Legos in the Garden

The Huntsville Botanical Gardens has put together yet another amazing outdoor exhibit for us. Have you seen the Legos in the gardens yet?

Click on any of the photos to see the details.


Sean Kenney has designed and built amazing Lego sculptures that are now touring the United States, including a stop here in Huntsville. Some are small and adorable, and some are massive creations, using thousands of Lego bricks.

Many animals are lifesized, with the insects enlarged to fantastic proportions.

Some sculptures are perched on traditional pedestals, but others are cleverly placed so that they become part of the environment.

The Lego sculptures are throughout the gardens, but my two favorite places are the water gardens and the buffalo field.

The water gardens have bloomed a little early this year...

...but some trickery is afoot. That frog looks a little blocky on closer inspection.

The water lily pads blend in with the rest of the gardens with almost a trompe-l'oeil effect.

 Lego koi meet flesh and blood koi in the water gardens these days.

The buffalo (or more correctly bison) that have arrived may not be lifesize, but they are large enough to make you look twice.

A parent watches over her baby in a "prairie" of wildflowers.

 

 
Nature Connects will be at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens until July 26. Stop by for a visit to see these Lego sculptures and more. You will not be disappointed; I sure wasn't.

In the meantime thanks for stopping by here, on my photoblog. Want more? Check out Wander Photo on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

 

The Meaning of Flowers

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In Japan the color white is the color of mourning.

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Or so I read. I've never been there. My dogs have Japanese names, though. 

"Black Dog" that's another reference to death...in a Nick Drake song.

Or so I read.

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All I know for sure is that my grandmother had a beautiful garden. It's May 6th, the 2nd anniversary of her passing.

The day before she died, it rained. Not a sad rainstorm where the clouds linger and remind you of tears and sadness, but the kind of shower that leaves the world in sparkling rainbows when the sun appears shortly afterwards. On days like that you can almost fathom the meaning of the world.
 

 I left my mother watching over her to take a break a walk through the garden and fields she loved. I took my black dog. These photos are from that day.

I have been busy starting up my new business and have been very neglectful of many other parts of my life, including this blog. But I could not neglect this anniversary.

 

I celebrate and mourn in images. Sometimes I think in images. It's only fitting.

 

We treasured our last Spring together. We walked out every day to see how the flowers were growing, as Spring crept in.

 

Later, as it became harder for her to walk out, I began to bring cut flowers in to her. Perhaps a poor substitution, but the smell brought a little of the outdoors in. 

The poet Czeslaw Milosz once wrote a poem and called it "Encounter".

O my love, where are they, where are they going
The flash of a hand, streak of movement, rustle of pebbles.
I ask not out of sorrow, but in wonder.

These days I ask out of wonder and sorrow.

 

These days, when I see a flower, I remember my grandmother. Especially lilacs...she liked their fragrance.

 

 

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Kathleen McIntosh

10-17-1934 
5-6-2013

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Thank you for reading. Click on any image to see it larger.

Weeden House: Century of Fashions and Wedding Gowns

 

 In between snows, I managed to make a visit to The Weeden House for their special showing of vintage wedding gowns and other fashion articles.



For those of you not familiar with the Weeden House, it is the former home of poet and painter Maria Howard Weeden, dating back to 1819. In the Victorian era this lady went by the name Howard in her books of poetry, and was commonly taken for a man. Weeden gained notoriety in the modern age for her lovingly painted portraits of African slaves and servants that shared her home - a phenotype of humanity not seen in American anymore.

The house was taken over when the Union occupied Huntsville and the Weeden family was thrown into the streets. The Union burned most of the family's furniture, but the antebellum house escaped serious damage. Restorations have brought the home back to Maria's day.

Although much of the land has been sold off since the Weedens lived here, the House maintains some beautiful gardens.

A lovely collection of woman's dress graces the house from top to bottom. The Weeden House is usually very beautiful, but the clothing also seemed at home in the surroundings. 

Nicely arranged on both manikins and draped across furniture, the dresses and undergarments often seemed to have been laid aside by the former occupants of the house.

Fashion from the Victorian era to modern day, on loan from the collection of Gay Money. Such a wonderful thing to share with the community!

Click on any photo to enlarge it and see the detailing in these hand sewn garments.

 

 A whole room full of vintage wedding gowns in the shimmer of a filtered sunlight is the first thing you see upon entering.

  
I'm especially taken with the details every part of the garment holds. In today's American culture, clothes are almost disposable. In other eras, clothes were lovingly made to last a lifetime - and beyond as these garments prove.

 Hats have always been a passion of mine. There's a great little collection here!

 Be sure to visit the Weeden House for the last weekend of A Century of Fashions and Wedding Gowns, Friday and Saturday, Feb. 27-28. Check out the details yourself!