Benjamin Vogt's Blog, page 39

My Etsy Photograph Shop

Over the last few weeks I've spent some free time putting together a collection of my photographs for sale on Etsy. Most of the photos are from a series I've been working on, the autumn leaf project, but I've also got some flora and fauna shots. Here are some samples:













Maybe you'll stop by and let me know what you think? Buy a print? 4x6" is $10, 6x9" is $15, and 8x12" is $20. I also have my little garden memoir listed for sale. Hey, why not.

 

One of My Poems

I normally prefer to post poems by other writers, but here's one of mine (which will, ahem, be in the forthcoming book Afterimage next spring). Also, lots of really cool autumn leaf pictures coming soon I've been working on for weeks--stay tuned. But for now I'm swamped, so, to the poem.





Last Rites                                                                   

Believe me when I say that lavender cries.This is why in autumn mornings butterfliesmove silently across the stalks, buoyantli...

One More Spin

70s the next two days (not the era, the temp), then 50 and freezes by the end of the week. I've set out all my cut flowers for the insects since a lot succumbed to the 22 degrees we had last week. I'm trying to fully immerse myself in autumn, in the garden, not just like a squirrel gathering nuts for the winter, but a squirrel gathering nuts for years (perhaps). I don't mean to sound melancholy--if anything, I'm seeing more in the autumn garden than I ever have before. And having fun with the...

Leaf Project and Bee-tude

First, my entry for Gardening Gone Wild's October Picture This Photo Contest (whew), part of my autumn leaf project. This is Cassia hebecarpa, or wild senna.







































Yesterday, before I cut the cosmos and brought them in, I was able to get this shot of a bee. I was lucky with it--the wind was howling and the bloom rocking, as was this rudely-interrupted bee. Rocking. She flew off, bouncing into the siding a few times, over pollinated I presume. I hated to cut the flowers, but a fre...

The Rooting Season

I never know what to make of a season, or for that matter, a time in my life. Years from now I'll remember moments only by vague notions, switchbacks and curvy roads, metaphor and insinuation, a moment of displaced memory mixed with some present sensation that takes me back and replaces time, giving deeper meaning. I shift, multidimensional. You know what I mean--how the juniper scent takes you back to your grandparent's apartment, or the taste of cinnamon on your tongue to a Sunday morning, ...

Moth Leaf Bloom Day Thing

Seeing the below moth makes me want green eyes--gives me an idea for a Halloween costume (but who will be my goldenrod?). And the leaf is from a series I'm working on that I'm thinking has Etsy written all over it.

We've Got Color & Blooms Until the 11th Hour

Did you know it's October? Neither did I. I went outside a few days ago and saw what you are about to see. Finally, after four years, the troublesome upper slope of the garden is starting to fill in--and I purposely have it as fall blooming so I can see it from the house, as if on a stage.







































Bald cypress (rust), Aster 'October Skies' (blue), Amsonia (yellow), Sedum (red), Baptisia (green)





























You might think this tired and worn, but I find the above view stunning a...

Boring Post Title, But Nice Pics

Not feeling talky, am feeling pictorial. So let us see the garden in early fall transformation, or, where did 2011 go, exactly? Luckily, the asters and late goldenrod are still bringing life to the garden, and will for 2-3 more weeks. No frost yet, though it was 33 two nights ago. Appendages crossed.





Tree frog 6" from aster bloom




Fly on Eupatorium 'Prairie Jewel'




View outside bedroom door




Monarch charging up in AM




This male hung around all night before leaving--the...

Gypsy Moths, or Beloved (a fall poem)

tremor in the walnut grove,

stand of near emptiness where I once stood,

demolished, hooked

unto a sorrow as the moths

belong now to these branches, the smoke

and burn of twilight,



the dreamers aroused,

unbound from their nest, wings unfurling walnut

tree-patterns, adult colors—

bronze and gray of decay, although

they are newly born.



This is the why and the way

of how I love them: savoring the end-

of-summer's diminishing hours, unafraid

of the coming dark, enthralled by the applause

of bodi...

(Fall) Gardening -- Passive Aggressive Tips

Being a host for Garden Chat on twitter last night made me think about how I garden, esp in the fall. Also, how I've learned to garden. Folks tell me that by looking at my garden pics, they assume my garden is much older, and that I've been a gardener my whole life. Really, the garden and I were born together in July of 2007, and what I've learned has been by trowel and error, and by lots of book reading and obsessive google searching. Hope some of this helps, esp if you're a newbie:



-- Each...