Garden Senses

Showy Garden

watch Showy Garden © 2012 Bo Mackison

follow url click Of all the ingredients we employ in the creation of a garden, scent is probably
the most potent and the least understood. Its effects can be either direct and
immediate, drowning our senses in a surge of sugary vapor, or they can
be subtle and delayed, slowly wafting into our consciousness, stirring our
emotions and coloring our thoughts. ~ Steven Lacy

follow site I lose my anxieties, my worries of the day, when I am strolling along the garden paths. Perhaps it is the full sensory experience – eyes feasting on a multitude of colors, drifting in and out of floral fragrances, accompanied by the rustling of the overhead leaves, the birds chattering, the flowers bobbing.

https://aaerj.org.br/2024/05/13/sfwuybv4gmo And even the senses that seem to be second tier senses in most experiences are available. An invitation is extended in the herb garden — pick a leaf, feel its texture, crush it and release the aromatics, awaken your sense of smell. Deep smell. Rich, luxurious, but ephemeral.

https://pkuatm.org/2024/05/13/210fyv5k The garden is a sensorium, it offers a full sensual experience. Ah, the pleasures.

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here Bo Mackison is a photographer of the seeded earth and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Ah, the gardens bring smiles to the faces of those who walk their paths…I’m smiling.

Walking Galena Illinois – A Sunday Series

Harleys on Main Street, Galena Illinois

https://annmorrislighting.com/v6xgxp16l Harleys on Main Street © 2012 Bo Mackison

here A motorcycle functions entirely in accordance with the laws of reason, and a study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself.  ~Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Desoto House Hotel, Main Street, Galena Illinois

https://thegreathighway.com/u4acwtg Desoto House Hotel © 2012 Bo Mackison

https://someawesomeminecraft.com/2024/05/13/wkuqmryz0 Galena’s DeSoto House is the oldest continually operating hotel in Illinois. It first opened its doors in 1855 and was six stories high, 250 rooms, and billed as the “largest hotel in the West.” Twenty five years later, following fires and economic downturns in Galena, the top two floors were removed to downsize the hotel more appropriate to its demand. ~ from Scenic Byways

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Steps Conquer Hillside, Main Street, Galena Illinois

https://www.jacobysaustin.com/2024/05/kclajhoi Steps Conquer Hillside © 2012 Bo Mackison

follow site Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.  ~ Lao Tzu

When we were walking in Galena, I kept seeing huge series of stairs, leading from one street to the next, to the next. Hundreds of steps. It reminded me of the run the town Of Bisbee, Arizona has each October — the 1,000 step race. Surely Galena has at least a thousand steps. How fun to have a similar race in northwestern Illinois.

Chalk Board Menues, Main Street, Galena Illinois

IChalk Board Menues © 2012 Bo Mackison

Mushroom soup, made in small batches with artichokes and sun dried tomatoes, followed by a heaping dish of bread pudding (baked with love) — the top two on my list of comfort foods, any day of the week. ~ Bo Mackison

Wrought Iron Staircase, Main Street, Galena Illinois

Wrought Iron Staircase © 2012 Bo Mackison

The red brick wall was the color of a red brick crayon. ~ Douglas Adams

Many of the houses in Galena are made of a familiar (to me) red brick – there are red brick buildings in most of the river towns up and down the Mississippi. Bricks were made from clay, fired in kilns, and then loaded on barges.

All the river cities had easy and cheap access to this building ingredient. I grew up in a red brick house, went to church in a mammoth red brick structure until its roof and interior burned in a midnight fire when I was 6 years old.

Red Fire Hydrant, Main Street, Galena Illinois

Red Fire Hydrant © 2012 Bo Mackison

Talking is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house. Opening the first takes the pressure off the second.

~ Robert Frost

Reflection of Buggy in Window, Galena Illinois

Reflection of Buggy © 2012 Bo Mackison

A city is the pulsating product of the human hand and mind, reflecting man’s history, his struggle for freedom, creativity, genius-and his selfishness and errors.” ~ Charles Abrams

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Galena is one of the most historically rich communities in Illinois. Nearly 85% of the buildings are in a National Register Historic District. It is also a hub for artists and craftspeople.

Reflections of Water Lilies

Reflections of Water Lilies

Reflections of Water Lilies © 2012 Bo Mackison

No one can see their reflection in running water. 
It is only in still water that we can see. ~ Taoist proverb https://grannysglasses.com/?p=1mnuvkukm

Garden walk. Garden pond. Lily pads. Resting frogs. Quiet waters. Wispy reflections. Tall stems. Lilies flowering. Slight breeze. Rippling pond. Dancing reflections.

 

August Break 2012

 

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 garden walks and the photos continue.


On the Mississippi

Barge Docked on the Mississippi

Barge and Tugboat Docked on the Mississippi © 2012 Bo Mackison

While the river of life glides along smoothly, it remains the same river; only the landscape on either bank seems to change. ~ Max Muller

I have traveled along the river roads running next to the Mississippi all of my life.

I was born in a river town in the middle Mississippi River region and I knew no other life except living near the river. My family home was less than a mile from the bluffs overlooking the river, and I spent many hours watching the river traffic. Yes, we watched the river traffic glide up and down the Mississippi for entertainment. (Obviously before the days of hand held electronic entertainment devices!)

Sundays were special occasions if there was fine weather, although rainy weather didn’t always deter us either. Those tugs pushed the barges no matter the weather. Only a frozen river stopped barge traffic. For Sunday-after-church-family-entertainment we would drive to Lock and Dam #21 (now on the National Register of Historic Places!) and watch the boats and barges navigate the locks. There was a small picnic area and for a real treat we would stop at the only fast food place in town, a Sandy’s drive-thru, a small town predecessor to the McDonald’s franchise.

Or I would walk the three blocks from my high school to the Riverside Park and wait for the barges to pass, tug boats maneuvering the long heavy storage containers through the narrow channel. I’d carry my art book and do quick pencil or charcoal sketches, or write in my journal. (Even as a high-schooler, my life revolved around my art and my writing.)

When I thought about the Mississippi River and its significance as a place in my life, I decided to explore more of the river. I have traveled the river extensively from Dubuque, Iowa to St. Louis, Missouri, and I know the Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri river towns quite well.

This past weekend I headed north on the Great River Road on the Upper Mississippi River. I traveled roads on both sides of the river –  in Wisconsin on the east banks and in Iowa and Minnesota on its western shores. There was so much to see and photograph. Sure I’ll be back for many more visits.

The photograph was taken in Winona, Minnesota, near the Minnesota Marine Art Museum. The museum was closed when I was there, but it looks like a fascinating place to visit. Another reason for a return visit.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is vaguely wondering how the Mississippi River as a subject will fit into the Seeded Earth theme.

Awakening the Senses – A Photo-Heart Connection

Tucson Reflections

Tucson Reflection © 2012 Bo Mackison

Happy are they who see beauty in modest places. ~ Camille Pissarro

Beauty in modest places? Yes.

I went for an early evening walk in downtown Tucson just before I left Arizona to return to the Midwest. I was in a strolling mood, noticing architecture instead of desert scenes, and enjoying the many sights, the people leaving their workplaces, but with no rush to get anywhere. Rushing isn’t such a great idea when the thermometer hovers near the century mark.

I found beauty in the deep color of a textured wall, a red-earth color so appealing, I had to stop and not only photograph it, but touch it. Run my hands along the roughness, the ridges. That red, to my Midwestern trained eyes, was a Red Rock color, one of those desert colors that sang songs of the Southwest to me.

And then there was the purple-gray of the wooden window sill. So purple, I wanted to inhale its purple-ness, a purple so perfectly etched in my past that it grabbed a memory from my youth and held on tight.  It was the purple-gray of grapes fully ripe, grapes hanging in the arbor in my grandmother’s back garden. It was the dusty purple of grapes waiting to be plucked from the vine.

As I studied the contrasting colors, the memories came visiting. I was in the arbor, picking grapes just like my grandmother picked grapes — a handful for the pail and one to pop in my mouth and savor. I looked at the window frame and imagined my grandmother’s presence in the reflection, picking grapes just a few steps from where I stood.

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When I went through my May photographs, I stopped as soon as I saw this photograph. The day I took this photo was etched in my mind. All of my senses were on alert that day, intent on remembering a city that I would soon be leaving. The touch of the red-rock walls. The song of the Southwest. The scent of ripened grapes on the vine and the taste of sweet juice. And a sense of connection with loved ones, long gone.

Photo. Heart. Connection. Oh, yes!

I’ve long understood that when I carry a camera, that mere act heightens my sense of seeing. And now I’ve come to realize that my camera and photography can offer me another gift – the awakening my other senses, too.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. During the first week of each month, she re-visits her photographs taken the previous month, searching for THE photograph to post as the photo-heart-connection photo. Bo is always quite thrilled when that special photograph finds her.