Wordless Wednesday- Summer Flowers
Tag: flowers
Wordless Wednesday- Signs of Spring
Simple Sunday- Flowers
“I read somewhere once that souls were like flowers,’ said Priscilla.
‘Then your soul is a golden narcissus,’ said Anne, ‘and Diana’s is like a red, red rose. Jane’s is an apple blossom, pink and wholesome and sweet.’
‘And your own is a white violet, with purple streaks in its heart,’ finished Priscilla.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea
“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.”
― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“I’m talking about the language of flowers. It’s from the Victorian era, like your name. If a man gave a young lady a bouquet of flowers, she would race home and try to decode it like a secret message. Red roses mean love; yellow roses infidelity. So a man would have to choose his flowers carefully.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers
“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”
― Alexander Den Heijer
“To be a Flower, is profound
Responsibility”
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
“I have lost my smile,
but don’t worry.
The dandelion has it.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
“Who’s to say which is stronger? Flowers break concrete just like hammers do.”
― Bethanee Epifani J. Bryant
Glass Flowers Exhibit
I have a fascinating exhibit to show you today from our out East Trip. You may get sick of seeing things from out there eventually, but I hope not! The trip was a bright spot in a really awful time of change in our lives. (I was in the process of managing a difficult time at work.) I haven’t felt like much myself for a while, but am slowly getting back there, so have a back log to catch you up on.
Today’s post is about the Blaschka’s Glass Flowers that are part of the permanent collection in the Harvard Natural History Museum. The website is here for more info or for a virtual tour. https://hmnh.harvard.edu/glass-flowers
Made from glass as teaching aids, the flowers were made by a Czech father and son team- Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, over 50 years from 1886-1936. They produced 4,300 glass models representing 780 plant species. They created special processes to capture the textures, looks, and parts of a plant. There were a lot more models than I could take pictures of and some of them did have a glare from the lights, so I was only able to grab a few pictures, but I wanted to share them with you.
The Blascka’s were frustrated with the lack of teaching materials for botanists and others trying to learn about the natural world and so decided they were going to make their own. If you saw some of these just out in the wild, you would honestly think they were real flowers. They were incredibly detailed.
I’m always in awe of what artisans can do and this exhibit was no exception. The craftsmanship and care that was taken with these plant artifacts is stunning. Part of the exhibit also included information about what it takes to be a conservator for exhibits like these, restoration, and other neat behind the scenes things. The exhibit went through a renovation in 2016 and it looks gorgeous. If you get the chance, I would highly recommend the Harvard set of museums. If you buy a ticket to the Natural History Museum, you get admission to four other smaller museums for the day as well. It’s definitely worth the price! I’ll leave you with one last picture to enjoy as inspiration for your trip.
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens- Trolls In The Woods!
Hello! Don’t be alarmed, these trolls were nice! We visited the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens on our trip out along the East Coast and it was so much fun. The gardens themselves are extensive and gorgeous, but once I found out there were trolls here to, I had to go. Designed by recycled materials artist, Thomas Dambo, they represent conservation and the importance of the woodlands. He’s from Copenhagen and builds troll sculptures all over the world. Here’s a Trollmap of all of them! https://trollmap.com/#/@38.0452x-85.9454z8.7
The botanical gardens have 5 trolls, however, we were there close to closing time and were only able to see three of them. If we go back though, I want to take a whole day there and see all 5.
These Trolls serve as Guardians of the Seeds and will take you on a mystery maze to find the seeds. Along the way you learn a lot of different things about conservation and the importance of trees. Each troll has something different to teach you and is a keeper to a different part of nature. Let me just say, although it sounds cheesy, it really was special and magical. I thought it was at least, but out of the two of us, I’m definitely more whimsical than the Husband.
Now, may I present the Guardians of the Seeds? I hope you enjoy the journey!
This is Roskva who “stands for the trunks.” Roskva stands taller and grows wider each year as she remembers the seasons and everything that happens around her. She can help you remember if you forget. She seemed melancholy and serious to me, which I can identify with. It’s hard to be a keeper of other peoples’ memories, more so the not so happy ones.
This is Birk. He “holds the roots.” He is the wisest and most mysterious of the trolls at the gardens. He hides in the trees and listens to the soil and the shadows. He knows everything that happens in the wild. Every day he tells the stories he hears to the other forest creatures.
Birk was my favorite. He seemed like you could whisper your secrets to him and he would give you advice. He seemed calm.
Lilja “holds the scent of the flowers”. She is the youngest of the trolls and loves colors. She enjoys the birds, butterflies, and bees as they flit among the flowers. She seemed playful and curious. I think she was also relatively small compared to the other trolls. I loved her too.
The gardens hide two more trolls too- Soren and Gro. Soren is goofy looking and “sticks up for the branches.” He is curious and loves to dance. He is posed in a dynamic dancing pose.
Gro is a wanderer who returns every spring and is posed in a calming yoga pose. She “smiles with the leaves” and makes sure the forest and her tree friends are fed and watered.
Here is the website with the info about the trolls at the Coastal Botanical Gardens, if you want to know more or see the poem that takes you on the treasure hunt. Click on the “Meet Our Trolls” link to see Soren and Gro. https://www.mainegardens.org/events-exhibits/giant-trolls/
In addition to the trolls, the Botanical gardens also has an adaptive garden program and the really cool Lerner 5 Senses garden, which is part of the adaptive garden. I decided to spare you all the extensive list of the rest of the gardens, as some of them will be picture posts coming up, but they are detailed on the website if you wanted to see all of them.
I thought the 5 Senses Garden would fit well with the Trolls, as they are all about slowing down to listen and feel. Each section was designed to be accessible with paved paths and different routes to take. Each section had signs detailing what the sense was, both in words and braille. Here are some pictures from that part of the gardens.
Sight:
This was a flashy moving sculpture piece to go along with all of the other sights of the gardens.
They had really brightly colored plants and plants with contrast too to help people who had difficulty seeing.
Hearing:
For hearing there were some fountain areas. This one in particular had a waterfall edge for even more sensory exploration.
Scent:
Scent was in the kitchen garden section along with touch and taste. They had herbs and veggies and all sorts of plants with scent.
Touch:
The kitchen garden had cut outs for wheelchair users so that they could plant and interact with the gardens as well.
They also had a tactile map which told you where to go for certain things. It was also in Braille. The adaptive garden program went in the touch section as well. I had no idea you could be a horticulture therapist, but apparently it is indeed a thing. We immediately looked up how I could become one, but I don’t know that I can take that on right now, although it would be so cool! It’s like a recreation therapist, but with plants and gardening!
There was also a display of adaptive gardening tools and they had some of them for sale in the Garden Shop.
Taste:
The kitchen garden had all sorts of herbs and veggies.
One whole section was about vertical gardening and how that could be much more accessible for people who maybe didn’t have the ability or the space to be able to garden. They had lovely begonias and other plants in these cool ladder shaped planters. It made a great picture backdrop too, but the Husband said I can’t post that one because he looks silly. 🙂
I think total we spent about three hours or so at the gardens and it would have been so easy to stay for longer. I’ll share more pictures in the Wednesday posts too because I have so many! I hope this post brightens your winter a little bit and brings you a bit of magic and whimsy!
Wordless Wednesday- Annual Signs Of Spring
Wordless Wednesday- Throwback Summer Flowers
Words Have Power
It’s interesting to write this post about powerful words for a couple different reasons. I’m fascinated by the messages in the pictures for one, but also by how much words can affect our daily life. As an LPC, my entire job is word based, even if the client in question doesn’t know what words to use, or a child who maybe speaks through play instead of vocally. And it’s kind of meta to be writing a blog post about words, even if I know only a few people will read it.
I follow a lot of librarians and indie bookstore owners too on different social media sites (shout out to Bettie’s Pages and Blackstone Books and Cultural Center) and it’s been very interesting to see what has come up during Banned Books Week. Words are important. We should be choosing our words and our time to speak more carefully. Whether you are speaking about something you’re passionate about, something you’re concerned about, or with joy, our words have impacted others more than we know. They also impact our own sense of self and worth.
With that in mind, I’d like to share some more pictures from Meadowbrook Art in the Elements. One of the artists created floral sculptures based on the work of Masaru Emoto who proposes that molecules of water can be affected by our words, thoughts, and feelings. He froze the water and photographed the crystalline formations that he claimed represented each type of thought or sound. While his theory has come under criticism and is reportedly flawed, it still can make us think about the ways we talk to ourselves and others. Whether or not you believe it, the floral sculptures were beautiful and I hope inspire you.
At the end of the exhibit there were two bouquets that you were invited to either write positive or negative messages or words on their vases. I didn’t see the end result of this, as we came on the last day. But here are the bouquets for your viewing.
I hope this has inspired you, even though it may be a silly thing. We are 60% water after all. Speak kindly to yourselves, friends!
Simple Sunday- Plants For Life
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”
― John Muir
“Plants give us oxygen for the lungs and for the soul. — Linda Solegato
“The planting of a tree, especially one of the long-living hardwood trees, is a gift which you can make to posterity at almost no cost and with almost no trouble, and if the tree takes root it will far outlive the visible effect of any of your other actions, good or evil.”
― George Orwell
“In the rain forest, no niche lies unused. No emptiness goes unfilled. No gasp of sunlight goes untrapped. In a million vest pockets, a million life-forms quietly tick. No other place on earth feels so lush. Sometimes we picture it as an echo of the original Garden of Eden—a realm ancient, serene, and fertile, where pythons slither and jaguars lope. But it is mainly a world of cunning and savage trees. Truant plants will not survive. The meek inherit nothing. Light is a thick yellow vitamin they would kill for, and they do. One of the first truths one learns in the rain forest is that there is nothing fainthearted or wimpy about plants.”
― Diane Ackerman, The Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds
“Plants are like people: they’re all different and a little bit strange.” — John Kehoe
“We may think we are nurturing our garden, but of course it’s our garden that is really nurturing us.” – Jenny Uglow
Wordless Wednesday- Iris Pictures
