Healing Garden

It's alway exciting when we can think of ways to combine our interests. I love gardening and photography. Going into the garden each morning and taking the time to photograph each flower - or the ones I like the best - gives me such a feeling of satisfaction. I marvel at God's work and the fact that I can enjoy it for years to come.

A few months ago, a dear friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer and had to start chemo treatments. Each morning I'd choose a flower photo that I'd taken - either recently or in the past - and would email it to her. She wrote that she enjoyed them so much and would I continue until she was through with her treatments. I have.

It can be such a feeling of helplessness when someone lives too far away to take a bouquet of fresh flowers or a bowl of chicken soup. Darlene finished her chemo treatments last week, so I gathered all the photos I'd taken and created a "healing garden" album available for her anytime. It's been therapeutic for both of us and so wonderful to be able to still enjoy the flowers long after the real ones have faded away.

I also use the photos of my flowers to create useful and fun items at cafepress.com/bysandra - such as the Peace Rose greeting card - pictured.

Click here to visit our Healing Garden -- I'd like to have our roses meet you.

Technorati Tags: flowers, wellness, roses, friendship

Red Rose After The Rain

I took this photo of a lovely rose that blossomed on a new rose bush that we have next to our turtle pond. It was after an unanticipated spring shower and it just sparkled! Okay, technically, the rose bush is also actually IN the little turtle encampment we have surrounding the pond. Not just to give the turtles something lovely to look at, but to save it from being eaten by the ground squirrels here, who seem to like red flowers, or at least chewing off the stems of red flowers - LOL.

Anyway, this image is available on everything from apparel to ceramics, and paper goods like greeting cards and blank journals, and more! Choose a few of your favorites and create a gift set - good for any occasion, and particularly nice for gardeners and rose enthusiasts. Click here to wander through the roses!
Technorati Tags: rose, flower, gift idea, garden

The Fiddleheads are coming up!

It's rained quite a bit the last several days and the fiddleheads are coming up. Found enough this morning to fix a small batch of fresh fiddleheads and chives. Cooked them up in the fry pan with some oil, salt, garlic powder, and a bit of soy sauce. Mmmm.... They tasted good!

Technorati Tags: fiddleheads, chives, cooking