Recently, my garden designer friend Mary called, "Carolyn, I need a rose consultation for a job I'm doing, and then how about lunch?"
"Sure!"
After a yummy salad at Chow Ciao in Lafayette, we were driving back to Mary's job when she said, "You know I have roses on hold a Pasanissi in Petaluma; why don't we go get them? And there's that dahlia field on the way . . . " It was almost 3 o'clock, and it takes an hour to get there, but that's my Mary– adventurous to the core.
In the top photo, that's Mary at Pasanissi, proud of her brilliant packing job.
Would you believe she carefully crammed 14 5-gallon roses, 8 two-gallon geraniums, 5 two-gallon bidens, and 1 ten-gallon variegated jasmine into the bed of her compact truck?
We're off, it's 5:30– the dahlia place is probably closed.
Yes, the owner of Aztec Dahlias was driving off as we drove up. Didn't matter, I jumped out of the truck, and lodged myself, with my camera, against the dahlia field's surrounding fence, looked through the lens and began shooting. After eight shots or so, I realized that I hadn't shaded the lens from sunflare.
Big difference! I couldn't have asked for better back-lit-and-glowing light.
Maybe it's a good thing they were closed. Dahlias are so photogenic close up, that Mary would have to drag me away. I love the shot above. To me it's quintessentially Sonoma County, and the nursery culture that Mary and I enjoy so much.
Funny, this is the first shot I took. I was so overwhelmed– I focused on the glam garbage.
Dahlia Delights from a New Friend
Bloggin' around, I discovered We Heart Yarn. Gail, who goes by the name Neuroknitter, is a passionate knitter and fabulous photographer. It was her dahlia post that awakened a longing, in me, to photograph dahlias. The close-up above was taken by Gail. The image pleasantly lodged itself in my inner life for a few days, and in the process, I became acquainted with Gail. You might like to get to know her, as well. Gail's sensuous photos of yarn are a thrill. I especially like this ocean post.*
*Blog Tip
The two links of Gail's, above, are called permalinks, and take you to a specific post. If you want to access Gail's long roll of posts, visible from her home page, (besides clicking the link) place your curser in the banner at the top of her blog until it turns into a hand, and click. You will then see a long roll of posts.
This applies to all blogs. Try it.
