Postcards with Autumn and Thanksgiving themes

Thought I'd play with some of my new autumn photos to make up some pretty postcards for the season and the holidays.
Postcards just seem to make sense to me. With all the concerns of wasting paper I considered what most of us do with the envelope after we've received a card in the mail; we toss it in the recycle bin! With a postcard there's less waste and the card can still be hung on a fridge or bulletin board. Heck they make durable bookmarks too!
A few turned out so well I thought it would be nice to highlight them here;

Sun Kissed Autumn Stream Postcard by OurEnchantedGarden
See more Autumn Postcards

This is one shot that really pleased me. Mainly because it demonstrated the windy autumn we had, inspiring the title for this image: Autumn Whispers in the Wind.

Happy Thanksgiving Postcard by OurEnchantedGarden
See more Autumn Postcards

Another pretty autumn image was inspired by the planter at our front door, using some cartooning effects this softened and romanticized the subject. Autumn Floral;

Cartooned Autumn Floral by OurEnchantedGarden
See more Autumn Postcards

I'll add more in the next entry once I've worked up another few postcard ideas! There are often lovely photo opportunities this time of year and I've a good selection of favorites to work with! These are fully customizable - you can add your own text on front or back, even add a personal photo on the back if you don't want to write a long message. A great way to stay in touch in a traditional and eco-friendly way!
Give them a try and see what sort of fun you can have sharing with your loved ones and letting them know you're thinking of them!
Enjoy!

With love,
...from the garden

Check out our (experimental) survey

Using Google docs and some of their lovely templates I've created a short experimental survey which I hope you will be interested in completing and sharing with friends and family. I've never used Google's survey templates before so this test will provide a means to measure how their process works. I expect this will be a fun tool to help engage our readers and provide insight into your interests.


Results will be posted on our Facebook Page and here on our Walk In The Garden Blog. 


Your responses will help us determine our focus over this fall and winter to help others imagine and plan their own Enchanted Space!
Don't be shy, no personal info is required or shared. If you do provide your e-mail address we will use it only to send you word when updates are ready to release!

To visit the survey Click Here




I look forward to reviewing your responses! And, a huge thank you in advance for your participation!


With love,
...from the garden

More shots of April Flowers #OEG Life returns in vibrant abundance!

So here are more shots to document what's blooming and when for this year 2010. Things are quite a bit earlier than last year too! Got some great shots!

The Sweet Cherry Tree

The Daffodil , frontal

Primula, pretty!

Wild Violets near the Compost

Sweet Violet is aptly named!

The Blue Scilia are nearly finished

Finally showing off it's finer details!

These are baby spinach! growing in a planter box on the deck.

And here's the mesclun mix I showed in an earlier post, should be about 2 weeks to harvest now!

So much is happening quickly all around the garden. A new pile of topsoil was dug, delivered and dibbled up this afternoon to cover the damage caused by the dogs, then more lawn seed applied. Supposed to rain next day and a half but not enough for the seed so we'll be watering every other day until the grass gets into good shape! The hyacinth are getting ready to bloom, irises, peonies and other plants are barely raising their heads yet! Thank goodness for the enclosure John built! The dogs don't mind at all and they're less likely to lose their ball!

I hear the Osprey are back at Guelph Lake and getting set to nest at the roadside so we'll be out and about for some shots there soon, depending on weather. Those amazing fishing birds are probably setting up shop at the Shan Dam on Lake Belwood too! Wish me luck!

 

 With love,

...from the garden ;-)

Our Garden is Giving me the Blues! #OEG

And when our scilia are blooming I don't mind The Blues one bit!

Such tiny clumps of delicate flowers - when they first start growing they look like a clump of crab grass.

I took these shots in between today's rain storms, thinking they may not look as good once they're beaten down with the heavy raindrops and there's even the possibility of hail. Beautiful little parcels of life and color, like these sweet little bells of blue must be appreciated in the now - later they could be gone, such is the fleetingly fickle heart of nature and her synchronistic ways! Something I've come to truly appreciate, as learning to be fully present in the now is a skill I am cultivating while I work with the garden, the camera and nature herself.

My favorite shot is this verticle image above with the focus set on the forefront flower, this is a perfect example of a depth of field shot at close range. It gives a fabulous sense of depth and size even though these sweet little beauties are no taller than 4", or 100 cm for my metric minded readers! This marks the beginning of the flowering in our perennial beds - with the weather playing it's fun tricks I'm certain there will be more popping up all over the property!

There are so many delightful, cheery flowers to adorn our gardens. Which is your favorite of the first flowers of spring?

Stay tuned - planting and sprouting of our vegetables has begun and we're also getting the back lawns into shape again after having been subjected to the pounding of puppy feet for over a year. I will be adding entries highlighting both later today!
Also see Our Garden Blog at http://ourenchantedgarden.net/gardenblog for similar stories and larger format photographs. Do feel free to follow me at Twitter or to become a fan on our page at Facebook if you are inclined. (See this blogs' side bar for links.)There are so many great ways to keep in touch I enjoy taking advantage of the services and learning how they work!  

Conscious Creation - It's just Natural!

I received this quote in my e-mail this morning from Esther & Jerry Hicks and it really got me thinking. I posted it on my status at Facebook and then found myself entering a comment right after. A friend commented on that and I went back to see her comment, re-read what I'd said and realized I should explore the subject in more depth...


"You're really not wanting to limit beliefs because belief is just perspective, and the more beliefs or the more perspectives or the more attitudes, the bigger the vibrational kitchen from which you can make your pie. Just get so good at directing your Energy that the belief doesn't dominate." --- Abraham

This was interesting to ponder... Because often I and other people I know focus on releasing beliefs in order to move forward in our personal and spiritual development.
"... directing your energy so that belief doesn't dominate" makes sense to me. Why not focus on the vibrational energies available to us and just allow the contrasts and perspectives to be our barometers? They become tools to help guide us as we make choices and explore our paths in life.

By being involved in our creations in a conscious way and following the bliss of that energy we are able to rise above any restrictions or barriers that might be perceived. When in the flow of these universal energies, the Vortex as it is sometimes described, creation becomes effortless, in that actions take place with ease and grace, naturally progressing as needed. The more connected We can be with Our higher vibrational selves the easier life becomes and limits fall away!

When I observe nature this is what seems to be happening for creatures in their natural world.  Birds, squirrels, toads, even cats and dogs to some extent. And I am having a good chuckle writing this; what's important in that statement is the fact we are creatures in this natural world too! For so many reasons we remove ourselves from that reality. It's just my opinion but this is really a crying shame! This is why Our Enchanted Garden was born and why I'm driven to find the ways and means to keep reminding people of our connection with this dynamic, natural world!

I wonder, what would our world  be like if we'd developed a philosophy that embraces our animalness? Could we call it Natura-cracy? Hey, that's got a nice ring to it if you practice a few times!

Hope I've left you wondering yourself, don't be shy to post your own ideas on the subject!

This garden is smiling, even in winter!

Shine Your Light - a revisted design!

Already it's the beginning of December and we are still having a warm spell here in Southwestern Ontario! It's not all good as we're hoping the ground will freeze up soon so the dogs don't have to play in the mud! Not that they mind at all - We're the ones who mop up after them! Happy pups are usually muddy pups!

So while the dogs are busy taking a nap and it's too muddy to work in the garden I thought I'd play with some images and take some design ideas a little further. The Daisy image below is one I've enjoyed playing with and the theme intrigues me.



Click on the image above to view it at my Flickr site. When there - you can click "All sizes" above the image on the right side to view a full screen size.

The Solstice will be here before we know it and I wanted to play with some artwork that celebrates the return of the light to the Northern Hemisphere. There's something reassuring about celebrating the return of the sun right at the beginning of winter in the northern half of the globe! While it may be getting cold the days will begin to get longer and will usher in the the warmth that will eventually melt all the snow that is sure to come!

Wanted to see how this image would look on-line and hopefully get some reactions from my visitors. I'll be using it to send to friends to remind them of the Solstice. There's so much to celebrate this time of year!

Have been working with a trial version of an updated Photoshop application. Enjoying it muchly... missed the sale date and am fretting now over what I'll have to pay to aquire it... well not fretting as much as feeling regret and remorse over losing track of the time like that! I'm not surprised as it's something I do often - time seems much more flexible to me, until it's past and then I begin to wonder where it went, he he!

Oh well!

still, I enjoyed the exercise and think it's worthwhile to purchase just for the ease in which I can perfrom tasks that took hours of concentrated effort to achieve previously. Really simple tasks too, you wouldn' t think it would be a big deal to add copyright notices and other details but I have found it to be a very time consuming process in the past. Okay - I can hear me justifying... yeah...

Just check this out...

I was playing with a pretty image of some lavender blooms

I managed to apply an effect to the backgound of the image and found the effect very pleasing;

Then I tried comparing the enhanced image, with the regular for in use as a greeting card type of layout that emphasises the lovely lavender hues;

Thinking it'll be worth the investment in the long run, I've used my older version for almost 5 years now!

Delphiniums have returned to our garden!

Introducing some new plant specimens to the garden this year. Replaced my old fashioned favorite, a purple-blue beauty with a bit of a white face; the delphinium. This young plant could live for years in it's new garden bed, they get very large and last for decades like peony plants do. A friend of mine saw her plants grow 7 feet tall or more last year. The light was too low to do a macro shot when I took this one. I'm thinking early morning light might give me my best image of this pretty flower, so I'll be trying more later!

Also added a new variety of black eyed susan - another of my favorites!

These sweet daisy like flowers produce cones of seeds that various finches and the chicadees love! I try to grow a variety of seed producing plants, shrubs and trees that help feed the creatures that come to visit here.

Another old fashioned flower that is becoming well established along one of the fence lines right near our little barn! It's such a perfect setting for them! (they were often grown to hide small farm buildings or fences.)

Well that's one quick tour of the garden today, more to follow as things keep growing! ;-)

Broadcasting Live from Our Enchanted Garden

Here we go!

A trial run this morning in the garden to see how well the technology works and wether I'll need help to run the show! Or wether the weather will help me with the show by encouraging the birds to sing to alll our guests in a sort of impromptu garden party!

A Pretty Magic Wand

A lucky shot with a magical feel!

Mother nature sweeps her magic wand around the garden and the trees and plants respond with their most beautiful show of growth and color. The life cycle begins in earnest as the northern hemisphere of earth awakens with vibrant life. The peach blossoms are such a delight! Delicate, intricate and colorful; five petaled, star-like beauties doing their best to attract the bees and insects that will help create some luscious fruit! Their fragrance is light, fruity and sweet! There are four families of sparrows living beside the garden. With chirping, hungry babies the parents will be a big help in keeping harmful bugs from our fruit trees. In exchange we provide a safe environment, abundant food, a fresh water supply and some of the prettiest perches in the neighborhood! Co-creation with nature, living a life enchanted; my joys and the source of my passion!

Merry Cherry Maker!

So very glad to see the honey bees in the garden busy pollinating our fruit trees, planted this time last year. What a pleasure to watch the development of fresh fruits in the back yard! Nature's spontaneity and abundant synchronicity are the "magic" that is the very fabric of existence. Here is that magic in action; the ant and the bee and a mass of flowers to explore with random, wild abandon. Yet most of the flowers seem to be successfully transformed into tiny cherries, despite the lack of any apparent plan! We humans can learn so much from that!