Wordless Wednesdays: 12 Views of a Birch Tree

 

A Return to Jello Mold Farm

Jello mold with rabbit

While I was out driving in the country north of Seattle, I stopped by Jello Mold Farm to walk in the flower fields.  The beds are still awaking from winter dormancy.  A few more warm days, and this will be a totally different landscape.  Right now, the farm holds just the promise of blooms.

Here are some photos:

Bundled twine in readiness for planting

Forsythia

Yellow against gray — forsythia

Pussy willow and catkin

“I have a little pussy,
And her coat is silver gray;
She lives in a great wide meadow
And she never runs away.
She always is a pussy,
She’ll never be a cat
Because — she’s a pussy willow!
Now what do you think of that!
— author Unknown

Winter bed

Seed head

New buds

Old seed cases

Single dangling chestnut

Fallen chestnuts

Net over peony beds

Blossom

Last season’s hydrangea bed

Dried hydrangea

Wheelbarrows at rest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing Imaginatively: The Calligraphic Line in Nature

“To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature”

“My work has vitality because I have helped, done my part in revealing to others the living world about them, showing to them what their own unseeing eyes have missed . . . ”
Edward Weston, from Edward Weston: The Flame of Recognition edited by Nancy Newhall

“What is the spiritual life? . . . it’s often simply close observation of the things of this world with the imagination’s eye.”
— Adam Zagajewski, In Defense of Ardor

When I take the time to really look, I see such beautiful lines and patterns in nature.  I may not know the names of all of the plants and things I photograph, but I still appreciate their beauty!

New leaves cascade down thin calligraphic branches

Another budding bush

I like the lines of dark twigs which balance the roundness of the pale pink blossoms.

New leaves and catkins

New buds with Lomo-ish effect

 

Tree-Watching: White Birch Tree in February

Curling bark of white birch tree

This birch tree stands near the bus stop in my neighborhood.  I had occasion to spend some time with it as I was waiting for my bus to arrive.  It’s really a marvelous tree.

Birch buds in an alternating pattern down a twig

Birch catkins

These catkins look like three-toed bird claws

Sagging bark like old skin

Watercolor and ink sketch of birch buds and catkins