was a most delightful experience and introduced me to some new blogs I wasn't familiar with yet.  If you click on the "Gardening by Letter" category on my blog sidebar, you can see each of my contributions (except for Anna's which I haven't posted yet).

Now do you see why I couldn't post yesterday when I was pressed for time? 

Gardening by Letter project

Maybe you've noticed the pretty mailbox photo on my sidebar that reads "Gardening by Letter project??"  If you've clicked on it, you've also noticed some lame blog designer (moi) added no further information about what this means.  How frustrating, right?  Today I'm offering an explanation (if you aren't already familiar with it) and hopefully (with a kick in the rump) it'll be enough to motivate me into updating my sidebar.  Anna of the beautiful FlowerGardenGirl blog is the wonderful blogger who organized this project.  Each month the participants send a card to her and she in turn, mails the collection to that months designated recipient.  There are twelve of us signed up to participate so at your turn, you'll receive eleven cards.  My month is not until November.  I hope I can stand the wait!  I signed up to participate because I can almost make cards in my sleep and I thought it would be wonderful to receive mail from other gardeners.  I also thought maybe you'd like to see some of the cards I've created and contributed.  Hopefully that's okay to share?? 

 

The card above is the third card I made after which I decided to use my own photos on all further creations.  I thought that might make it a little more personal??

 

The poppy photo is one of my favorites so it was a lot of fun to create with.  The same with the iris photo included in the card below:

 

Now that it's on the screen, that card looks a little tipsy, doesn't it??  I promise it's not that way in real life!  Let's just say the photographer was in a hurry, shall we?  How about one more?? 

 

I haven't been so good at posting paper craft creations lately so this was a way for me to combine the garden with a few projects.  If Anna, or anyone else hosts another, please consider joining.  It's been so much fun to participate in and so kind of Anna to offer her time, energy and expense (mailing costs).  Thank you Anna, for everything!  You can bet I'll be waiting by the mailbox every day in November until I get my package.  :-)

a restless night

was had at Paper Posy Cottage, self-inflicted, the result of a careless act.  There is no one to blame but myself.  In the garden, last evening, taking photos, I got distracted by a phone call and set my camera down.  During the conversation, it started raining so I moved inside, still talking, forgetting the camera.  Two hours later, rain falling the whole time, I remembered it was outside.  At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I really believe my heart stopped beating for a second.  I know a pit instantly formed in my stomach and I literally felt sick.  My expensive 100mm macro lens is what adorned the camera body, wouldn't you know?  I spent over an hour drying every part of the body & lens I could, by hand & with my hair dryer on the low heat setting.  At 1:00 AM, I finally went to bed but certainly not to sleep.  I wondered what the morning would bring.  Would my camera work?  I really did not want cannot purchase another right now. 

I am relieved to say, all is not lost.  I took the photo above at 6:30 AM.  I don't think it's quite as sharp as usual but I'm hoping (praying, pleading, etc.) as the camera continues to dry out, things will improve.  Is that wishful thinking?

Yet another photo from this morning.  Oh, how could I have been so careless?  My camera is like another appendage to me.  Such an integral part of my life, I can't imagine going even a few days without it.  I know I will continue to "test" it and question/compare the results with previous photos.  Is it performing as well as before or not?  Only time will tell....   For comparison purposes, here's a photo from the other day:

 

You tell me.  I can barely stand to look.

February thaw

Check out the interesting landscape shot I snapped yesterday while walking my dog:

The weather couldn't make up it's mind.  Cloudy one minute, sunny the next but definitely snowing over the Rocky Mountains.  See that line of clouds concealing their jagged peaks?  What was interesting is how those contrasts were reflected in the lake.  Around the edges, the water is open, but the middle is covered in ice yet.  The blue sky & cloud bank were reflected back in that open water, stopping where the ice begins and making for a very interesting picture.  Don't you think??

Freedom & Liberty

I can't believe how fast time flies.  I know that's a cliche but almost three months ago I had the privilege of photographing two beautiful Chow Chows for one of my friends.  It seems like two weeks ago.  How does that happen??  Freedom (a gorgeous butterscotch color) is a couple years old and came to them by way of a Rescue group.   The second Chow, Liberty, was still a puppy (maybe 16 wks old???) and she's the one who gave me the biggest challenge.  Not because she wouldn't follow direction, but because of her black coloring.  I have yet to master the trick to photographing black.....  With permission from the family, I thought I would share a couple photos from that shoot:

 

We all loved this series, with their images reflected in the water.  I'm not sure if this is the best photo, I am just sharing the few images I still have downloaded on my computer.  Next is a gorgeous side-view of Freedom:

 

Isn't he beautiful? (and just as nice as he can be too).  I know some people are wary about adopting from a rescue or shelter but with some patience and a lot of love, look what the reward is.  I hate to think how many abused animals never experience love, safety or security.  They get started on the wrong foot and it never goes right from thereon.  Freedom is such a lucky boy in that respect and my hat is off to them for working with him.  Okay, okay, moving on.  Let's give little Liberty her time in the spotlight too:

 

Isn't she the cutest?  She reminded me of a little black bear cub except her disposition couldn't be any sweeter.  As a photographer, I look at these pictures and think I didn't do her justice.  In so many of them she appeared to be a dark shape next Freedom, her black eyes and nose lost in the identical coloring of her coat.  Someday I'll figure out the trick and we'll repeat the shoot so that you can really shine little girl!  Such a fun experience on a beautiful fall afternoon.  I still can't believe it was three months ago tho!!!

proof positive

This past week I've spent a little time taking senior portraits for the daughter of a friend.  We had a lot of fun taking some chances and trying some different poses and I thank her for indulging me.  This one was just for fun and I'm only sharing because her face is turned away.  Today's digital world makes it easy to play with photos and get some fun results.  This one for example became instantly more dramatic and edgy just by taking it from color to black and white.  It looks like we had a wind machine on site and we sorta did ~ the mother nature variety!  Not the best time for a photo shoot, in the dead center of the day with the wind howling but we made the best of it.  Congrats MacKenzie on your new senior status! 

May Remembered

Sharing another layout from my garden scrapbook this morning.  This one created a year ago with a grouping of three favorite photos from the month.  All taken in my garden and all make an interesting comparision of what a different year 2008 has been.  This May, the burr oak is barely beginning to leaf out, I haven't seen a western tiger swallowtail yet and my centranthus ruber (Jupiter's Beard) is certainly not blooming.  Looking at the layout, I am happy I took the time to scrap it and for the information it provides.  Pictures, paper & decorative tidbits are my preferred way of documentation.  It's a little surprising to me that another May will have come and gone in seven more days.  I don't know how it slipped by so fast... I will spend some time this holiday weekend making sure I have the month recorded.  How will you preserve the memories of May 2008?