The Daily Dig

November 06, 2011

| Oakland

| Albin

Ever since I first picked up a camera one of the more popular subjects I have been pointing it at has been nature, flowers, plants and landscapes. It was photography that stopped me and got me looking at the world around me, and it has been through the lens that I have been best able to communicate about the world as it is presented to me. I have always wished I was a better writer and know that with practice I could find my voice and develop it more over time, but naturally I like spending my time looking, photographing, and editing.

I come to gardening mainly for its beauty and the many other default benefits that are built in right next to all that beauty, like stress relief, patience, understanding, caring, eating better, being connected to *real time*, and physical activity to name a few.

The following photos are of two Trachycarpus fortunei or Chinese windmill palm that live side by side in our garden, and for the past three years they have produced these magnificent flowers that also go to seed, but only on the smaller of the two trees.
Sitting below their canopy the other day enjoying a morning cup of coffee I looked up and fell into their spell of flickering light, their expression of the breeze and mesmerized by the seed cluster. I ended up spending the better part of the day enjoying looking up. The best shots came with the morning light and I ended up getting a couple more interesting shots that night.

One of the other things I have really come to love about these palms is the fibrous covering on their trunk and how you can poke other epiphytic plants into the nest like pockets where they can grow and bloom. I have a whole collection of cool growing orchids and bromeliads loving their lives beneath the palms and putting on a great show with their flowers, but that’s a post for another day.