Hollyhock in Two Perspectives

Hollyhock in Two Perspectives

https://mocicc.org/agricultura/vl68xg79b2 Hollyhock in Two Perspectives © 2012 Bo Mackison

https://penielenv.com/xf7v60nozp1 What a gift of grace to be able to take the chaos from within and from it create some semblance of order. ~ Katherine Paterson

https://guelph-real-estate.ca/tnxa1p0 Every weekday I walk around Strickers Pond in the early morning, but I do not bring a camera. On the weekend, I walk the same path, camera in hand. Those two kinds of very different walking experiences give me two perspectives.

https://www.marineetstamp.com/erh7vb4bt0o I walk with a friend on weekdays and I don’t carry my camera. It would be too tempting to either constantly stop for photo ops, or to not stop and carry the feelings of what “might have been” along on our walk. Plus our plan is to walk at a speed designed to give our bodies a bit of a work-out. I have yet learned how to combine the two terms – brisk walk and taking photographs – successfully.

https://dcinematools.com/vw33vng I balance my photo urges on my weekday walks by bringing my camera along on my weekend walks with Sherpa. He is now an expert at the walking-with-camera-poised for-action routine, he barely notices my frequent, abrupt halts. In fact, he has become so good, he now calls my attention to scenes I miss, in case I want some photographs. (Sherpa does his serious walking at the gym where there are no interruptions of the spouse + camera variety.)

source I think the compromise is working well. Five days a week, I see the pond from the perspective of a moving body. On the weekend, I return and see the same pond from the view of a photographer – always on the look out for a soaring egret, a bit of interesting texture or shadow, a new wildflower that has opened for the first time this season.

Overnight Tramadol Visa Last Friday we passed a dozen hollyhock plants in bloom – whites, pinks, creams. My walking partner and I did pause to take in the deep colors, then we continued our walk.

see url And what was so special about seeing those blossoms? It wasn’t that they were a wonderful subject for a future photo session.

https://geolatinas.org/zp74yf4d No.

https://onlineconferenceformusictherapy.com/2025/02/22/28t98co It was listening to the memories that the flowers evoked. I listened as my friend told me about the hollyhocks her father grew in the gardens of her childhood, how a relative had shown her how to make a dolly from the flower – one blossom as the skirt and another as the doll’s bonnet. I remembered making the the same Hollyhock dollies with my great-grandmother.

source url It was a lovely experience, reminiscing about vintage gardens and old-fashioned flowers, about grandparents and parents who shared not only their love, but the love of their gardens. I couldn’t have taken that special conversation with my camera, but I will remember it.

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https://www.mreavoice.org/01s795bnj9 Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is enjoying the early morning walks in Wisconsin – camera with AND camera without.

A Sea of Mystery

Pink Starlight

click here Pink and Orange Mystery © 2012 Bo Mackison

go To create is to move into the unknown — to move into the mystery of yourself, to have feeling, to awaken buried perceptions, to be alive and free without worrying [what others think] about the results. ~ Michael Cassou

go site There is something about this garden plot of chives that brought forth my compulsion to change the humble purple orbs into a sea of pinks and oranges, waving blissfully with the tempo of the wind.

follow Chive flowers are such simply designed specimens of nature, and I take hundreds of photos of them.

Buying Tramadol Online Uk What is it about chives? Their fringed edges? Their clumpiness — all squeezed together as if they are holding each other up? Their willingness to hold quite still, even with the wind about? Their slightly unkempt look, a bit tussled, a un-posed, natural look?

Some of my favorite photographs are ones I’ve taken of chives and then adapted so that the photo shows how I first saw the flowery fields. One of my clients’ all time favorites is also a row of chives, highly desaturated in post processing. People fall in love with the mood, the vintage look, and most have no idea they are praising the beauty of chive flowers.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Yesterday, she played with her photographs and her computer all day. Bo thinks it a wonderful thing when she can refer to what she does as both work and play!

Falling Flowers

Falling Flowers

Falling Flowers © 2012 Bo Mackison

Find out where joy resides and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

A visit to the New York Botanical Gardens in New York City brought some unexpected sights. A leaf filled glass ceiling that dropped ropes of orange flowers,  a flowering fall.

Photograph taken inside a Victorian-style conservatory, the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Bo is recovering from her NYC trip, but she wanted to share one of her favorite sights seen on her trip.

Lilies in Monet’s Garden

Lilies in Refection Pool

Lilies in Monet’s Garden © 2012 Bo Mackison

It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly. ~ Claude Monet

The current exhibit at the New York Botanical Gardens is Monet’s Garden, located in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory on the grounds, truly a spectacular site for this themed exhibit.

NYBG’s website describes the exhibit as such — “Claude Monet was an avid gardener who once reflected that perhaps flowers were the reason he became a painter. This exhibition explores the legacy of his idyllic garden in Giverny, France, transforming the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory into a floral masterpiece of diverse plants, bold colors, and dramatic design . . . Monet’s most famous subjects, water lilies, many of them the varieties he grew, are featured in the Conservatory Courtyard Pools.”

The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory opened in 1902. This Victorian-style glasshouse is home to A World of Plant which is its permanent exhibit – a series of gardens that takes you on a tour of plants found around the world. After walking through the crowded Monet’s Garden exhibit – yes, our only chance to visit was on a Sunday afternoon! — we also walked through the permanent gardens.

I could have wandered through the many displays for days and days, but I only had a few hours, hours I was grateful for. Such an opportunity to fill the well of my senses –  fragrances, textures, colors. Ahhh.

I could not resist the challenge of taking photographs of a few of the lilies that are now in bloom in the courtyard pools. The reflection of the conservatory in the pools added an element of grandeur and a vintage look to the photographs of the water lilies.

The New York Botanical Gardens, including its many historical structures, is a National Historic Landmark.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She spent a glorious afternoon visiting and photographing the New York Botanical Gardens, and highly recommends a garden visit if you are in the New York area.

Living an “Enough” Life

Orchids

Orchids © 2012 Bo Mackison

To do the useful thing,
to say the courageous thing,
to contemplate the beautiful thing,
that is enough for any man’s life.
~ T.S. Eliot

Do you ever find a few words of a poem or a quotation that speaks loudly to you? When I read the above lines, I was impressed by the simplicity of the verse, by the truth of those few words, and how difficult it would be to live life by this recipe. The paradox – too simple and too difficult, so I stored the quote in my notebook and moved on.

But what is the benefit of writing down quotations that speak to you if you refuse to listen? I found the quote again yesterday when I was preparing for this post. Again, the few words and the big message fascinated me. And this time, instead of turning the page, I wrote the lines on an index card and stuck the card in my pocket. And whenever I became aware of the card, I pulled it out and re-read the words.

Although I will deny it, I am often a perfectionist. Especially when it comes to reading great words of wisdom, and then avoiding the message because  I say to myself  “too hard” and “impossible” and “I could never do that.” If I could not always do the useful thing, nor say the courageous thing, nor see the beauty in everything around me, then there was no reason to try.

After I had pulled the card out of my pocket a half-dozen times, pondering its message each time, shrugging away the message, and returning the card to my pocket, I had a new insight. Eliot did not write the word always in his words. There was no always or never, can or cannot, do or do not. I realized that there was a middle way.

What if my goal was to do one useful thing each day, say one courageous thing (even silently to myself counted) each day, and contemplated one beautiful thing each day? That would be a great beginning. And, most important, it would be something I could do, something I could commit to, and something I could easily evaluate. A brief check-in in my journal each night would take only moments, but would give me a way of tracking my commitment, my progress.

So I have added T.S. Eliot’s advice for living an “enough” life to my to-do list. I find having an easy to follow guide, and an awareness of a plan, makes it possible for me to achieve goals like this.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She contemplated the beautiful during the portrait session she did with these orchids, a gift she received from her daughter last Christmas.