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

Gone To Seed - an unusual arrangement

By a stroke of luck my camera works - a game that we are playing - one or two photos at a time.
Because I've often felt my most successful photographs are channeled more than created, this little game the camera and I are playing has some surprising and fun aspects. I am enjoying it and willing to keep playing while working on manifesting my next new tool!

such cute little flowers with seed pods too!

A different sort of planter arrangement!

I was thrilled to capture these shots! The mesclun lettuces mix and the spinach I'd planted early in spring had gotten very confused by the strange weather we had in May, rather than supply us with a nice early batch of fresh salad greens we received what appears to be an interesting arrangement of wildflowers!

I find them quite pretty and hoped I could snap a quick shot of them when I grabbed the camera thinking, what the heck it might decide to work today. A couple quick snaps later the camera stopped working again!
Whew, I thought - that was lucky.  Or is it, because it was just what was needed for the latest blog entry?

I have been so anxious over my computer and camera troubles of late I seemed to forget I can simply write...but a picture always adds so much more dimension to a story.

We have strawberries, this year we're growing them in hanging baskets and we're picking a half dozen berries a day - a great snack while out picking weeds or playing with the dogs. They're an odd hybrid that will bloom & produce fruit all summer and the blooms are pink or the more traditional white. I love the pink ones, cuties!

The cherries! Oh My! They are almost ready to pick and this year we got the netting up well before the little green balls starting hinting at some color. That means the birds might get the odd piece of fruit but they won't be stripping the tree clean before we've had a chance to see the cherries ripen to perfection! Yum! The robins and cardinals who live nearby have helped themselves to a few. The grackles and starlings who've gravitated to the big trees nearby knowing the cherries are there aren't so inclined to venture closer with the net in the way. This is our third year with the trees and it looks like it will be the first year we'll get to eat more than the odd sample.

Our grapes have just bloomed - the weird outer-space looking little flowers are transforming into groups of tiny green balls and we'll enjoy watching them ripen through summer and into September when their purple goodness will be savored in jam. If it's an abundant harvest I might try making some grape catsup (ketchup) it's something I always wanted to try!

We have a lawn again - only the odd patch of stubborn ground that's yet to allow the little green sprouts to break through it's tough skin! It's green and pretty and nice to walk on with bare feet. So much better than the mud pit we had in April! The dogs are allowed to romp on it again too - and they are as happy as we are about it! Though we still use the kennel area - it works so well and keeps the Jacks calmer when neighborhood kids are making noise in the school playground next door. It's also the easiest way to keep their potty "business" under control without having to hunt out the poop land-mines on the lawn! I just let them out of the kennel after they've finished what they need to do, they're usually calmer then too! I can imagine, as I'm rarely calm when I really need to go too!
.
Next job is replanting our front meadow! It became overgrown with unwanted plants that have choked out my prize sub-alpines. We're still sourcing out some perennials so haven't finalized our plans yet. If we don't finish it in early July we'll likely wait till late September and get it in place so it's ready for next spring.

And if you were wondering about the video experiments I'd alluded to in an earlier post; well gee id YouTube doesn't support easy uploading of those types of recordings! The nerve - I had a few trys at it and each recording got truncated, making it useless as a tool. Since then I've acquired another video editing tool that might help me. I'll be experimenting with it and if successful the results will show up here!

Our garden is our little haven in this wild and crazy world. A place to relax and re-charge. What's yours?

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 ;-)

New Spring Gallery opening! #OEG

Spring!
It's really setting in now. Birds are nesting, some chicks like morning doves are already hatched, plenty of other eggs have yet to be laid. I love the spring and there seems to be something new and beautiful in the garden every day.

I've put together a Spring gallery of images at my Blogger site. You'll find a link to it near the top of the blog home page. The link is also built into this post's title. I'll build the gallery to include some of this spring's shots as they come along, currently it features some favorites from last spring.

Some of these images, and other favorites have also been utilized to create products like note cards, t-shirts, Keds shoes, fridge magnets and aprons. Check them out at our Zazzle Gallery ; Our Enchanted Garden

Your support of our work is so very appreciated. Words cannot express the joy I feel when I've learned a special image had touched a heart and triggered pleasant memories for someone. We endeavor to share our shots and our thoughts as a sort of therapy for our world. Nature and the natural world we live in is far too often overlooked and discounted.

Noticing the nature around us, appreciating and even encouraging it to flourish are the first steps in what we can each do individually to help our world.  Our world is an enchanted garden and this author, photographer, artist, gardener and spiritualist is finding the ways and means to remind us all that we are human spirits immersed in a magical world!

With love,

...from the garden

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!

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! ;-)

A Book Cover - View from the Tower

I've been having a bit of fun playing with image enhancements that transform photographs into images that can resemble oil paintings, posters, litho prints, watercolor or even a pastel drawing. One of my hobbies that sometimes results in an interesting or fun image I can use for e-Notecards or Greetings. Here I took a shot of the Niagara River looking from the start of the Bruce Trail toward Lake Ontario, taken in autumn and played a bit to see what sort of emotional feel the changes would create with the image. Of the experiments this is one of my favorites, it's intriguing and gentle. The saturation and gauziness gives the viewer the sense of twighlight approaching. This image would be fun used as a book cover. It would suit a book written about the Niagara River, Niagara on the Lake, Queenston Heights. This would even suit something on a historical line, including General Brock who died near where this shot was taken. It could also suit a story about the Niagara Escarpment and/or the Bruce Trail. Likely it would also lend itself well to a romance, given the softness, the color and the framing of the image. Before all the playing; the image was a nice silhouette of the same view. It would also work for many of the same applications. I was born in this area and love it here. It's surprising that this region is right on the northern border with the US and yet one can only barely see any rooftops above the trees! It's one of the things about the image that is priceless compared to the commercial representations of the region featuring casinos, waterfalls and a carnival atmosphere. There's so much more to Niagara than the flashy tourist attractions; there are botanical gardens, family oriented parks and play areas, historical buildings, sites and monuments. There are a wide range of fresh fruits and vegetables available throughout the growing season from local farm markets. A wide river with Lake Ontario at one end, Lake Erie at the other means lots of fresh water to enjoy recreational boating, fishing and swimming. There are also miles of bike trails and hiking trails to satisfy the dog lover, fitness aficionado, naturalist or birdwatcher in most of us. The Heart of Niagara?... It's her River!

Early Spring Growth

Nature, she's with us always
acknowledging our existence
even when we disregard her world
holding a love only a mother can
for her stumbling offspring

Spring is stirring in the garden and winter's sleep is coming to an end. The birds have been singing wildly all around the neighborhood. Yesterday they added a jazzy melody to the background sounds of rain and thunder we enjoyed. Lightning adds nitrogen to the garden and is a welcome spring tonic to get things started. The snows are nearly gone and the earth is throwing off the deep frost, the garden will be workable soon and some very early greens and cool hardy vegetable seeds, bulbs and tubers can be planted in the garden in the next 2 or 3 weeks! Surprising things happen quite fast when spring arrives!

Tiny spring plants are emerging and promising blooms and fragrances yet to come. Early Spring can be an encouraging time of year!Yesterday temperatures soared well into double digits. Today it's predicted to be just slightly cooler. It's currently -2 C (about 30 F) and might reach 7 C later, it's expected to stay warm over the next 7 days, even above freezing in the overnight hours except for Sunday (-1 C predicted). Winds are out of the West at 4 km/hr humidity is 100% but it's not raining, pressure is at 102.17 kPa. It'll stay mainly sunny until this evening then light showers will roll into the area overnight.

Will have to fill the bird feeders again this weekend - the birds are feeding heavily and there are more of them around it seems! If their music is any indication - there are many in the area!

Click; Our Enchanted Garden to visit our Web-zine site! It's growing regularly!

(posted using a link from my free Google Picasa2 album...)

Thanks To Blogger For The Heads Up!

A BIG Thanks to Blogger and their Blog - for the heads up about Picasa Web Albums! It's relatively easy to use and once I figure out how to make use of their linking tools I'm certain it will be a useful feature for this photo blog. As a Flickr user I was fairly happy with most of their features but the photos often didn't fit here properly and now that I've reduced the size of my Flickr account I don't have as easy a time using images from there unless they are very current. Something I'm not thrilled with but will have to cope with for at least another month until I can get things set back to a less restricted account. With Picasa2 and their "Web Albums" things are much easier to access and organize! It's already been helpful for finding a photo of me with my camera, plus a shot of an early spring sunrise to add to the sidebar in celebration of the equinox for fellow Bloggers! I'll keep experimenting with it. I hope to get some interesting Spring photographs today to add to the collection!