A Pair of Water Lilies

Yellow Water Lilies

Yellow Water Lilies © 2012 Bo Mackison

Simple pleasures are the last refuge of the complex.  ~ Oscar Wilde

August Break 2012

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is taking an August break from writing long blog posts, but garden walks and the photos continue. Bo photographed these pond lilies at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison.

Garden Path

Garden Path

Garden Path © 2012 Bo Mackison

The path is always right beneath your feet. ~ Issan Dorsey

The path may not always be as beautiful as this garden path, lined with late summer blossoms, but it is always there. All we need to do is keep on, keeping on, one step and then the next. Never know what is going to appear around the next curve.

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 Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is taking an August break from writing long blog posts, but the photos continue. Bo photographed these flower beds while walking the paths at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin.

Pre-Occupied

Chair, Occupied by Flowers

Chair, Occupied by Flowers © 2012 Bo Mackison

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. ~  Thich Nhat Hanh

I saw this lovely chair in front of a shop window while walking on Main Street in Galena, Illinois. It’s not every day I find a chair already taken — by a swag of fragrant lavender!

August Break 2012

 

Bo Mackison is a photographer of the seeded earth and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is taking an August break from long written blog posts, but the photo walks and photo-blog continues.

Pelicans on the Mississippi River

American White Pelicans on the Upper Mississippi

American White Pelicans on the Mississippi River © 2012 Bo Mackison

 The soul has illusions as the bird has wings: it is supported by them. ~ Victor Hugo

This is the first year I have ever seen lotus flowers bloom across half the Mississippi River (in early July near Stoddard Wisconsin) and this past weekend I saw hundreds of American white pelicans brood in a protected area of the Mississippi near the Savanna, Illinois/Sabula, Iowa bridge. Amazing.

I have lived within a hundred miles of the Mississippi River most of my life. I have traveled the river roads from Dubuque, Iowa to St. Louis. Missouri hundreds of times. I’ve walked along the banks in dozens of Mississippi River towns, some only a few blocks in width, wedged on the available land between the river’s edge and the vertical bluffs. A  few of the larger cities crept up those limestone bluffs and then sprawled along the prairie lands – Dubuque, Minneapolis, Keokuk, Quincy, St. Louis are just a few I know well, the ones I have visited since childhood.

I’ve explored the Mississippi at its start in Minnesota, the beginnings of the river only a few steps wide. I’ve explored the Mississippi in Louisiana, boating through the bayous, walking along the Gulf Coast. My family and I took a cruise that left from New Orleans, heading to the Caribbean, and we rocked and rolled through the Mississippi Delta in the dark. Occasionally we’d see lighted platforms from the oil rigs, truly out in the middle of nowhere. Sitting at our dinner table on the cruise, we were mesmerized by the controlled sloshing of our drinks in the clear crystal glasses. The ship would tip towards the starboard, then tip towards the port, like a baby’s cradle, as it followed the channel. A bit disconcerting on our first evening on board. Our waiter told us they were trained to fill the glasses to different levels, dependent on how rough the river was running.

The Mississippi River is the longest river that begins and ends in the United States, if you consider the outpouring of her waters into the Mississippi Delta as part of the country. I never quite realized how attached I was to this river until I began exploring more of the river and the roads and towns that are near her shores.

Love this river in her many forms!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. This summer, she is taking weekend trips up and down the mighty Mississippi and documenting her short road trips with camera and pen.

 

Following the Garden Path

Watering Allen Centennial Gardens

Crooked Gardens © 2012 Bo Mackison

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.     ~ Henry David Thoreau

If ever I am in need of some spirit lifting, one of my first remedies is to find the nearest flower garden and follow a path or two. I seem unable to hold onto a bad mood or an angry thought or hurt feelings once I begin to wander from one flower bed to the next.

And for an even more delightful experience, one sure to make me smile and even laugh, I run through sprinklers and cool water drops while looking for the newest blossoms. There is nothing finer than to walk through a garden while being spattered with cool water from the twirling watering hoses – especially when it is 90˚ and there’s not a cloud in the sky.

These lovely gardens were photographed at the Allen Centennial Gardens on the University of Wisconsin’s campus in Madison. This summer the staff has added vertical tubes of color in all the flower bed, each tube’s color coordinates with the flowers and foliage. Fun!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She spends as much time as possible wandering in flowering gardens, usually with camera in hand.