Fostering a new renaissance through creativity, authenticity, spirituality, and art
We’ve enjoyed being part of what New Pond Farm here calls their “shared harvest” program. Other places call the same idea CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture.) We pay a yearly fee based on how much labor we are willing to contribute. Our twelve year old daughter enjoys working in these fields so much that she has … Read more
I went to Holbrook Farm for the last of the corn and what confronted me was dahlias. Oh my gosh! Enormous ones and variegated ones, they have them, with the tubers carefully dug up and stored from year to year. Mostly in this post you’ll see dahlias (the huge ones are called “dinner plate dahlias”) … Read more
I’m celebrating the colorful joys of the season! I’ve had a wonderful time recently meeting the owners of these flowers. First, I stopped on a bike ride to photograph moon flowers near a sidewalk. The house happened to be on the market and this accomplished gardener showed off her gardens to me, and took me … Read more
My two younger children fly in from northern Michigan today where they have been at camp for a month. Strangely enough, this set me to thinking about sunflowers, since the last time I was in the vicinity of their camp I photographed fields of sunflowers. I’ve searched out and resurrected those photos from northern Michigan … Read more
Can you tell I love bright colors? That’s why these are one of my favorite flowers… the saturated colors are so satisfying! Enjoy!
We are on a corner lot downtown in a small town. We’ve got more sun and fewer deer than most folks around here and our lot is more public as well. Put that together with my husband’s green arm (image of thumb is too small) and we’ve got a great yard for showcasing his talents. … Read more
We enjoyed the island architecture, the mortarless walls with sky showing through, and the glorious flowers! Enjoy…
I have wanted hydrangeas for a long time. This is the first year I have them blooming in our yard! They are right out my back door and I can see them from the kitchen and the side porch. We’ve had a monsoon season of literally rain daily for what seems like over a month, … Read more
I love peonies. My mother grew them and the first photograph below is one growing in our yard that used to be hers. I’m glad to have it. One of my fondest memories is yearly carrying her peonies to school – covered in ants and heavenly aroma – as a gifts to my teachers. We … Read more
The word rhododendron is my favorite choice for stumping someone at hangman on the back of a diner place mat. This practice dates back to childhood when this word would routinely win me the game Probe. We never had rhododendrons then or now, but my aunt in Michigan used to have an awesome one out … Read more
Irises are fascinating. Ninety-nine percent of these photographs were taken in our yard. My husband is a very good gardener and has received most of our irises as gifts. There are so many pictures of them because I find them endlessly interesting. Enjoy!
I love poppies. The audaciously flagrant color, the bristly buds, the stark markings, and the ten armed starfish shaped velour crown on the pregnant seed pod, all strike me as potent, voluptuous and thrilling. Enjoy this year’s photos of them taken just before an untimely rain curtailed prematurely the other stages of their glory…
I like color and azaleas really pack a punch. My husband lived in a brown house with brown decor when I met him. It was this humble plant that made him realize these hot jazzy colors were as “natural” as anything else. I mentally thank this plant for being the catalyst for this enlightenment every … Read more
The brilliant red rose against the white viburnum grabs the wandering eye. A cacophony of satisfying thunder it hasn’t rained yet. I am sorting piles – a deleterious heap of fragments bygone. My philosophy: to realize goodness and love one another. The leaf veins branch out a modest infrastructure for collecting food. by Polly Castor
The photo above is the flower arrangement I made of our lilacs last year for church. I show it because I cut them off the back of our bush as a dual pruning effort along with my flower arranging. And then this year we had not a single bloom off the back of our bush … Read more
I gave my husband these fancy double tulips for Father’s Day last year. We had never had them before. It has been really fun to have their color explosion in our yard. (A few pictures are of other people’s as well.) They have been one of the fascinations of this spring for me. I love … Read more
