Photography – Page 11 – Gardens For Goldens

Time to Appreciate

There’s one major drawback to an all-volunteer organization: when you want to have a Volunteer Appreciation Picnic, everyone has to work harder so we can appreciate ourselves.

The annual event was held Sunday at Homeward Bound, which meant days of primping, weeding, cooking, and fussing to make the rescue look perfect and create a Thanksgiving-worthy feast. It was also the official Memorial Garden Dedication,

and the garden was dressed for the occasion.

Gina and Sarah did the flower arranging (with Hank’s help);

a bouquet for each table from each bed of the garden (some out-of-season Tulip and Iris representatives did sneak their way in).

The pups played nicely in the large park under the watchful eye of Pack Leader Laurie and a few other volunteers while their humans enjoyed a feast and some music.

In the garden, some critters were doing a little feasting of their own. These red and black beetles on the milkweed multiplied ten-fold while I was on vacation so they were dispensed with,

and Maria angered the wasps by spraying their very large nest at exactly the wrong time of day. They sought refuge at the base of St. Francis’ skirt, climbing over their poor comrades’ fallen bodies.

The lizard and crawdad were allowed to stay, however – much to Lilly’s delight!

Despite unseasonably warm temps, it was a wonderful day and a great way to show our appreciation for each other. Canines and humans alike.

Dogs of Klamath II

Back from our annual week of camping and fishing where the Redwoods tower…

and the Klamath River meets the Pacific Ocean.

This was predicted to be a record run year, and it did not disappoint. They were literally lined up shoulder to shoulder casting off both sides of the bank…

landing 30-pounders with rod and reel.

But me? My eyes were on the dogs of Klamath of course. Ocean dogs, river dogs, and prissy camping dogs…but not a Golden in sight!

Today is a Gift

“The flower that you hold in your hands was born today and already it is as old as you are.” ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwi

I don’t know where the summer went; the time passed so quickly. We leave soon for our annual Labor Day camping trip – a week on the ocean and river where the salmon run. It seems like summer arrived just yesterday and it’s gone in the blink of an eye – or the life of a flower.

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.”~ A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

We paid our dues early this year. Having survived two straight weeks of 110 degrees in June, we have been treated to much milder temps all through August. The garden is showing its gratitude now.

And so are the pups. This is Lukey.

Handsome Shane.

Sweet blind boy Brutus.

And hug-a-boo Mickey.

With a light breeze blowing, our golden oldies were treated to a group play date in the large park. So many beautiful sugar faces.

Little beasties, meanwhile, were having their own party in the Butterfly Garden.

Ocean camping is heaven, but its hard to compete with this bliss.

“For there you have been and there you will long to return.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

Orange

Orange is a warm and happy color – more intense than Yellow and less aggressive than Red.

In color meanings, it is positively associated with gregarious, exuberant, youthful, adventurous, and creative.

A little Orange energizes. Too much orange can feel overly flamboyant, loud and crass.

Orange in nature is associated with heat, fire, sunsets and sunrises, and of course, autumn.

In crystals, Orange is a power and healing color. It stimulates appetite as well as enthusiasm and creativity.

To Native Americans, Orange represents learning or kinship. In Eastern philosophy, the Orange Chakra is in the abdomen and the creative center.

It was also the source of ridiculous jokes as in “Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?”

Orange in the garden is sometimes criticized as too bright and garish – not tasteful. But I think orange brings life to a garden. I use it at home to create tropical heat or add brilliance to an otherwise dark space.

We use spots of it in the Memorial Garden to add warmth while accentuating other colors.

From deep, near-red burnt Oranges,

to the more fragile Salmons and Apricots…

you’ll find every shade of “Orange” in the Homeward Bound Memorial Garden.

Orange you glad you stopped by?

First Hint of Fall

Every year I prepare for our annual ocean camping trip over Labor Day weekend. It’s how I know that Fall is near. The Memorial Garden seems to sense it too…earlier this year.

The Obedient Plant in Ina’s Cottage Garden is making an appearance.

Maria’s Sunflowers are showcasing shades of gold and red.

The grapes are sun-kissed ripe and wonderfully sweet,

and the Sedum has flowered.

The tiny drifts planted last spring have sprouted a new fountain…and its guest.

And the Amaranthus, started from seed, is spreading like deep red pearls throughout the Perennial bed.

Even Sequoia is dressed in fall colors. This sweet girl was surrendered by a family that loved her dearly, but happened to live in a grove of Eucalyptus trees that she is horribly allergic to. No amount of medication could help, so they entrusted her to us to help her recover and find her a home where she is pain (and itch) free.

I’m not sure that I am ready to say good-bye to summer – although I am very ready to leave the stifling hot valley for a week of ocean air, cold nights and campfires.

The garden – well it does what it will in its own time – ready of not.

Wordless Wednesday: Yum

Wordless Wednesday: Flutter, Flitter, Flap

Healing hearts

“The human heart has a way of making itself large again even after it’s been broken into a million pieces.” ― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

There is no right or wrong way to heal from loss.
Some people need time and retreat. Others find comfort among others.
Sometimes, the best thing for heartache is to open your heart to another.

Human loss and canine loss may not be the same thing, but canines have a way of healing a human heart. And when the canine is also in need of healing – the bond is more special still.

Fancy came to Homeward Bound from another rescue because the cancer inside her was malignant and they knew we could and would help at Homeward Bound. It was removed, but it will return. When? We don’t know. And to Chuck, it doesn’t matter.

Some flowers are perennial –

they come back season after season.

Others, have but one season –

and some – just one day.

Their beauty fills us equally – maybe even more so when we know our time with them is short.

A flower no more knows how long it has to bloom that we do. Ignorance is bliss. But humans who purposefully open their hearts to animals knowing their seasons are short have a special place on this earth and beyond.

“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” ~ Thomas Campbell

Chuck says that Fancy will be treated like a queen. A queen doing an angel’s work here on earth.

Purple: Royalty in the Garden

The color purple is associated with royalty, nobility, luxury, and power.

Purple also represents meanings of wealth, extravagance, creativity, wisdom, dignity, grandeur, devotion, peace, pride, mystery, independence, and magic.

The color purple is a rare occurring color in nature and as a result is often seen as having sacred meaning.

Purple, unlike violet, is not one of the colors of the visible spectrum. It is called a non-spectral color. It exists in culture and art, but not, in the same way that violet does, in optics. It is a combination of two primary colors. Purple combines the calm stability of blue and the fierce energy of red.

Because the purple color is created by combining a strong warm with a strong cool color, the color retains both warm and cool properties.

On one hand, the color purple can boost imagination and creativity, on the other, too much purple can cause moodiness.

Purple is said to be associated with spirituality, the sacred, higher self, passion, third eye, fulfillment, and vitality.

It is said to uplift spirits, calm the mind and nerves, create feelings of spirituality, increase sensitivity, and encourage imagination and creativity.

The color purple and its lighter lavender shades introduce romance to nature; think lavender, orchid, lilac, and violet flowers. Lavender suggests uniqueness, while purple invokes mystery.

Purple is considered a cool color in landscape design. Its appearance has a calming effect in a garden.

Purple plants visually recede in a garden, helping to make a small space feel larger.

Purple was one of the first colors used in prehistoric art. The artists of Pech Merle cave other Neolithic sites in France used sticks of manganese and hematite powder to draw and paint animals and the outlines of their own hands on the walls of their caves.

Its complimentary color is yellow.

Forever is composed of nows

Gardening requires a leap of faith. You prepare the soil, plant the seed, tuber or bulb, protect and wait. There are no guarantees about weather, water or rabbits for that matter. Loss is inevitable; an accepted exchange for the joy and beauty we are blessed with.

“Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour.”
~ Walt Whitman

The Sunflowers and Dahlias are late and smaller this year;

the Campanula did not even show; the Salvia and Rudbeckia, on the other hand, are prolific.

There’s no point in worrying about what might be – we just enjoy what is.

I met a woman in the garden on Saturday. She was visiting with Ned and contemplating adoption.

Clearly in love, she saw huggable in pudgy; enthusiasm in wilfulness.

But she worried a little about his age of eight. We hear this a lot. People think they need a young dog despite bonding with an older dog because they believe a youngster comes with a guarantee of time.

Just like the garden – there are no guarantees.

Loving an older dog requires a certain leap of faith, I guess. But there is no promise that we have longer with a young one. Life happens. Fourteen years; four years. We don’t know. What we know is that the connection is right when we look in a dog’s eyes and understand what is in their heart.

“Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has yet to come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering”
~ Ida Scott Taylor

We work to make each season of the garden beautiful and memorable – no matter what mother nature hands us.

The woman was told that we opened at noon on Sunday if she wanted to return. She was there by nine. By noon, she and Ned were gone together.

“Forever is composed of nows.” ~ Emily Dickinson

Wordless Wednesday: Bowed

A study in yellow

In color psychology, yellow is supposed to be uplifting, illuminating – full of hope, happiness and cheer.

It is said to inspire original thought.

It is a color of the left or logical side of the brain; a practical thinker/creator, not a dreamer.
It does this by creating enthusiasm; awakening confidence and optimism.

“There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun.” ~ Pablo Picasso

Within the meaning of colors, yellow is the great communicator; it practically demands that you look at it. It is the most visible of colors in the spectrum.

It depends on itself, preferring to not get emotionally involved. It is a color of the head, not the heart.

Yellow can make people anxious and babies cry. A little goes a long way.

I was never much of a fan of yellow. My garden beds were always a study in pinks, blues, purples, greens and the occasional orange. But this garden has changed my mind. Yellow brings spots of energy and light to the garden; it adds warmth and depth at the same time.