matters of the heart...

please enjoy this gorgeous orchid that my dear husband gave me for

valentines day.

thank you,

mr. dan.

i love you

with all my heart.

mmm

mmm

one of my favorite blogging friends, suffered and survived a heart attack last week.

there is no doubt,

that he and his family are happy and relieved,

that he has been given a second chance at life...........

this has brought back scary memories for me,

of my own husband's quadruple bi-pass,

of five years ago this month.......and his (our) own second chance.

mm

keep your heart healthy

and

always full of

love.

snow-hearts...

once again,

tennessee was gifted a peaceful blanket of twinkly snow crystals.

i had fun using my heart lens cover to turn the twinkles into hearts....

and then i had even more fun layering those SNOW-HEARTS ("sn-hearts", if you will) onto some of my other images......

enjoy.

happy pink and blue

SN-HEARTS

weekend to you!!

mmm

mmmm

all pink photos taken at Scarlett Scales Shop in downtown Franklin.

i heart bokeh...

i have been dying to learn how to make these adorable bokeh hearts....

"bokeh" is the blurry unfocused lights in a photo.
i have been seeing these HEART's around lately and discovered it's not hard to do.

here is a SOOC (straight out of camera) shot of a bird cage and twinkle lights, in my sun room.

here is the same shot,

with a special heart lens hood that i made for my camera

and the photo purposely unfocused.

put something cute in the foreground

and

ta da!

sweet little heart lights floating around in the background!

this is really fun, and easier than i thought.

i can't wait to play around with this some more.

just in time for valentines day.

to learn how to make these bokeh hearts, visit here.

mmm

mmmm

we are having round four of winter here in tennessee...

or is it round five? i am loosing count.

more snow expected again tomorrow!

and so it goes..........

escape to the garden part II.......

so continuing our tour of the back yard of this fabulous place.......

knot garden.

hardscaping softened with espaliered pear trees.

more custom trellising on the coach house and i believe, maids or guest quarters above.

i think this is some sort of family sundial or calendar? except it is hanging on a wall, so???? i am not sure what it is, but i like it.

orchard under planted with more catmint.

veggie garden.

perfect.

oh, how i LOVE all the CATMINT!!

this really illustrates how using just ONE DRIFT OF COLOR pulls the whole garden together and makes such a huge impact.

this is catMINT ( Walker's Low variety),

which is slightly different from catNIP (also known as feline marijuana).

from what i understand.......

cat's like both, but catNIP garners a more intense response and is not as pretty of a plant as you see used here.

i hope you enjoyed this escape, but lest you feel somewhat inadequate about your own garden now, keep in mind that money is NO object here and i can assure you there is a whole team of gardeners on staff. lots of Erin's working here!

small and understated messy gardens are beautiful too!!

herringbone brick motor court (use an "English" accent when you say that, it sounds much more fancy). see.

i guess i really don't need to point out how gorgeous the house is too?!?! and like you, i wanted to see inside.........so i gave a peek, just to find some of the family watching t.v!

oops......i just smiled at them and walked away. Mr. Dan scolding me all the while......

not the FIRST time I've been caught!

mmmm

mmmmm

and thanks, follower DON, who reminded me that the name of the artist in the previous post is Fernando Botero.

mmm

mmm

and now, back to winter.......eegads.