Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life
Tina has invited us to post pictures from 2022 that we’ve not so far shared. I have so many to choose from, but I’ve picked some out that, for me, have an evocative sense of place. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Continue reading “Scenes and Curiosities from Mississippi, Mainly”
Some plants are more fun to photograph than others. Need I say more?
Greenwood Cemetery has one of the best collections of cemetery roses in America. While the roses are pruned, they are never watered other than by rain. I’m offering this celebration of Greenwood Cemetery’s roses largely without commentary so you can enjoy them in peace. Continue reading “Gallery of Roses in Greenwood Cemetery, Jackson, MS”
When wallpaper was the stuff people pasted and hung on walls, rather than the screen saver of a mobile phone or computer, I worked for a wallpaper company. We used the term ‘distressed textures’ to classify designs that did the role of a plain paper, but were more broken up and patchy. Some mimicked flaking plaster, rusted metal or grungy wood, others were abstract.
Designers took inspiration from all walks of life, and mood boards of patterned objects decorated the studio: inspiration for themed collections with titles such as Cairo and Great Plains.
I was reminded of those mood boards last month at the Ag Museum in Jackson, MS, where visual treats were everywhere, hidden in plain sight. Inspiration for Agricola, I imagined: a contemporary homage to farm implements. Continue reading “Finding Distressed Textures at an Agriculture Museum”
It’s standard practice to cut down living trees and make them into painted fences or decorated trinket boxes, but rare to leave a dead tree standing and turn it into sculpture. Continue reading “Keeping Fondren Funky: Tree Art by Bill Taylor”
My sweetheart was sorry to hear that his affable gardening friend Ralph Sowell of Jackson, Mississippi, had died and, because his printing company’s property was to be repurposed, his raised beds brimming with many dozens of award-winning daffodils and hybrid daylilies had to go.
It turned out that the garden needed to be emptied more quickly than expected, and unfortunately the daffodils were at the peak of bloom or just about to flower. Bulbs physically empty out when they produce flowers and need a few weeks of sunlight energy hitting the growing leaves to re-fatten for next season. The size and diversity of Ralph’s collection added an extra challenge. Continue reading “The Last Days of Ebullient Ralph Sowell’s Daffodil Collection”
We don’t have live oaks (Quercus virginiana, Southern live oak) in Lancashire, more’s the pity, as they are spectacular trees. Continue reading “Quercus virginiana: Southern Live Oak Cloaked in Ferns”
Susan Rushton 