The "Golden Hour" and Lotta and Em's Gardens

 Gold-edged curls made from photo-copies of small paintings

This evening, we rushed to the windows and then outside to witness "The Golden Hour" -- those magical few moments when the sun is going down and the low light turns everything golden while simultaneously creating deep, dark shadows. You know -- that Maxfield Parish-ciaroscuro kind of world.  Of course, I did try to capture it digitally, but I wasn't coming up with the right compositions nor doing the light justice.  So instead, I ran back inside to try to capture the above paper curls and umbrellas in the golden light.  But alas, the shadows were so strong I couldn't make it work and within moments, the sun was down and the golden hour was gone.  Still, the umbrellas in the photo do make me happy, and the little curls could almost be construed as having personalities.   And as it turned out, while up in the yard, I had actually managed to capture a sense of the light in this close-up of the Gravenstein apple buds. 

Which leads me to the topic of garden blogs:  If you're a gardener, or simply a lover of flowers and wildlife, (and dogs), you must pay a visit to garden fool and lotta's garden.  Em's photos are gorgeous and her narrative, while extremely spare, is both informative and humorous.  And Lotta brings to her garden blog the same sensitivity and the wonderful curatorial eye that many already know from her beautiful inleaf blog, website and Etsy shop. Really, both garden blogs are veritable feasts for the eyes so happy looking!