i was going to come back with some smart butt reply ...

but.. well... what can i say after being quoted ...

i am glad you reposted this.. i missed it ...

ken

ps: its a tough time for pix .... as the moment usually involves a very short time with adequate light for the camera ... try every night.. until you perfect it ... lots of deleted failures ... its the time.. just when the sky turns pink.. and the blues vibrate in intensity .... and a few short minutes later.. its too dark ... [blue and pink are color wheel opposites.. and that is what makes the blue vibrate]

Yes, takes my breath away. WW

Thanks for reposting Steve.

Reading it made me feel like I was walking right along with Moccasin that evening, I could visualize it all. Eloquent!

Gesila

Moc's flowing prose is definitely a highlight of this forum. Thanks Steve & Moc.

tj

YES!!!!!

Wonderful!

Oh my, I just found this thread, and I am very pleased with your comments. Thank you so much Steve, for digging it out of the rolling pages of the forum.

I was not ignoring this, I simply did not see it. It was one of those magic moments that inspired me. How wonderful that I found my touchstone in the hosta garden.

I took some pictures at twilight the other night, they are in another thread. Instead of linking to it, may I add them here. You can bet that more twilight photos are coming.

I am working on both ends of the garden these days. North and South will be totally different places, and hopefully equally strong as the center of the space, the bistro table and chairs circled by fragrant hosta and other beauties. It is always in a state of change, something is growing, something created daily. My feeling is you do not BUILD a garden, you CREATE one.

How patient and kind hosta folks are to allow this indulgence of my musings on the magic of my unexpected garden. It is a significant part of my life. What a joy at this late stage of my life, to have found it. Late is better than never. Now I have the focus that came with life experience.

From the bistro table, heart of the garden.

Uplight of one of two pots turned end up to reflect light at a turning point in the pathway. There is more space beyond, but when the fence disappears, so does everything it keeps out, except the sky, the filigree of jet green silhouetted trees. A few more minutes and there will be no fence. The jasmine will finish hiding the chainlink next year I'm sure.

This is the north end again, highlighting Victory with its 4 scapes growing really tall. Note the shrubs are blueberries in 2 rows with roses along the wooden privacy fence. Volunteer sunflowers from dumped birdseed debris are left to grow now, until I can bring hosta to this very hot area exposed to afternoon sun.

Standing in the same spot, I pivot left, more toward the west, and see this conglomeration of objects part of our private world. By the first of July, there should be a 10 foot tall latticed screen/pergola which will remove all distraction from the idyllic nature of a private walled garden.The lattice will be large and squared, not diamond shaped. But that is mere detail. Then my babies will have some protection from the hot summer sun.

Here I swivel around a few more feet to my left, and I'm looking southwest with the white stucco covered Teahouse, my studio.
It is about 25 feet long, 22 feet wide, and it provides some of the "wall" of the garden. I really like the effect of this picture. The Teahouse is featured in twilight lavender with a grainy effect, like a cameo framed in filigree of leaves and spanish moss. There is the bistro table, featuring a hosta, a place for us to sit in the quiet morning hours when the world is waking up, or in the twilight when we wait for the fireflies to turn on.

I turn a bit more and see almost south toward the other end of the garden. You can see one of two camellia sasanquas which are very old and they are my under-canopy (pecan leaves) shade providers, evergreen of course. Spanish moss languishes among its branches until a breeze stirs. The face pot of Zulu Queen shines white in the flash. I see that the green hosta does nothing for her....she needs a gold, something like Feather Boa.There is reflected light of day still on the standing seams of the metal roof. At twilight, the color changes and the silvery metal becomes soft lavender. Boston fern naturalized around this tree, and the fern hides the pots of hosta set among it.

And this is one of the pictures taken during the daytime of the long view toward the south end of the garden. Jasmine covered fence is 100 feet long total. I am standing just about in the same spot beside Victory, 3/4 the length of the 100 foot garden is in front of me. More to come when I upload recent photos. You are so kind.

.

Unbelievably beautiful. I which I could teleport and come for a visit. Myrle

I too feel like I just want to meander down the paths and get lost in your hosta world. Very tropical feeling, the day shot. The twilight pictures give us a good perspective of the "magic" you speak of.

Mocc, keep hosta-ing and keep writing for you are a breathing and walking best seller! God bless you, dear lady.

Jo

Your twilight pictures are magical! Your garden is so different from mine with all that spanish moss draping from the trees...you don't see that around here. I wish I could see it in person too!

Linda

I never get tired of your pictures nor of your exquisite writing ability.

I love twilight in the garden, Birds settling, bats circling, colors changing minute to minute. Spanish moss would be icing in a garden, how exotic and a little spooky as it gets darker. Does it hang low enough to brush you as you walk through? I have seen it only in films. Wow.

You are so generous, mocc. Thank you and I, too, appreciate your fine wordsmithing.
Kathy

Lovely words, lovely garden, magical combination of the two!

Thanks mocc.

Cynthia

Oh yes, the spanish moss is definitely brushing your face as you walk through. It too has a job to do here, besides looking old time southern. It makes the breeze visible. It speaks of low country Georgia and South Carolina, the oak savannas of Louisiana and Alabama, of the cracker country of Florida, the plantations of Mississippi and Alabama. It is quite "southern" and it is somewhat spooky, and very exotic. I was thinking about something Ken said as I watered my driveway hosta, which get summer shade from palm trees and bamboo clumps. It is an anachronism to combine them with....hosta? Well, I like surprises, and "incongrous juxtaposition."

You don't have to grow spanish moss to create a mood. Follow your bliss, as Joseph Campbell said. I think Jonny is doing it with his ravine and the tall pines, the bench to add some human element to it, to imagine sitting there even when you are far away. When you create a heart garden, you carry it with you everywhere you go. It becomes your touchstone.

I am not designing a garden, you know. I am doing as sculptors describe with stone--removing everything that is NOT garden, and letting the place become its true self. My DH asks me almost every day, "Do you have a plan?" No, I do not. I begin by listening to what the garden wants, and fiddle around until it purrs like a satisfied cat.I am its pawn. It is my muse.

I note that some of the comments are from our gentlemen members, which I find rewarding and complimentary. I think gardening is an opportunity for all adults to express a gentler side of themselves, or appreciate some expression that is not dictated by machismo or practicality or rules. Men do not in the everyday world get much chance to express their inner child (except with cars and bbq grills and sports perhaps) until they take up gardening. I think Ken addressed that in his post about the garden being an excuse for playing in the yard. Under the sprinkler on a hot day, the water cools you, makes a mudpie on your shoes, you feel it no big chore to hump those bags of mulch and wheelbarrows loaded with pavers for a new path to a bench in a secluded alcove in the shade of a favorite tree.

Here is the latest work with the pirogue as a planting container. It took 5 bags of mini bark pine nuggets and 2 bags of MiracleGro 64qt size. That is white annual vinca which sometimes lasts a couple of years. The 3 Princess Anastasia hosta have 2 Purple Lady Fingers between. The clay pots come from Arizona Pottery, very solid and quite heavy empty. The cross is an original welded work of art I acquired in about 1987 when I bought Moccasin Landing. It is called "Queen of Heaven" . This display setup for my DH to honor his oldest sibling who will be 94 in October. Anastasia is a nun of the Sisters of Charity of Halifax NS now retired to Wellesley. Some of you Canadians may have been her students for umpteen years, and although she is less than 5 foot tall, she coached a winning soccer team at her school.

I will paint this pirogue probably a soft lime green (Irish) or a vibrant hue of lavender. It will look great with the hosta. The rest of the area is a work in progress, but this is the anchoring feature. You only see it when you arrive at the end of the long stretch of Moon Walk, and turn 90 degrees.

The long section of Moon Walk

Turn, and there it is

Well, not having a plan seems to be a pretty good plan for you, Mocc. : )

I love your anti-rodent patrol-doxies, too.

Don B.

AAHHHH!!!! Thank you for all that Mocc!

I'm glad you found the post, Moc. To paraphrase Dorothy, "Things come and go around here so quickly." But your writing is really lyrical, and deserves to be front and center. Like this:

"I am not designing a garden, you know. I am doing as sculptors describe with stone--removing everything that is NOT garden, and letting the place become its true self. My DH asks me almost every day, "Do you have a plan?" No, I do not. I begin by listening to what the garden wants, and fiddle around until it purrs like a satisfied cat.I am its pawn. It is my muse."

Thanks so much for illustrating it with pictures.

Steve

Words just cannot express the beauty but you seem to be able to walk us all through your wonderful garden in words as well as pictures. Thanks so much Moc wonderful adventure with a wonderful lady
Faye

Thanks, Don. Meet Dolly. She is the younger, and a digger. Sigh...so far she caught 2 moles and who knows how many bugs. Plus, she ate ONE brand new hosta, Sugar Snap, leaving only a tiny piece of crown with some roots attached. It is growing, would you believe? Not huge as it was originally, but healthy and many leaves, about 3 tiny eyes worth. Whew! a close one. One of Bob Solberg's finest.

On arrival April 16 2014

and on May 10, 2014

I took the day off today, and we went car shopping. Sale. I created the one I wanted on line, searched the dealer's inventory online, and there complete to color and equipment, and STOCK NUMBER, they found MY car on the lot. DH is hemhawing about price, but he'll get it for me tomorrow. I always have loved grumpy old men! :)

{{gwi:979694}}

I want to go back to quote Ken's remarks about photographing the garden near twilight

quote:
ps: its a tough time for pix .... as the moment usually involves a very short time with adequate light for the camera ... try every night.. until you perfect it ... lots of deleted failures ... its the time.. just when the sky turns pink.. and the blues vibrate in intensity .... and a few short minutes later.. its too dark ... [blue and pink are color wheel opposites.. and that is what makes the blue vibrate]
end quote....

I will experiment with both the tablet camera and the Canon CoolPix (I think?) until I understand how to get what I like, or to know what to do even without understanding. The difference in day and night pictures is like.....night and day. I should try a tripod, absolutely must, but I am mostly spontaneous and not disciplined to bring equipment with me. I bet Luuk could do the twilight perfectly. How long does twilight last in Sweden anyway, Luuk?

With the camera recording the time in the picture info, I'd soon know how long the optimum window is for twilight shooting. My gut feeling is it is about 30 minutes--IF I am ready to go. My SDHC storage card holds 32g of data, no problem there. An extra battery in the pocket, plus a freshly charged battery in the camera is good too. Planning a route through the garden, or a spot to feature, will bring more exposure to all parts of the garden. I tend to begin at the same point and do the same views because I begin at the same point with limited time.

Hope I can get better at this. I bought my first SLR because I could not shoot fireworks photos with an old Kodak Brownie. It is ironic that it is twilight photos in a garden with solar lights that is my desired subject 35 years later. Maybe I'll get the hang of it.

Catching that "just right" moment is what made Ansel Adams famous. You can almost tell when the the light is just right. Twilight is wonderfully soft. Hey Mocc...did you know there is also a photography forum here at GW? Knowing you, though, seeking perfection, soon you will need a $1500 SLR camera. ;-)

-Babka

Mocc, I hope to experiment soon the twilight photography, thanks for your advice, ...I'm the one who lives in Switzerland, not the dude from Sweden :-)

Luuk, of course! I mis-spoke. It is STOC in Stockholm, I was not minding my words. Your light bounces down the mountainside and ricochets off the boulders, quite lovely difference due to the effect of elevation, thinness of the air. Right?

Babka, I did not know about the photography forum, I'll have to pick through their threads for what I need. You do know me pretty well, about the $1500 camera setup.....I went that route back in 1980 when I got my Olympus OM2 and attendant lens to do the type of picture taking I love. I have a huge box of printed photos of the years I spent at sea, mucho sunsets with vivid skies and no land anywhere. Texas marshlands, Louisiana oak savannahs. When I got off work near Corpus Christi, near South Padre Island, I did not rush that 700 miles home. I meandered. It was like going on a vacation drive only having to drive one way. The drive home became my vacation, because I worked on the house and garden during my time off.