Monday, June 28, 2010

Trip to Bountiful


Dee Nash is a woman I have admired for almost three years - ever since finding her extraordinary Oklahoma garden blog - Red Dirt Ramblings just weeks before moving back.  An artist of the first rate - Dee uses a canvas measured in acres rather than inches and for paint - she uses lilies and roses of the most extraordinary hues.  Her work is nothing short of a masterpiece.  Her magnificent garden is like a poem - an beautiful ode to the cross timbered hills and prairie lands of central Oklahoma suffused with a lilting English cottage accent.


I first met Dee in the comment section of her blog shortly after I found it.  She is a gifted writer who is incredibly generous with her words and her readers.  In a bold move two years ago - I knocked on her Facebook door and she let me in.  It's been fun watching her world unfold in photos and words and mutual friends that we both share from our years growing up in the same part of Oklahoma.  It's also been exciting watching Dee bloom from a local garden expert to a writer of a hard-earned and well-deserved increasing national prominence.



Last week, I walked out of the virtual world and knocked on Dee's real front door - some 20 miles from my own.  It was like seeing an old friend - smiles and hugs made timeless by the internet.  Say what you will about this strange virtual world we now live in -- but I have made some extraordinary acquaintances through electronic media that I treasure in real time - incredible people whose paths I would have not likely crossed otherwise -- and Dee is one of them.

Still Life with Annabelle
(Hydrangea aborescens 'Annabelle')


Come take a walk with me and marvel at the magnificent splendor of Oklahoma's most prominent garden writer -- and then come meet Dee at her award-winning blog where she so generously shares the fruits of her labor and enables us all to become better stewards of this place we call home.





















































17 comments:

Julie Zickefoose said...

Mmm, mmm, mmm. I love how you get in and wade among the lilies and coneflower. Nobody does a tribute like you, TR. And I love how you chase down the cyber-connections and make them real. So very much worth doing. It's behavior we should all emulate. Gorgeous garden and gorgeous images, and now you have another true friend.

Jennifer Chronicles (jenx67.com) said...

Oh, thank you for taking me on this walk. I haven't been in a garden like that in forever. My friend Jeanie gardened like that - in a tiny, 700 sq ft house off May. I miss her and her inspirations. Trip to Bountiful is one of my favorite movies, TR. It reminds me of my Dad.

@okieprof said...

Terrific, and thanks for the link to the blog!

Love the phrase about the size of her canvas

Shauna Lawyer Struby said...

Beautiful Tim! what a great way to start the day. Thank you!

Shauna Lawyer Struby said...

Beautiful Tim as always. What a great way to start the day. Thank you!

Shauna Lawyer Struby said...

Beautiful Tim! what a great way to start the day. Thank you!

Lak said...

amazing! That's an Oklahoma garden?

Dee @ Red Dirt Ramblings said...

Gosh, Tim, you are too nice. Thank you so much for the kind words. I loved having you over, and please come again.

That exposure you used on the photos makes the garden look so hip and cool. Just returned from St. Louis where I found some great nurseries with fantastic prices. Let me know if you ever go.

Thanks again.~~Dee

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

Well I've looked at your post two or three times now trying to come up with a good comment and I cannot except to say that the garden is incredible.

FAB said...

A fabulously colourful garden. As always you captured its essence so well. Thanks for sharing TR.

Lana Gramlich said...

SO much color & beauty! I've always wanted to have a prolific garden, but alas, the house I bought is on some of the toughest, most acidic land around. As a result, nothing I've ever planted here ever grew, any plant/tree gifts have all died & I've come to accept that there's nothing wrong with the woods the way they are, that wildflowers can be just as lovely (& require no interference from me!) Most of the color in my yard comes from the birds--which I can certainly live with. Not just their feathers, from the deposits they make that occasionally bloom into large, strange, beautiful flowers.

Lana Gramlich said...

Ironically, one of my blog-friends is Lincoln's great grandson (or some such.) His name's also Abe Lincoln & he's a birder. Very nice guy. Check him out here.

Lana Gramlich said...

Oops...I think I posted a comment for elsewhere here. Apologies!

deepa gupta said...

good work keep it up.

John said...

I love the pictures in their own right, and also because they show flora that is much more prolific than most non-Oklahomans would ever expect to see in your state. The last time I was there was on a family vacation in 1979, when I was only 8 years old, but I have vivid memories of Turner Falls, the Oklahoma City Zoo, and the Ouachitas...and in just the last week or two I have started wanting to return so I can introduce my daughter to a different part of the country, and so I can appreciate Oklahoma's east-meets-west qualities through grown-up eyes.

Kathie Brown said...

A beautiful garden beautifully photographed with layes of color and detail. I'm so glad you went and met her in person. Our blogs are a magical door to other worlds. It is nice when you can step through the door into the reality.

Climbing Roses said...

Everything is perfect. I'd like to experience gardening, as I think you does, while sipping your morning coffee from deck in the summer, with dew shining off the bright flowers.

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin