A time for every thing

Now that the photographer has come and gone, we're enjoying this (probably the last for a while) cool spell by working on some garden projects that we've been putting off. I also find my garden time more relaxing since I don't feel the need to keep it "company ready" at all times. Here are a few overview photos taken from different angles.

We've wondered if the photographer came out at exactly the optimum time. The roses were past their peak and fading fast, and the hollyhocks and coreopsis weren't blooming yet, although I think he got some nice pictures of larkpur, nasturtiums, and Mexican petunias in bloom. The vegetables have grown quite a bit, and I picked the first squash and green beans yesterday, along with the last of the broccoli and asparagus.

 I've also noticed this week, that while I thought of several ideas for blog posts about the thoughts that came to me while I was gardening, those posts never came to be. I'd think of an idea and tell myself I'd do it later, when I finished whatever gardening task I was doing when I thought of it. Then I'd find something else to do and promptly forget about it!

Ideas, like gardens and much else in life, are fleeting things, and sometimes it's best to act on them right away. However, I think there's something to be said for delayed gratification as well. "Seize the day", if acted on continuously, becomes "Look, a squirrel!" and nothing gets done. There needs to be a balance.

Although the photographer missed prime time for some things, I think he found plenty of things worth photographing. The nature of a garden, like that of the human mind, is growth and change. Like life, not everything in my garden is beautiful at the same time, and there is no such thing as a perfect moment. Roses give way to larkspur and larkspur gives way to coreopsis. Lettuce and peas will be replaced by squash, tomatoes, and beans, and those will in turn give way to eggplant, peppers, and melon. So it is with ideas, and with life in general.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven."

"He has made all things beautiful in his time."

Photographing the photographer

A photographer from Phoenix Home and Garden came out the afternoon of April 1 and spent about three hours taking pictures in our backyard, and I sneaked a few pictures of him taking pictures. It was interesting to watch him at work.  He was assisted by a digital designer from the magazine, who turned out to be one of my former students.

I don't think I'll ever look at a magazine picture the same way again. They probably spent more time composing pictures than they did taking them. First, they walked around the yard and when they found something they thought might make an interesting picture, looked at it from several angles. Then they waited for the light to get just right before taking any shots. Parts of the experience were simply hilarious, mostly the ones that included us in the picture. The photographer posed us the way he wanted us, and then we had to pretend to be working while remaining looking in a particular direction. The sun was in our eyes, so Julena (the digital designer) had to stand up in one of the raised beds and put her arms out to block it so we wouldn't squint.

I'd love to have copies of the pictures he took, but I understand there are probably copyright issues involved. We don't know when (or if) the article will come out in the magazine...they said it could be two months, or it could be a year.