Flourish

A Garden Built on Love

Isn't this garden beautiful? I had the good fortune to spend part of one afternoon walking through this garden and just enjoying myself. Tucked away in the backyard of a beautiful home, it is completely apparent that this was a garden built by loving hands. A garden of significance and meaning. A garden of love.

The couple in the next to last photo was celebrating 50 years of marriage. Fifty wonderful years by all accounts. Fifty years later and they are still best friends. Fifty years later and they are still holding the family together in one huge hug of affection. One daughter and three sons, their spouses and children, all make for a loving family weekend celebrating all the memories, devotion, and commitment.

One thing I noticed repeatedly, every person there was familiar with this garden. Familiar with the birdhouses, familiar with the statuary, familiar with the plants, familiar with the lighting. It was obvious to me that each person there had spent time in this garden with these grandparents. This truly is a garden that was built on love!

Pansies Are Her Favorites

My mom's favorite flower is the pansy. She used to grow them in her yard, in every color.
These particular pansies were at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
I began by sizing the photo in photoshop and reducing any noise. Voila! You have the first photo.
Then I used the Pioneer Woman's free action set #2, ran the Strawberry Fields action, and ran the faded edges action.
This is what you see in the second photo.




My mom would love to see these pansies first hand, but she's going to have to be happy with just my photos.
I think she will like these, almost as well :).

Hydrangeas at Regent

These were growing along the wall outside the library at Regent.
Huge! Almost the size of basketballs!

And simply gorgeous! My mom always loved hydrangeas.

And I always love a good flower picture. Crosses, solar flare, and flowers.
Those are my favorites :).

The Beauty of Regent University

Kali and I recently spent some time on the campus of Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

We've been there before, but the beauty of the campus always amazes me.
It's such a fun place to take photos!

You are just getting a glimpse of the lovely fountain they have.
I posted about it earlier - here.

Couldn't resist a little solar popping through the water.

So beautiful!

I found this next to the fountain. Got a picture of one last year, too.

Beautiful in bloom!

And you know how I am about cross photos :). This is a beautiful one and I know I took pictures of it last year also.
Posting more tomorrow.

Southern Charm

A couple posts down, I featured The Perfect Poppy in Newnan, Georgia. They provided the gorgeous flowers for my niece's wedding. The ceremony took place among these beautiful grounds, known as Something Special.

A lovely garden, exuding antebellum southern charm. What a beautiful venue for a wedding!

A lovely fountain, a victorian gazebo, an antique brick patio, and a glorious array of literally hundreds of different flowering plants and bushes place you in a charming southern garden.






Absolutely beautiful!

If you are in the Newnan, Georgia/Atlanta area and need a venue for an event, you should seriously consider contacting Something Special. You can visit their website here to learn more. All I know is that Kelly and Tyler got married at Something Special and it was indeed something special to behold and be a part of!

The Perfect Poppy, Newnan, Georgia

Kali has really outdone herself here. My beautiful niece Kelly got married a couple weeks ago. The flowers were presented by The Perfect Poppy, in Newnan, Georgia. Kali got some outstanding shots of the flowers. Most of the pictures in this post are hers.


The colors were absolutely stunning!




Aren't these balls cute? They were hanging at the end of some of the rows. I'm sure they have a technical name, but I don't know what it is.


I love the reflection Kali caught in the mirror.

These were at the rehearsal dinner.


Great job by The Perfect Poppy. You can check out their website here. Wedding pictures to follow ... soon.