Garden View – December’s Photo-Heart Connection

Tumacacori Garden Wall

Tumacacori Garden Wall © 2012 Bo Mackison

Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love. ~ Rumi

As I looked through the photographs I took in December in preparation for posting for the monthly photo practice, the  Photo-Heart Connection, I found a huge variety of photos. Part of the month I lived in southern Arizona and part of the month I lived in Wisconsin.

Throughout the month there were Holiday preparations and celebrations, opportunities for photos focusing on family and friends. The week before Christmas a blizzard slammed Madison, prompting a two-day snow holiday while we waited for the plows to clear a path through almost two feet of snow, and turning the city into a white wonderland. I had a lot of snow photos.

It was a telling selection when I passed by the winter scenes and gravitated to the photographs from the desert and arid regions of Arizona. I loved visiting with my family and celebrating Christmas in Wisconsin.

But I realized — I left my heart in Arizona.

 

This photo is my choice for this month’s Photo Heart Connection. I join other photographers at Kat Eye Studio and post a photo taken during the prior month that “connects with my heart” as a monthly photography practice.

I also wrote a guest blog on Kat’s site, A Year of Photo-Heart Connections, which summarizes the lessons I’ve learned while doing this photography practice.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.

Soft Winter Revelry

Winter Twin Trees

Winter Revelry © 2013 Bo Mackison

“Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut

How quiet the world was this morning, early on the first day of this New Year 2013. Even in its winter dress, winter white, and cloaked in frigid air, the light was transparent. I took a deep breath and inhaled iciness into my lungs. Sherpa and I stopped at a small cafe for breakfast. Our conversation wandered into our plans for 2013, our goals, our dreams.

We laughed at what has become our traditional ushering in of the New Year – a fire in the fireplace, a few lit candles, a Jack Johnson station on Pandora, a few (still awkward) attempts at dancing, a lot of silliness, a lot of holding hands, a lot of love.

Minutes before midnight, we poured our favorite celebratory wine — Angelique from Stone’s Throw Winery in Door County. Then we queued two versions of Auld Land Syne on YouTube, first James Taylor’s version, quiet and calming, dating from our newlywed days. Second, we listened to Norwegian Sissel Kyrkjebø’s soprano version, her notes, strong, bright, dancing in the air.

As the clock struck midnight, we toasted – “Happiness and Health in the New Year”.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Since the temps are hovering around zero, I photographed winter with my iPhone or iPad, and used the Snapseed App for processing. In cool tones. Fitting.

Backyard Blizzard

Blizzard 2012

Backyard Blizzard © 2012 Bo Mackison

Madison hasn’t had much snow these past two months, but we appear to be making it up in hasty fashion. A winter’s storm/blizzard/thundersnow is in full blast and I am appreciative of the beautiful white coating on the natural world.We’ve got eight inches on the ground, maybe another eight inches more to fall.

I am appreciative of the moisture from the heavens that is now upon the earth, soon to melt into the earth and increase our low water table.

I am appreciative of my warm home, a furnace that is kicking on and off with regularity, the bowl of beef barley soup I just ate for lunch, warm clothes, warm and cozy everything.

Blizzard 2012

Snow Laden Pine Trees © 2012 Bo Mackison

I am appreciative that the airlines have cancelled all the flights from New York City to my part of the Midwest due to extremely bad weather and flight conditions, and that the safety of all passengers and crew completely outweighs the fact that my two daughters are in New York City as I write. One had a flight to Madison today, the other has a flight tomorrow morning. The planned Christmas with all of my children is now unlikely.

Still, the snow is lovely to behold. Blustery, but beautiful. And we are all safe and healthy.

I’m thinking that I haven’t created a snow angel in several decades, and maybe today is the day to resurrect that fun, somewhat cold, experience. Hmm…

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is spending the holidays in Madison, and watching the weather reports in Tucson and New York City.

 

December Sunrise

Sunrise in December

The Sun Rises ©2012 Bo Mackison

“You don’t need somebody to interpret for you what a beautiful sunrise it is.” ~ Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

Owen Park Gate at Sunrise

Owen Park Fence at Sunrise

What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?
E. M. Forster

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Winter clouds, snow and the sunrise – a combination worth getting up early to capture.

Gates to the Orchard

Vintage Orchard at Tumacacori

Vintage Orchard at Tumacacori @2012 Bo Mackison

A man does not plant a tree for himself, he plants it for posterity. ~ Alexander Smith

In 2004, Tumacácori National Historical Park acquired adjacent property to the park, including  the original 5-acre mission orchard and a portion of agricultural area, and their goal was to replant the Spanish Mission Era orchard and garden.

They decided to use fruit tree stocks (cultivars) traced to those introduced to that area in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by the Jesuits and those introduced a century later by the Franciscans.

Mission Gate at Tumacacori National Historic Site

Mission Gate at Tumacacori National Historic Park ©2012 Bo Mackison

Though I can find no written information on this gate, the Park Ranger I spoke with said the gate had been newly erected. Built by a local metal works craftsman after much research, the gate is in the Mission style of the 18th century and thought to be similar to the original.

Gate to Vintage Orchard at Tumacacori National Historic Site

Gate to Vintage Orchard at Tumacacori and Beyond ©2012 Bo Mackison

“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.”  – Hermann Hesse, Wandering

The orchard can be seen beyond the vine-covered gate. It’s a lovely space, near the Santa Cruz River and the ten thousand foot forested mountains in the Coronado National Forest. On the far eastern edge of the historic site, there are a few benches for some quiet time in a pastoral setting.

After days of hiking in the more rugged canyons of the nearby deserts and mountains, I found the orchard a place filled with an orderliness with a purpose. It was a different kind of space, yes, but the perfect interlude and space for reflection and writing.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is grateful that there is a time and place for quiet meditation, sitting by an orchard in the shade of the mountains.