gardens – Oh, the Places We See . . .

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge 147: Kirstenbosch Gardens

If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere. Vincent Van Gogh It was in 2014 that we stumbled upon Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden with a group of friends visiting Cape Town. We had just completed a Habitat for Humanity house in Lesotho and wanted to see a bit of South Africa. Kirstenbosch wasn’t […]

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence in a Garden

Although much of the U. S. (especially in the South) is blanketed with snow this week, many of us are dreaming of gardens lush and lovely. Last spring, in Knoxville, one homeowner opened his garden during the Dogwood Arts Festival garden tour. It was a chance for those of us who love flora and fauna to […]

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Earth

This week’s WordPress Daily Post photo challenge began with a quote from Wendell Berry: “The Earth is what we all have in common” and ended with a request for writers to share their vision of glorious Mother Earth. Well, even though we all have earth in common, it seems to us that some people just […]

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The commanding gardens of Dr. Alan Solomon, a Dogwood Featured Garden 2015

(We are re-publishing this post from 2015 since Dr. Solomon’s garden will be open for touring as a Dogwood Arts Featured Garden again this year, 2017. For more information on times and location, click here.) Perhaps one of the most magnificent areas in the Knoxville area, Dr. Alan Solomon’s gardens opens up a forest of […]

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The Dogwood Featured Garden of Tom Boyd and Sandi Burdick

After visiting the stunning West Knoxville garden of Lane Hays, I continued the tour of the 2015 Dogwood Featured Gardens in South Knoxville at the home of Tom Boyd and Sandi Burdick. With so many people (locals and out-of-town visitors) having the same idea, a remote parking area was set up in a vacant field out […]

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Lane Hays’s Garden: A Dogwood Featured Garden 2015

Although it’s been several years since we last visited the lovely gardens of Lane Hays, we relished the thought of spending quiet time roaming this extensive lakeside property artfully enhanced by Lane’s vision and creativity. Set on the banks of Fort Loudon Lake in Knoxville, the gardens were begun in 1992 using natural elements of […]

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Serenity

Knoxville’s Dogwood Arts Festival brings entertainment, food, activities and parties during the more than two-week span of time of celebration. But the Open Gardens event offers visitors a bit of serenity as they quietly roam some of the area’s most stunning gardens. Sometimes you just take a look at dogwoods, tulips, and flowering shrubs. Sometimes […]

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A Word a Week Photo Challenge: Hole

During Knoxville’s Open Gardens day, a Dogwood Arts Festival event, local homeowners voluntarily push open their gates and let those of us in love with flora and fauna roam the grounds freely. One formal garden held something quite unique — seventeen antique millstones — integrated in various ways throughout the beautifully manicured grounds. According to […]

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Help us decide: Capture the Colour 2013 — White

We extend our appreciation to all who have clicked onto our blogs this week and voted for pictures for the Capture the Colour 2013 Photo Challenge sponsored by TravelSupermarket.com. We’ve been nominated by Terri and James Vance of Gallivance whose entry is colorful and quite artistic, so check it out also. (To see their photo […]

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Riding a slow boat in China at Beijing’s Summer Palace

A welcome respite from the afternoon sun and long walks through Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City awaited us on our first full day in Beijing. We were headed to the Summer Palace, a peaceful, expansive park complete with lakes, bridges, temples, walkways, and artwork. On the bus, our guide asked us if we would […]