Bruce Barone: Picture Poems

Bruce Barone, professional photographer, is fearless.  His self-portraits in the garden are picture poems.  

More, he has made them a series.  First glance, mundane.  Second glance, entire worlds.

Seems easy, his self-portraits.  Closer inspection, he's at the peak of his game.

I perused a thick Annie Leibovitz book at a friend's home when I spent the night and came away thinking her work, in that book, was cliched & derivative.  Her initial inspiration was alive, the derivatives, lifeless.

Bruce has the spirit of his heart, with the skill of his brain, in each picture.

In addition to fearless, I see the generosity in what he shares with us.

Of course he has a broad pallet,   New Photography   Blog   Poetry   Bruce's Kitchen   About   Contact   Prints   Greeting Cards .  

This is not an ad for Bruce Barone.
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Simple thanks for the enjoyment his work brings my heart.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics from Bruce's Facebook page.

Garden Design: Designed to Handle the Toughest Thoughts

Almost 2 decades ago, working in my garden, I spent much time praying for 3 quite ill friends.  By the end of the year my lesson was clear, Pray for G*d's will.  They were all dead.

Late this spring a text arrived in the early morning hours.  An extended family member, age 50, was dead, suicide.
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Something new to take into my garden.
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I did not like her yet knew where those odious parts of her personality arose.  In her teens I witnessed the train wreck passed off as 'parenting'.  An entire family melodrama, for decades, her parents ensorceled their clan into tacit approval yet the ridiculous cliche was true, The king wore no clothes.
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We were the only 2 at Lake Rabun, she had her 3 dogs, I had my 2.  Slept late, swam, played with the dogs, boated most of the afternoon, a picnic for lunch on the concrete dock, sunburned, it was dark when we sat in the kitchen, champagne + canapes, for dinner.  Is there any better chaos than 5 dogs in a small kitchen and cold champagne?   Casement windows & French doors wide open, it rates, still, as one of my favorite all time good dinners.  Total laughter
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Before calling her brother I made a list of all the validation points he would need to hear from me.  A good person he suffered the most, after her, in collateral damage from her raising.  And he tried many times in many ways thru the years to help her.  Only to be treated shabbily by her in return.  A long call, he meandered of his own volition thru each of the validation points I had written.
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A text last weekend, he had received the coroners report.  Conclusively, suicide.  Is her headstone at the cemetery yet?  With no more than that he knows what I'm asking,  Will you meet me at the cemetery when it's there?
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Married 30 years, I couldn't live with his alcoholism anymore.  Divorced almost 2 years, we will meet at the cemetery whenever.  No one can blame another for their drinking yet I know his family dynamics contributed greatly.  Sham parenting which bullied all those around into silence, Emotional Blackmail, Be complicit she is fine our parenting is fine.
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In my garden I realized she was one of the best at rescuing cats/dogs, I wish she had known that.  Our champagne dinner and all the pets she rescued, it's enough to remember someone with a smile.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Sham parenting?  They did everything John Rosemond says not to do, aka, give a man a fish dinner or teach him how to fish.  Her parents merely fed her fish.
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Pic via Gervais de Bedee.

Doorstep Gardening

A bit of vine & gravel to the house.

Repeated across continents for centuries.
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Affordable to install, inexpensive to maintain.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic via A Bloomsbury Life.  After years of lust for gravel & vine I did it for myself.  Still curious why I waited so long.

Things That Inspire

Their home is large, and so are the drives, garages & port cachere.  Beyond the garages, a fenced garbage can area.  

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Really?  Beyond the garages?

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Guess where she keeps a garbage can?

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Of course, near the back door.

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Planter, above, is in my Garden Design.

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Behind the planter, her garbage can.

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Years of ugly, she's excited to see the planter from her kitchen & family room views.  

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic Things That Inspire.

Wendy Posard: Bathroom View

And the garden, below, is art on the wall.

Though a tooth brush & tooth paste seem an inconvenience, above, that is forgiven for the casement windows.
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Oakleaf hydrangea, white sasanqua, tea olive, gardenia, Natchez crapes, asiatic jasmine, akebia, & the requisite oaks, conifers, kousa dogwood, grancy graybeard, sourwood,  yes, I know exactly the garden for this view.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic Wendy Posard.  Imagine every window with a garden view.  That is my starting point.  Anything less is a trifling effort.

I Know Why Your Landscape Doesn't Look Like It Should

I know why landscapes do not look the way the majority of owners want them to.

Micro: We see a beautiful landscape, in person or picture, and isolate a few things to copy.  This cuts 'the hermeneutic circle',  ("which describes how any single part (a word, a line, a data point) of a book is best interpreted after completing the whole work. The whole explains the deeper meaning of the parts, though individual parts constitute the whole." Harvard Business Review, 11-14-13)  
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Macro: The Dirt Bias.  Somehow, the thinking goes, it's just dirt and there could not possibly be any 'great' intellect required to make dirt do-what-I-want.
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Yet, most people are Intuitive Gardeners.   Why, then, are there not oodles & oodles of gorgeous (Human made) landscapes doting the globe?  You don't trust yourself.  Your inner voice seems too simple.
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Why can I design the landscape you want?  I listen to your inner voice.  Instead of fearing it, I take it and PLAY !  Keeping every element simple & functional & pretty.
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Creating beautiful landscapes is as easy as following a recipe.
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Alas, that Dirt Bias & ego of intellect.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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You know I was the former Queen of the Dirt Bias, glad that reign is over.
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Pic, my lunch.  Little time to cook, the presentation is always lovely.
 

Michele Bonan: Architecture + Interior + Garden

Much to delight, below.  

Garden design with only 2 elements.  Meadow & vine.  A combination from agrarian ideals.
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A duo screaming, This is not in USA !  At the minimum, not a USA garden designer.
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How do I know?  There is no monoculture lawn, green meatballs + concrete sidewalk from the French doors.  'That' type of garden design is pure post industrial.
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I 'see' gardens before architecture + interiors.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pic Michele Bonan.   Liked Bonan for his garden, above, then discover he does architecture and yacht design too.  Of course, he is not American.  Italian.  Alas, an American 'designer' working for a typical design-build-maintain landscape company would be fired for the garden design, above.  Why?  Not much money in meadow + vine.  Agrarian derivatives are human factored, sustainable, Nature.  Post industrial derivative landscapes are consumer, $$$, driven.
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Yes, been reading Wendell Berry in the tub again !  When you have time, click the link, it's a fabulous interview with Berry by Bill Moyers.

Wendy Posard: Kitchen + Garden

When the garden is a feature of the kitchen I know the architect has gone beyond their education.  And delved into the realm of intuitive.

Flooring flows inside/outside and the scale is charming vs. large.  Other comparisons: happy vs. large, nurturing vs. large.......
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Necessity vs. luxury.
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"I can live without the necessities but I must have the luxuries.", a quote I first heard age 8, repeated by Miss Katherine Scott, a grand influence.
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Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara
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Pic is a Wendy Posard project.

Empty Fabulous Pots

Pots so fabulous they can remain empty are the best pots.

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Why?

What fun to doll-them up for a party.  And that's only reason #5.

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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara

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Pic Greige Design. 

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Had the empty pot epiphany at Glamis Castle, and named this garden design rule, The Queen's Pot !  

Garden Design's Unexpected Element

More windows should be doors.  

More doors equal magic circles.  More doors improve the garden, and the house.
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Perhaps Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language, knows 'exactly' why humans respond so well to multiple doors.
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Did you look closely, above?  5 doors.  Another thing I did not learn in college about creating gardens, doors & magic circles.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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pic Wendy Posard.

Garden Design Begins Inside Your Home

No matter where I sit or walk-by and see into my garden, there is a beautiful view.

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Anything less is not worth my intellect.  

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Nor my joy.

Bay window view, above, is a huge satisfaction.  Several homes & the main street flagrantly try to appear & fail.

  Adore the fragrance of Nature, above.

I need many places inside my house, & garden, for the impromptu lunch, or reading a book.

Designing your garden from inside your home insures your life a moat of grace & beauty in defense of every thing life concocts.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pics in my house.

How to Site a Focal Point

Chunky hunka aged concrete, below, is a railroad abutment ca. 1900, found in the garden.

Perfect for a plinth it was easy to place.  It's on perfect axis with the dominate gable of the house, below.

When something requires a Caterpillar to move, perfection is required.
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Driving the Caterpillar he says, Are you really sure?  These moments are amusing.  Of course I'm sure.  His eyes say, Glad I'm not you.  This is my job.  KNOWING where things go.
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Ironically, the urn is temporary.  We are still sourcing the right statue.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic last weekend at the jobsite.