All of these photos were taken on August 31st, 2015. It is not the date that is important but the fact that the photos were taken on the same day which is quite remarkable to me.I have received so much joy from my garden this summer.I have had two broods of painted lady caterpillars and have had black swallowtail butterflies lay eggs in my courtyard as well. I had a Giant Swallowtail butterfly which I never had in my Lakeville garden and  are pretty rare in Massachusetts. We have had many beautiful sunny days and I will often think I might like to go to the beach or take a day trip to Cape...

Last summer I was given three heirloom tomatoe plants by Bob Feingold. I believe it was meant to be that I was at the morning minyan service the day he brought tomato plants to share. Shortly after that day, I broke a bone in my foot and didn’t get much further than my courtyard all summer so those plants became even more important to me.It was just a month after my husband died and being present in my garden  and tending my garden became very therapeutic for me.  Experiencing the every day gifts of nature was a healing environment for me. Bob writes a blog on his website. In his blog...

        It has been a beautiful fall with many glorious days in the courtyard. When I have no motivation or energy to tackle even the simplest of chores, I retreat to the garden. It is my haven. I am drawn to it by the dreamy sound of the bubbling waterfall and the allure of new buds and flowers each day. I feel Dick's spirit there and it fills my heart. I love the sunlight streaming into the courtyard, providing me with a special hot spot where I can watch a parade of visitors from my chair. October was a mild month and I enjoyed a variety of visitors that I didn't expect. The monarch...

On these crisp, sunny, fall days we have had a dozen or more monarch butterflies hangin' out in our backyard .They prefer to cluster on the purple buddleia bushes, which this late in the season are more like  trees. We have really been enjoying the dance of the monarchs as they flutter overhead before they head off on their miraculous journey! Through the years we have participated in tagging the monarchs in the fall season through the Monarch Watch program sponsored by the University of Kansas. Researchers use these tags  to track the butterflies migration to Mexico. We've also raised monarch...

Monet's distinctive pink stucco house with green trim overlooks a one hectare (2 and one half acre) walled garden. The flower garden is known as Le Clos Normand. On either side of the central path, there are multiple paths with exquisite flower beds in an array of colors that both contrast and complement each other. Vertical arbors are used for climbing vines.We had the pleasure of photographing in the garden for 5 days and made new discoveries every day! You can see why impressionist artist Claude Monet used his gardens at Giverny as inspiration for his works. Please see my blog post of 6/24/12...

We spent five incredible days in Giverny, France, the home of Monet's Garden. Giverny is a small village located 80 km. west of Paris. It has a few bed & breakfasts, galleries and restaurants. There are, however, no drug stores, grocery stores or commercial enterprises. Tha main attraction to this quaint village is Claude Monet's home and garden and museums dedicated to Monet and Impressionism. Our photography group, led by Charles Needle, was fortunate to have access to the gardens in the early morning hours and again in the late afternoon and evening hours when the grounds were closed...

 We bought a new macro lens fro our trip to Europe so we could both experiment with taking close-ups of the exquisite flowers. Charles taught us a lot about macro photography but what I learned the most was that it takes great patience! Ordinarily I pride myself on having patience but when it comes to taking pictures, I am challenged. I found it frustrating to be surrounded by such beauty and unable to record it as well and as fast as I would like. It took time to set the tripod up just so, angle the camera, decide what part of the flower to focus on, focus manually, add a light source, compose...

We spent this weekend in Franconia, New Hampshire with the Plymouth Digital Photography Meetup group in anticipation of taking photographs of the Lupine Festival. Unfortunately, we didn't get too many pictures because of rainy weather, but we did have a lovely time.The stately blue, purple, pink, and white lupines stood tall and beautiful against the backdrop of the mountains. I was reminded of the children's book "Miss Rumphius" which we used to read to our children. In the book, Miss Rumphius sets out to reach two goals in her life and her grandfather challenges her to reach a third: to make...

We arrived in Holland around 5 am and by 6:30 am we were at our hotel in Lisse. Unfortunately, they would not be ready for us for several hours, so we took a walk and shot  photos until our hands were too cold to push the shutter! You don't have to go far in Holland to see these incredible ribbons of color stretching through the fields. It is a typical sight in the spring when the fields turn into a blanket of blooms. Not only were we struck with the beauty of the colorful landscape, but the fragrance of the field of hyacinths was intoxicating! We caught this rainbow one rainy...

It  is amazing to see the process involved in order for a plant or flower to reach your garden or florist! One of the side trips we took on our recent trip to Holland was to the FloraHolland Flower market and auction house in Aalsmeer. They have six locations in Holland and together they are the largest cooperative of this kind in the world. Large batches of flowers, with hundreds of thousands of units of each variety, are brought to auction from all parts of the world, including Africa, South America, and the Middle East. There are tens of thousands of growers. There are 14 auction halls in Holland...