Wordless Wednesday: After the Rain

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“They both listened silently to the water,

which to them was not just water,

but the voice of life, the voice of Being,

the voice of perpetual Becoming.”
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Hermann Hesse

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2019

Structure

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“Life on earth is a whole,

yet it expresses itself in unique time-bound bodies,

microscopic or visible,

plant or animal, extinct or living.

So there can be no one place to be.

There can be no one way to be,

no one way to practice, no one way to learn,

no one way to love, no one way to grow or to heal,

no one way to live, no one way to feel,

no one thing to know or be known.

The particulars count.”

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Jon Kabat-Zinn

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“Nothing is less real than realism.

Details are confusing.

It is only by selection, by elimination,

by emphasis,

that we get at the real meaning of things.”

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Georgia O’Keeffe

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“The basic structure of the universe

is balanced on a razor’s edge

for life to exist”

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Sunday Adelaja

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2017

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For the Daily Post’s

Weekly Photo Challenge:  Structure

Collage: Hibiscus

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Hibiscus flowers fill our garden each summer from July through September. 

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Rose of Sharon

Hibiscus Moscheutos

Rose of Sharon

Hibiscus Moscheutos

HIbiscus Moscheutos

Hibiscus Moscheutos

Rose of Sharon

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Tree Hibiscus, also known as Hibiscus syriacus or Rose of Sharon; were first planted by earlier gardeners on this site.  Now they reseed themselves all over our garden.  Deciduous, their lean frames catch winter’s snow,  and hold seed filled pods to sustain our birds all winter.

Both leaves and flowers open a little late, but the flowers keep coming into September.  Butterflies, every sort of bee, and hummingbirds feast on their nectar from early July until autumn.

Rose of Sharon flowers remain fairly small, only a couple of inches across.  Our other perennial Hibiscus sport huge, saucer sized blossoms.

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Native Hibiscus moscheutos, which grows wild in the marshes near us, grows rapidly once the weather warms in early summer.  Though its flowers are short lived, they keep coming over several weeks.  The dried seed pods linger into winter, when we finally cut back its woody stalks.

Beautiful swamp Hibiscus, Hibiscus coccineus, will soon burst into bloom in our garden, sporting scarlet flowers on towering woody stems.

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Hibiscus coccineus, another native Hibiscus, will bloom before the end of July. Its beautiful slender leaves gracefully clothe its tall stems. it will tower above the surrounding garden when it blooms.

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These showy, generous blossoms blend into a collage of color in our garden, animated by the many pollinators buzzing from one to the other, sustained by their sweet nectar.

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Woodland Gnome 2017

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For the Daily Post’s

Weekly Photo Challenge:  Collage

 

Sun Time

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The sun marks the hours as it passes across our garden.  Ever changing light illuminates a little at a time, leaving all else in shade and shadow. 

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Light dances through the leafy canopy of our forest garden, rays penetrating slowly, coaxing life to organize itself from seed and soil, water and air. 

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It is the fire which enlivens this living alchemy. 

It is the Aten, the first and the last each day;

the one who reveals and conceals. 

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Sunlight is time made visible.

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2017

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For the Daily Post’s

Weekly Photo Challenge:  Delta

“share a photograph that signifies transitions and change to you. …  explore the ways in which a single photograph can express time, while only showing us a small portion of any given moment.”

 

Wordless Wednesday: Water Lily

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“Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous,

the cheerful, the planners, the doers,

the successful people with their heads in the clouds

and their feet on the ground.

Let their spirit ignite a fire within you

to leave this world better

than when you found it…”

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Wilferd Peterson

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“Plant seeds of happiness, hope,

success, and love; it will all

come back to you in abundance.

This is the law of nature.”

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Steve Maraboli,

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2017

taken at Brent and Becky Heath’s display gardens in Gloucester, VA

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Wednesday Vignette: Peace

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“Peace begins with a smile..”
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Mother Teresa

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“Darkness cannot drive out darkness:

only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate:

only love can do that.”

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Martin Luther King Jr.

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“The day the power of love overrules the love of power,

the world will know peace.”

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Mahatma Gandhi

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“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness.

If you are attentive, you will see it. ”

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Thich Nhat Hanh,

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2017

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“The mind can go in a thousand directions,

but on this beautiful path,

I walk in peace.

With each step, the wind blows.

With each step, a flower blooms.”

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Thich Nhat Hanh

Wednesday Vignette: Vision

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“The truth.” Dumbledore sighed.

“It is a beautiful and terrible thing,

and should therefore be treated with great caution.”

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J.K. Rowling

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“I believe in everything until it’s disproved.

So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons.

It all exists, even if it’s in your mind.

Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares

aren’t as real as the here and now?”

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John Lennon

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“Facts do not cease to exist

because they are ignored.”

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Aldous Huxley

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“Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.”

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Pablo Picasso

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“In a time of deceit

telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

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George Orwell

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2017

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“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

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Oscar Wilde

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For the Daily Post’s

Weekly Photo Challenge:  Reflecting

Wednesday Vignette: Connected

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“Just as the wave cannot exist for itself,

but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean,

so must I never live my life for itself,

but always in the experience which is going on around me.”

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Albert Schweitzer

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“There is a deep interconnectedness of all life on earth,

from the tiniest organisms,

to the largest ecosystems,

and absolutely between each person.”

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Bryant McGill

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“When we know ourselves to be connected to all others,

acting compassionately is simply the natural thing to do. ”

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Rachel Naomi Remen

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2017

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“…the Ultimate Truth: nothing exists in the universe

that is separate from anything else.

Everything is intrinsically connected,

irrevocably interdependent,

interactive, interwoven into the fabric of all of life.”

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Neale Donald Walsch

 

 

 

Wednesday Vignette: Intricacies

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“Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind:

Study the science of art.

Study the art of science.

Develop your senses-

especially learn how to see.

Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

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Leonardo da Vinci

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“The artist is the confidant of nature,

flowers carry on dialogues with him

through the graceful bending of their stems

and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms.

Every flower has a cordial word

which nature directs towards him.”

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Auguste Rodin

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“All sciences are vain and full of errors

that are not born of Experience,

the mother of all Knowledge.”

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Leonardo da Vinci

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“Patience is also a form of action.”

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Auguste Rodin

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“While human ingenuity may devise

various inventions to the same ends,

it will never devise anything more beautiful,

nor more simple,

nor more to the purpose than nature does,

because in her inventions nothing is lacking

and nothing is superfluous.”

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Leonardo da Vinci

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“If you paint the leaf on a tree without using a model,

your imagination will only supply you with a few leaves;

but Nature offers you millions, all on the same tree.

No two leaves are exactly the same.

The artist who paints only what is in his mind

must very soon repeat himself.”

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Pierre-Auguste Renoir

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2017

of Mountain Laurel, Kalmia latifolia,

a  North American native shrub

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“Details make perfection,

and perfection is not a detail.”

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Leonardo da Vinci

Wednesday Vignette: Iris

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“Hope is a rainbow of thought.”

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Harley King

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“To find the rainbow and life’s incredible beauties,

learn to play with adversity.”

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Debasish Mridha

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“Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.”

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Maya Angelou

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“If it rains during sunshine,

don’t worry; you’ll see your rainbow.”

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Vikrmn

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“Pointing to another world

will never stop vice among us;

shedding light over this world can alone help us.”

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Walt Whitman

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“Love, I’m pretty sure, is light.”

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Jan Zwicky

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2017

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“Iris was the personification of the rainbow in Greek mythology, as well as messenger of the gods along with Hermes. She was also known as the goddess of the sea and the sky.  It was said that she traveled on the rainbow while carrying divine messages to the mortals.”

from Greekmythology.com

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