Images of the Season Archive

Hot Summer in Atlanta, the sun has come to rest as a volunteer by the birdfeeder. At first the bees feed and pollinate, then the finches and squirrels will feast.

We prize our Dogwood trees. When their white and pink blossoms burst open at the same time the azaleas bloom, Atlanta is a blanket of flowers - we drive around and look at certain people's yards like you would Christmas lights. Here, spring is still very quiet - the first bright yellows of daffodils and forsythia have come and gone, we're waiting for the explosion of whites and pinks and purples just off our front deck.

Volunteers at the Birdfeeder

Summertime. The sun comes to visit in all its glory. We wilt a bit under the authoritative presence that fills our sky. Children of the sun seem to have grown up around our birdfeeder. They don't wilt. They thrive, and turn their sweet-smelling faces to the heavenly being they mirror. When I dive into them with my camera, I feel as if I'm diving into the sun, and the heat becomes more of a giftand less of an oppression I'm trying to escape. Notice how even the buds reflect the sun - they look like a green fire!

Jan's Orchid

Beyond fortunate, I have a handful of longtime friends from various stages of my life.

One of these is Jan. We met in grade school. In junior high we used to sit on the roof of her house talking late into the night - I swear we even saw the sun come up at least once.

Over the decades we've had times

where we weren't exactly on the same page, yet somehow stayed in touch. The past 20 years or so have been a continuous amazing conversation with paragraphs that are sometimes separated by months and months.

When I had a year of chemo, Jan, a psychologist with a strong spiritual practice, talked to me almost every week, sent regular notes of encouragement, and finally made the trek south with her husband to celebrate my first chemical-free week.

This orchid was her parting gift. It has bloomed several times since then. When I put this in a card it is a prayer for the sender and receiver to also experience the wealth of strength and joy that comes from sharing a deep bond. I especially love to give this in cards to other close friends who are also my lifeline.

During Jan's visit, some of these friends were able to come for ladies tea - it was wonderful to see such strong characters hitting it off! May you have a handful of friends who mirror back to you your best self and who hold your heart when your best self is on sabbatical.

Sister's Garden, Leppla household, Minnesota

A wonderful late spring visit to family and friends in Minnesota led to a lot of gardening and shopping in garden centers. My sister, Elaine and her family have plenty of room to plant, and have lots of beautiful corners in their yard. I have great photos (for family only!) of my strong sister leaning into the tiller and my strong niece leaning into the lawnmower. It is Minnesota after all, where all the women are strong and good looking! Besides the joy of reconnecting with family, there were quite moments prowling around among the flowers in early morning light. These flowers are all very small, singing with color in their corner of our world.

Anniversaries

There are two wedding anniversaries in our family this weekend...

Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite National Park - Two becoming one, the waters plunging together into a deep pool, seems a wonderful image for the 57th wedding anniversary my parents are celebrating tomorrow. Especially since this picture was taken when their grandson/my nephew, Joshua, and I were on a trip out west to celebrate his graduation from high school and turning 18. That was four years ago, after a particularly rainy season in the park. We were treated to spectacular displays of water on long hikes. Now he's off to the adventures of adulthood, another generation exploring deep waters...

Today is his parents' wedding anniversary - something close to 28 years for them. My sister loves yellow roses and they used them in her bouquet. I've tried for years to make a good picture of yellow roses for their anniversary card. This one is special because these are more like wild roses; they were brightening up the corner of a park in Tallinn, Estonia last June.

Tartu, Estonia

Blue Poppy from the Tartu Botanical Gardens.

Estonians love flowers and gardens. It may be that the depth and length of winter makes summer's colors all the more precious. The botanical gardens were full of people and beautiful blossoms in the mid-summer light.

Kõrgoya

Great Grandmothers' roses have been growing at Kõrgoya for generations - through invasions and Czars, through Nazis and deportations to Siberia. Not quite sure who planted them, but it was a grandmother somewhere up the line, and grandmothers have nourished and treasured them through the generations. The apostrophe is strangely located in this title, but perfectly appropriate! The first time I saw the huge bush that these roses grow on, it had just rained, and I was seeking relief from the long drive from the capital city (Tallinn) to the family farm in Tori, Estonia. Outhouse; rosebush; bare feet on dirt farmed by family since the 1500's. Tears of joy and nurture and healing as eyes drank in the horizon of the distant river.

Mari's Favorite Wildflower: Mari is my grandmother's cousin; they are descended from the same father but different mothers. Mari is a talented poet, a survivor of the "Russian times" and a strong, clear presence with strong arms and a big heart. We don't speak a common language, but as we walked up from the river through the pasture which is full of wildflowers, she was able to clearly communicate that she wanted me to take a picture of this flower, which is an inch wide.

At the Gazebo

The Gazebo at Goodwins was built by my husband for me, and is an attractive sanctuary in the green space just off Peachtree Road. A sanctuary within a sanctuary, a gift of a place where you can put your feet up, breathe clean air, enjoy trees and be refreshed. These little narcissus come up every year for a few days. They are about one and 1/2 inches wide. It is usually late February, and the first burst of color and vibrance announcing spring.

Yosemite

Vernal Falls - the falls of spring - were full in Yosemite in August of 2005 because there had been so much rain. My nephew was the naviguesser on this trip, and read in the guide book that the trail to the falls was 1/4 mile. I stayed in my sandals, he went barefoot. Only the 1/4 mile turned into a mile - straight up. Just a friendly challenge from the next generation...

OK Josh, it's true, the rewards were worth it - coming around a moss-covered turn of footpath to see the fall of rainbow-colored water over rock with personality and faces, then finally arriving at the tranquil river that feeds the falls - well, I wouldn't have seen it without the bravado of the 18-year-old young man pushing ahead. Yosemite - it's a mystical place that seems to be something from another world. A wonderful feeding of deep soul. Bridal Veil Falls was equally amazing!

Aunt Gerda's Birthday Roses

Look into the heart of a flower and see a dream of fragile beauty that seems to have no other purpose than to be it's own beautiful self. May your love and life be like that.

When Aunt Gerda comes
from Minnesota to visit us in Atlanta, it's an occasion! This was one of her first visits in many years, and the first time I had seen her and my mother, Virve, and uncle, Hartmut, all together at one table in a long time. It was Gerda's birthday, and in true Estonian fashion, there were flowers for her.

Pink roses symbolize happiness, gentleness and gracefulness; white roses stand for purity. So, if you got this card on your birthday you are being honored for those qualities as well as being given a gift for those aspects to grow in your life. I also want to wish you a wonderful new year in your life in honor of my aunt and God-mother.

The picture on the right is called the "Heart of Aunt Gerda's Birthday Rose" and is also a view into her great heart. The card that you got was a gift of love, may all the love you share be full of unfolding beauty.

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.