Naturalistic Bottle Trees by Stephanie Dwyer
Many bottle trees you’ll see – assuming you see bottle trees at all – are stiff. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but Southern folklore metal artist, Stephanie Dwyer, sets hers apart by making them sinuous and twisty, like real trees.
Her iconic bottle tree, part of a series inspired by Hurricane Katrina, channels lone trees all over the world, carved into art forms by the wind on some exposed ridge. It seems to grow out of the turf at the Sack Up Inn, and to nod with respect and resilience to its shadow. Continue reading “Naturalistic Bottle Trees by Stephanie Dwyer”
The Gardener
Vine leaves make this shot of a gardener tending his crops in a vegetable garden.
Magic And Water
Wonder is not only a thing of childhood, although that’s when everyday things seem most miraculous. The child has been waterproofed by adults, but it is the hand with the missing glove he attends to.
We sense the mystery as a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, but there’s a magic in the way some writers use language that we rarely attend to. Continue reading “Magic And Water”
Wordless Wednesday: Flower Bouquet
Tulips In Sunlight
These tulips were so bold and brilliant that I had to leap out of the car as I passed to try to capture them. Continue reading “Tulips In Sunlight”
In Praise of Bergenia (Elephant’s Ears)
I tend to be drawn to the palest pink or white bergenia cultivars, in preference to those with bolder colours, but this mid pink caught my eye last year at The Dorothy Clive Garden. The flower scapes were elegant; closely packed with flowers and I loved the subtle veining (or crinkle effect) on the petals.
As The Beth Chatto Gardens Blog once put it, bergenia is a plant underdog, often dismissed as untidy, uninteresting or both. Slugs and snails like them, so you can expect the leaves to show bite marks in an accolade to their tastiness. I like them too. Continue reading “In Praise of Bergenia (Elephant’s Ears)”
Susan Rushton 