Irises at Goodwins

Goodwins is our home-away-from-home, where we have had offices for the last 11 years. Named Goodwin’s after our ancestors who built the farmhouse and farmed the land, it has sheltered branches of our family, often during times of trouble, for 7 generations. The house is made of heart pine and was built in the early 1800s (we know the “new side” was added on in the mid-1830s). We are proud and graced to have partaken of this sanctuary off of busy Peachtree Road, and to have shared it with many friends and clients.

Japanese Irises welcomed spring in the conditioned soil of our gardens. The clump they grow in spreads every year, the blooms nodding sagely together in the wind.

This individual spoke to me as a mandala, drawing me into the heart of new life as it welcomed warmer weather.

Impala Lilies, South Africa

At Kruger National Park you can see lions and tigers and… elephants. Also rhinos, impala with corkscrew horns, Cape buffalo, and eight-foot termite mounds. Colors are mostly shades of brown and gray, some green. We had been in the Limpopo River Valley for days, staying in camps that had tents high off the ground or traditional-style huts built of concrete and thatch, and at least one hut or tent with running water for cooking and bathing. Our senses were heightened by the immersion in such different landscapes and the cultures of the people we visited.

These impala lilies were surreal, growing on a tree by the welcome center, and reminded me to look at the more delicate vegetation as we drove through the park looking for big game (no, best to not get out of the car and become cat toys!).

African Desert Orchid and Dragon

Africa is, according to the genetecists, everybody’s motherland. The people in this part of South Africa consider themselves custodians of the Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage Site. We were visiting one of the world’s oldest trees, appropriately called Big Tree, a baobab that is 5,000 years old. Baobabs are actually succulents that appear to have been planted upside down – according to legend it’s because that they got God mad! After a long nap cradled in its branches and dreaming ancient dreams, I was drawn to tiny bits of September spring color in the desert around the tree.

Yellow dragons, about an inch long, grew in small cascades on a 20-foot tall tree that looked tiny next to Big Tree. The delicate flowers contrasted with last year's odd-looking bean pods.

On the ground were fierce-looking vines adorned with pink ¼” blossoms. The children who help caretake the tree thought I was pretty funny, lying on the ground to get this shot! They loved seeing themselves in the digital window!

The passion I see in these blossoms strikes me as a response to their challenging environment and brief growing time; I find them inspiring to living fiercely and not being whiny about my own challenges!

Monique's Healing Violet

It was a hard year that year, the chemicals I was taking to knock out a blood virus made me feel like I had the flu – aches, low energy, sadness, inability to think straight – for a year! My sister brought me this tiny violet – it brightened the kitchen window sill and when the evening light caught it, the petals were iridescent.

Small beauty loomed large in my altered state and it was a source of healing, reminding me every day that loving thoughts and prayers were being directed my way. I sometimes balk at giving a token gift to someone who is struggling, worrying about whether it will be the right thing and so forth, but after this experience I encourage myself and anyone reading this – yes! Do it!!

Frontyard Wildflower

Wildflowers. I love the way they surprise you with a mix of colors and shapes - even their seeds are so different - some as tiny as a bit grain of salt, some with wings, some with burrs to help them spread. These are from my front yard. I live in 1950's subdivision that is inside the perimeter highway. Most of our yard is shaded because we have some big old trees. But there's this one patch, by the street, that is pretty sunny, and a steep enough hill that when I mow it I spend a good deal of time struggling to stay on my feet! Kids and butterflies love its chaos. So do the big stitching spiders. I took these pictures over a series of afternoons in the spring and summer. So wonderful to find these shining faces, these windows into other worlds, right there in my suburban front yard.

Black-Eyed Susans are a hardy, traditional southern wildflower that do well in the heat of summer, turning their faces to the sun rather than wilting and hiding from the heat!

Day lilies can take over, and are often found where the ground has been disturbed and left untended. For some people, they are pests, but they are great at preventing a soil bank by the road from eroding. Also delicious sauteed in butter, they were a vital gift of nutrition in late spring and early summer when people depended more on local, seasonal foods.

California poppy, Dahlia, cosmos - they dance and brighten and attract bees and butterflies - the poppies tend to fade as the heat comes on, then bloom again in the cooler autumn.

Y Note? Why?

I named my greeting cards "Y Note" because of John, my husbands best friend from college. He used to always call me "Lynda with a Y." Over time it just became "Y." There are those who would say that is a good name for me - I always want more information, want to know "why," never got over being 2 years old...

Plus it sounds like High Note, and when I'm sending someone a card, I want it to hit a high note, something beautiful that is a refreshing breather from the stresses and strains of daily life. We live in a beautiful world - its just easy to forget that!

I take pictures because it is such an amazing world we live in; sometimes I see a flower and it just stops me in my tracks. Or a tree, or a waterfall. I want to share it with everybody I love, I want them to have that same breathless moment of being lost in beauty. Since I can't carry everyone around with me, I send them cards that hopefully say to them - see, this was a wonderful moment, and you were there with me in my heart.

When I started creating sets of cards to give as gifts, people said they loved sending them, so I wanted anyone who was interested to be able to see what the story was behind their picture.