Showing posts with label My photo journal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My photo journal. Show all posts

My Photo Journal: To Rose (1)

Photo © FieldandGarden.com. Printable copy without a watermark here.
Above, you can find a lovely nature poem entitled "To Rose" by William T. Saward, originally published in 1897. You can download a printable copy of the poem as a 5.5" x 3" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.
I am also including an initial letter "R" that has been decorated with an illustration of rose hips. You can download the 3" x 5" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

My Photo Journal: October Lake at Twilight

O night, O sweetest time, though black of hue,
with peace you force all the restless work to end;
those who exalt you see and understand,
and he is sound of mind who honours you.
You cut the thread of tired thoughts, for so
you offer calm in your moist shade; you send
to this low sphere the dreams where we ascend
up to the highest, where I long to go.
Shadow of death that brings to quiet close
all miseries that plague the heart and soul,
for those in pain the last and best of cures;
you heal the flesh of its infirmities,
dry and our tears and shut away our toil,
and free the good from wrath and fretting cares.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, Complete Poems and Selected Letters

The hours I spend with you I look upon as sort of a perfumed garden,
a dim twilight, and a fountain singing to it.
You and you alone make me feel that I am alive.
Other men it is said have seen angels, but I have seen thee and thou art enough.
George Edward Moore

Soft, dusky twilight by the shores of Lake Ontario in October.
© FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Sunny Possibilities

Listen to the mustn'ts, child.
Listen to the don'ts.
Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles,
the won'ts.
Listen to the never haves,
then listen close to me...
Anything can happen, child.
Anything can be.
Shel Silverstein

The bright sunbeam-yellow Black-eyed Susan blooms have been a staple in every garden I've started in the last 20 years. Originally a native wildflower of North America, this perennial cultivar is easy to grow, drough tolerant and attracts pollinators galore!

I currently have two clumps of Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii 'Goldsturm' (originally just one clump but divided in its second year), and one stand of Rudbeckia hirta 'Prairie Sun' (outstandingly prolific this year) but am always on the hunt for more varieties as I expand my existing garden beds.

Photo © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: To Live (1)

To live is the rarest thing in the world.
Most people exist, that is all.
Oscar Wilde

I may not have gone where I intended to go,
but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

Finish each day and be done with it.
You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;
forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day.
You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit
to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Warm and sunny day down by the waterfront at Kiwanis Heydenshore Park in Whitby, Ontario. Heydenshore Pavilion (with the lighthouse a stone's throw away) is located within 15 acres of scenic parkland in Heydenshore Kiwanis Park. The park is on the shore of Lake Ontario adjacent to Whitby Shores Waterfront Trail, with a spectacular view of the lake from its open patio.

Starting in 2023, the historic Pump House on Whitby’s waterfront got a new lease on life when Town Brewery was awarded a five-year food and beverage pop-up licence to open the Waterfront Beer Garden. The restaurant is now closed for the season (re-opening May 2025) but the park remains busy with families that want to savour the still-mild October days.

© FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: My Sunset Sky

Clouds come floating into my life,
no longer to carry rain or usher storm,
but to add color to my sunset sky.
Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

Life is full of beauty. Notice it.
Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces.
Smell the rain, and feel the wind.
Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.
Ashley Smith

Burning red, outrageously orange, and moody purple sky at sunset over a nearby park.
Photo © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Happiness (1)

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns,
or rejoice because thorns have roses.
Alphonse Karr, A Tour Round My Garden

When life is not coming up roses
Look to the weeds
and find the beauty hidden within them.
L.F.Young

We all live with the objective of being happy;
our lives are all different and yet the same.
Anne Frank

Lightly textured pink rose with backlighting.
Photo © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Just a Little Early Autumn Stroll

Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness.
Pearl S. Buck

I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches;
and he to whom that is given need ask no more.
Henry Fielding

Two contented-looking ducks taking an early autumn stroll at the Ed Broadbent Waterfront Park in Oshawa, Ontario.

Photo © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Creative Commons Licence
Public domain poem is from my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

My Photo Journal: Blackberries from the Garden (1)

You have to wait for a fruit to ripe before you harvest.
You must also learn to wait for the fulfillment of your visions.
Lailah Gifty Akita, The Alphabets of Success: Passion Driven Life

It's that time of year when fat, juicy blackberries are ripe for plucking and eating! Are you eating yours fresh or making into pies and jam? If you love drawing out the season like me, here is a low-sugar, blackberry jam recipe from Practical Self Reliance that is perfect for putting on scones while drinking tea beside a roaring fire.

Photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Two Habitats (A Juxtaposition)

We forget, in a world completely transformed by man,
that what we’re looking at is not necessarily the environment wildlife prefer,
but the depleted remnant that wildlife is having to cope with:
what it has is not necessarily what it wants.
Isabella Tree, Wilding

We will spend billions making inhospitable distant planets habitable.
And yet we spend trillions destroying the abundant ingredients for life on our home planet.
Freequill

A photo taken many years ago showing two different types of dwellings that we stumbled upon as we were wandering in the area around the Music Gardens in downtown Toronto, a small park fronting on its ineer harbour. I am not sure if the magnificent bird house is still there but it would be lovely if it was!

Photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Love (1)

We loved with a love that was more than love.
Edgar Allan Poe

You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep
because reality is finally better than your dreams.
Dr. Seuss

As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep:
slowly, and then all at once.
John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Flower photo showing a back-lit pink rose in three-quarter profile. Photo without words or watermark is available as a high-res 12" x 12" @ 300 ppi download here for advertising, editorials and graphic/web design. Image is not for re-sale "as-is.".

Photo © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Sunlight (1)

Don't be ashamed to weep; 'tis right to grieve.
Tears are only water, and flowers, trees, and fruit cannot grow without water.
But there must be sunlight also.
A wounded heart will heal in time, and when it does,
the memory and love of our lost ones is sealed inside to comfort us.
Brian Jacques, Taggerung

Botanical photo showing three yellow echinacea (coneflowers). Possibly Sombrero Lemon Yellow. or Echinacea purpurea ‘Mellow Yellows’. Available as a high-res download here.

Photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Iridescent (1)

"Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss...."
He turned to me. "But every once in a while, you find someone who's iridescent,
and when you do, nothing will ever compare.”
Wendelin Van Draanen, Flipped

Flower photo featuring Lilium Lily Looks™ Tiny Padhye. These dwarf Asiatic lilies were developed in the Netherlands and were intended for containers. I have planted them in front of my rock garden where they are partially in shade. They seem to be doing quite well!

Photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Beautiful (1)

It's not my responsibility to be beautiful.
I'm not alive for that purpose.
My existence is not about how desirable you find me.
Warsan Shire

Flower photo featuring a light pink rose in summer sunlight. Available as a high-res download here.

Photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Come Into the Light

COMING FORTH INTO THE LIGHT

I was born the day
I thought:
What is?
What was?
And
What if?

I was transformed the day
My ego shattered,
And all the superficial, material
Things that mattered
To me before,
Suddenly ceased
To matter.

I really came into being
The day I no longer cared about
What the world thought of me,
Only on my thoughts for
Changing the world.
Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun

Park bench beside a meandering path at the Oshawa Valley Botanical Garden, surrounded by evergreen and deciduous trees in summertime.

Photo © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Maple in Sunlight and Shade

How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow?
I must have a dark side also If I am to be whole.
C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul

So don't be frightened, dear friend,
if a sadness confronts you larger than any you have ever known,
casting its shadow over all you do.
You must think that something is happening within you,
and remember that life has not forgotten you;
it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall.
Why would you want to exclude from your life any uneasiness,
any pain, any depression,
since you don't know what work they are accomplishing within you?
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

A mature maple tree (Acer) casting a shadow as the sun shines against its back.

Photo © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Linden Leaves in Sunlight

leave me a smile
just warm enough...
to spend a million
golden afternoons in.
Sanober Khan, Turquoise Silence

Happiness is not found in anything,
nor can it be achieved by any means;
It is a state of being your true self,
It is your very nature;
Happiness lies in self-knowledge.
Shiva Negi

Newly emerged foliage of the little-leaf linden (Tilia cordata) glowing in the spring sunlight.

Photo © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: White/Pink and Pink/Yellow Garden Peonies

Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty.
Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
Franz Kafka

Showy and fragrant Paeonia lactiflora 'Do Tell'. Heirloom variety, first exhibited in 1946. Vigorous bloomer.
We applaud in silent awe
at how something as simple
as the alignment of
water
trees
light
creates a masterpiece
every single day,
just by existing.
Heidi Barr, Cold Spring Hallelujah

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development,
invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.
Edgar Allan Poe

Still waiting to identify this variety. Possibly Paeonia lactiflora 'Bowl of Beauty' or 'Raspberry Sorbet'?

Photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Abstract Views of the Common Pepperweed

If you pursue happiness, you are an ordinary person.
If happiness pursues you, you are an extraordinary person.
Do not chase happiness; let it chase you.
Peter Deunov

Whereas the beautiful is limited, the sublime is limitless,
so that the mind in the presence of the sublime,
attempting to imagine what it cannot, has pain in the failure
but pleasure in contemplating the immensity of the attempt.
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason

Three abstract views of the common pepperweed (Lepidium densiflorum).

Photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Red-winged Blackbird in a Wildflower Meadow

FLOWERS AND WEEDS
by GEORGE COOPER
(originally published March 8, 1887)

HAVE you ever heard what the fairies say,
Little girl, little boy? Oh, hear and heed!
For each smile you wear on your face today
There's a flower grows; for each frown a weed.

So to make this world like a garden bright,
Little girl, little boy, keep frowns away.
Oh, the loving lips that can say tonight,
We have scattered flowers o'er the earth today!

The image above shows a red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) perched on top of a wildflower stalk (it looks like a goldenrod not yet in bloom).

These throwback photos were taken in 2012 on a walk through the DuPont Gordon Richards Park located near the waterfront in Whitby, Ontario. The park is a great place to spot many diffent types of birds and wildflowers, such as the strikingly pretty but incredibly invasive broad-leaved everlasting-pea or Lathyrus latifolius (below).
I hope you are enjoying beautiful weather where you are and wish you many hours of walking along happy trails filled with birdsong every step of your way.

Photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Creative Commons Licence
Public domain poem is from my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

My Photo Journal: Morning Light at Stone Street Park

These are the magic moments that you will remember on your deathbed.
The things that made life worth living. Your first love, the birth of your child,
achieving that lifelong dream, sharing great food and sights with friends and loved ones.
Richard Heart

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people
when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers,
and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit,
and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.
Black Elk

Throwback photo of a bare willow tree in morning light at Stone Street Park in Oshawa. Stone Street Park is a large park along the Oshawa segment of the 1400-km Great Lakes Waterfront Trail. The Oshawa portion of the Waterfront Trail runs along Lake Ontario for 15.5 km from the McLaughlin Bay Wildlife Reserve to Whitby Harbour. The ever-changing views along the water at Stone Street Park make it one of our favourite destinations to walk the dog.

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