This humble little town is awash in a blaze of blossoms, I swear. And frankly I would be remiss if I did not capture their blessed imagery and share with you, as it won’t last. There are not one but two magnificent tulip trees, as the locals call them, out in front of the local courthouse, formally known as magnolia soulangiana. Don’t you just love it? I see the words “soul” and something with an etymology similar to “angel” in there and it’s not a stretch to sit or stand beneath these breathtakingly beautiful trees and ponder a Soul Angel, let me tell you. I nearly took a ladder down there to really get myself inside their faces, but it escaped me and I accepted that this was, indeed, the human view of a tulip tree. I’m not a bird. And there is nothing shabby about looking from the bottom side up. Not at all. What a blessing.
Meanwhile, back at home, this quince bush is outshining everything else in the garden at the moment, like some mystical burning bush of glory brightening the far back corner. It devours balls tossed for the doggies, so they are forever sorting through the thorny branches to retrieve them, fortunately none the worse for wear.
If you have not been thoroughly saturated with color, take a gander at these camelias who have now joined the ranks of the ones I shot last week:
A closer look:
Can you imagine what it’s like around here at the moment? It’s affecting everyone who lives here. You can feel it. We are soaking it up like hungry piglets, reveling in it, engaged in a visual feast of vibrant color and exquisitely delicate shape and form.
Moving among all these flowers this week I kept thinking about what Eckhart Tolle talked about at the beginning of The New Earth, especially as I did listen to his first workshop with Oprah. [There are 500,000 folks participating from 139 countries simultaneously!! It is not too late to sign up. Just go to oprah.com and register. It’s free and it’s amazing, and you can watch the one you missed.] Eckhart suggests we go into nature and totally and conscientiously reframe from naming anything. Forget the names. Just be with what you find around you. Oprah, a true urbanite at this stage of her life (wouldn’t you think?) told him she tried it out. She said she loves trees, particularly the oak trees on her property in California. So heeding his suggestion, she went out onto her property and made a point not to name anything around her, but to simply be with what was around her, and that, indeed, she felt an internal shift, an energizing she had never experienced before. Honestly, as a Pisces I think I’m already less inclined to name plants I’m communing with. But I can see how naming begins the process of separation. (And you can extrapolate ad infinitum on this one.) Just something to think about next time you are out in your gardens. A little experiment. Please let me know if anything interesting shows up for you…
Born with the moon in Cancer
Choose her a name she will answer to
Call her green and the winters cannot fade her
Call her green for the children who have made her
Little green, be a gypsy dancerJust a little green
Like the color when the spring is born
There’ll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow
(Did you click on Joni??? :))
‘Till soon…
Blessings,
Kathryn
Posted on March 8th, 2008 by Kathryn
Filed under: Plants
Beautiful!!! Exquisite photos! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Antonia, for visiting! xoxo
Beautiful photos! I like the idea of not naming. It would save me some consternation, as there are many times a plant name escapes me!
All those blooms are gorgeous, but I have to agree that the Magnolias are something very spectacular. That delicate color looks almost too beautiful to be real. 🙂 Lovely photos, all.
Hi, Linda. Thanks for stopping by! Yes, I know what you mean. It’s challenging to remember it all, isn’t it? 🙂
Kathryn
Hi, Nancy, I have to agree. Just so ethereal and other worldly. Exactly what I was speaking of last week. Resonating with that unseen part of ourselves, a whisper of our deeper roots. Thanks for coming by again. Kathryn
Hi Kathryn,
I’m loving your post. Intoxication is right. Edification too, my friend. An elixir from God for sure.
Girl, I added your blog to my blogroll. Didn’t realize I hadn’t before. Thanks for adding me to yours.~~Dee
LOL! Yes, it’s delirium, Dee! 🙂 Thanks for the blogroll addition! Appreciated! An honor. 🙂 Kathryn xoxo
Pink … pink … pink! The delicious color sings since all I see is white … white … white. Snow is a gift to thirsting ‘Great Lakes’ so I wait, patiently, for spring to arrive and thrive through your lush words and photos. I ‘smell’ your lovely post, Kathryn. Your thought provokng post has given us much to think about.
Hi, Joey! Isn’t it heavenly?? Believe it or not we had one day of snow here. Just one. But TONS, buckets of rain. We were short, so we really needed all that flooding, so I fully understand the importance of filling up our local reserves! It’s kind of funny that the East Coasters are focusing on white white white and I focused for weeks on MUD! 🙂 Thank heaven it is finally drying up! Oh, I’m so relieved. We all have our particular yogas to walk through! Thanks for visiting. Fondly, Kathryn
What a happy, colorful sight. You have more in bloom than we do, I think. There are tulip trees and quince in bloom here too.
These camelias are very beautiful! Your photos are amazing!
Hi, Pam! Yes, I found myself wondering this week if Texans were having a more similar experience to what I’m experiencing in California. Do you have Texas sage? That was one of my favorites when I lived in AZ . Kathryn xox
Hi, Marie! Thank you so much! Do you have camelias in your garden in Norway? Kathryn
Hi, Zoe–Thank you. I’m using my trusty 35mm. Pentax. Friends raise eyebrows, as if I’m driving a Model T Ford, but this camera is an extension of my vision and imagination and I ain’t givin’ it up. Not yet, anyway. It might get a little sister someday after I confer with maybe David Perry. 🙂 Kathryn
Hi Kathryn, I’m a newbie blotanist, and found you while browsing on blotanical. What a wonderful post, and what georgeous photos! I would love to see that many m. soulangiana blooms in person…very inspiring.
Welcome, Desiree. Thank you so much for your kind words. I’m glad you enjoyed the post! Kathryn
Kathryn, although I have no Texas sage in my garden, it grows very well in Austin. There’s nothing like it when the air pressure changes before a rain and it bursts into lavender bloom, is there?
Pure awesome imagery! Absolutely beautiful, Kathryn.
Thank you, kind Sir! Means a lot to me coming from you, David. Thanks so much for stopping by and bearing witness! Ironically, these apparently will be the last published images coming from my dear beloved Pentax 35 mm. Yesterday it simply stopped working and was pronounced “obsolete” by the local camera shop. Welcome to the world of digital, Kathryn! Bought the Pentax K10D, just in time for upcoming birthday celebration. Let’s see what the Universe has in store next! K. xoxo
Hi Kathryn,
Those magnolias are awe inspiring. I can empathize with you wanting to climb up and be amongst the flowers!
Consciously not naming the plants around me will be difficult, but I’ll have to try being with them instead of working with them?
Do you adjust the brightness/contrast of your pictures when scanning them in?
Hi, Ross,
Welcome. 🙂 Yes, it was tough not to get up there in them. Landbound. 😉
Yes, we are ambidextrous creatures. We can be, do and have, apparently. 🙂
What I’ve been doing is using photos on a cd, part of the printing process using a 35mm, and dropping into Adobe Photoshop and primarily resizing. Occasionally I will pinch a teeny bit of brightness into something. I think it’s a Pisces thing to tell you the truth. They become slightly more luminescent and remind me more of this very thing Eckhart is talking about, IMHO. Kathryn
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I did click on Joni, she is the best. I know every word to every song on her Blue album. Your post is an inspiration. Beautiful photography and wonderful text and JONI. Perfection.
Frances at Faire Garden
Awwwwww. 🙂 Welcome, Frances! I was planning on checking out your blog soon. Now I will. Your comments really touched my heart. And so glad you clicked on Joni!! Thank you for coming by! Kathryn
Intoxicating. Beautiful shots. Could you attach the smell next time?? 🙂
Great to find your blog!
Carol
terranovadesign.blogspot.com
Carol! Welcome! Wouldn’t that be something? Scratch and sniff blogging! 🙂
Kathryn
What a treat for my eyes. I can almost smell their intoxicating scent. That quince is just adorable, and your photos are a pure work of art. Respect!
Little Violet! Thank you for stopping by! And thank you very very much for your acknowledgment. Deeply appreciated. I will visit your blog in Croatia! Exciting! Kathryn
This has been a visual delight…Then you topped it off with my favorite Joni song, thank you.
Gail
clay and limestone
Tennessee
Welcome, Gail! I’m glad there are some Joni fans still out there! Thank you for visiting! Kathryn
Hi Kathryn! These are lovely quince photos and do seem similar to the English ones. I’ve replied to your comment/question about bringing dogs to England on my Quince Tree post. Go – you’ll have a wonderful time.
Hi, Sarah, and welcome! Thank you. I’ll go peek now! Kathryn
HI! Kathryn i love love love your pictures but i would really love love it if you had pictures of tulip trees because they are the best trees ever! and i would also love to see you featured in the photos also
Hi, Jackie, Thank you and welcome! Kathryn xoxo