As I was locating photos for a project, it occurred to me that I have very few photos of me in the garden. My resolution this year is to take photos of everyday activities that are meaningful.

I have thousands of garden photos but the only photos with me in my own garden is with a fork digging garlic and of my hand with a pruner. Those certainly do not reflect the joys of gardening. The same is true for my crafting projects, just the item with no person in the frame. It’s as if these things materialize out of thin air. This must stop; I deserve to be recognized along with my creations.

I suggest placing yourself and your loved ones in the midst of your gardens. Show the joys by getting down where the flowers and vegetables grow.  Lean up against your favorite tree. Walk down that garden path.

Need some ideas? I did an internet search with “photos of yourself in garden” and back came hundreds of ideas. I wrote a blog about the uses for garden photos a few years ago: 3 Uses for Garden Photos  But it never occurred to me that photos should be more than practical when I wrote that article. 

​I suggest here that you forget about the practical and go for the memories with you and those you care about also in the frame. You’ll thank yourself on those cold winter days in the future when looking through your photo collection. 

When in a new location I like to search for a garden that will provide some respite from my travels. Earlier this month my husband and I traveled to Spain and Portugal, our first visit to those countries. We especially enjoyed the food and wine while touring Madrid, Lisbon, and the Duoro Valley. While in Madrid we paid a visit to the Royal Botanical Garden.
The garden was founded in 1755 with over 2,000 plants, collected by José Quer, a botanist and surgeon, during his numerous trips and through exchange with other European botanists. Now, 270 years later, it includes about 90,000 plants and flowers, and 1,500 trees. The collection is arranged by botanical name and includes plants from former colonies and neighbors of Spain. That’s a lot of places in the world.
I had fun looking at plants out their normal environment, guessing the common name that is more familiar to us. It also struck me that many of the plants were the wrong plant in the wrong place. For example, our familiar spruce trees were visibly struggling in Madrid’s Mediterranean climate. It was also interesting to see plants we consider annuals and struggle here, due to our climate, flourishing in their native locale.
And as gardeners, we speak the language no matter where we visit. Botanical Latin is still the only language other than English accepted for descriptions.