A Sunny December Day at Schoepfle Garden
December 15, 2019
It was cold, but the sun was shining when I went back to Schoepfle Garden last Sunday morning. My toes felt frozen by the time I turned toward home, but I had had a delightful time poking around the garden. It was fun to photograph ice; I’m usually in warmer climes at this time of the year and don’t see much of it. The color of the river was unusual, clear at the margins, murky green toward the middle, and in some places blue, reflecting sky.
1 Sycamores like to grow right on the edges of the river.
2 Another, older, sycamore: I was taken by how fiercely it clung to the shore.
3 Day-lily leaves die so gracefully—
4 as do some palm fronds (photographed in Florida in February).
5 The shale shoreline always gets to me. Here is it graced by leaves, mostly oak, and what I think is frozen foam.
6 These water-lily leaves in the Front Pond were surrounded by ice that was freezing in interesting ways.
7 Ice was forming in similar patterns in other parts of the garden. This is water in what I call the Peace Pool.
8 The water flow was so slow that ice even formed on the edges of the river.
9 Water, now frozen, filled a groove in the shale shore at one of my favorite spots.
10
11
12
13
14
15
Romancing Reality 
I really like the composition of 10 and 11. I had fun seeing ice patterns in Boulder last week.
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December 15, 2019 at 12:05 PM
Thanks, Lynda. Too bad it’s always so cold out when the opportunity to photograph ice arises.
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December 15, 2019 at 12:10 PM
#9 and #10 are wonderful shots, Linda. It was difficult to pick from this group, though. Sycamores in #1 (such a strong lead photo) is outstanding, too. Nice work.
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December 15, 2019 at 1:21 PM
Thank you, Ken. I’d never before seen the shale shoreline shown in #s 9 and 10 with ice. It was pretty exciting to see.
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December 15, 2019 at 1:39 PM
Fine set Linda!
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December 16, 2019 at 5:26 AM
Thanks, Harrie.
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December 16, 2019 at 2:26 PM
I love the pewter like look of number 10. That’s not to say I don’t like them all, I do. But that one with the bit of sheen and and soft scaly (or is it shaly?) texture is a rich image.
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December 16, 2019 at 8:12 PM
Thank you, Steve. If I hadn’t been so cold, I probably would have taken even more photographs in this spot. What fun it was to see it like this.
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December 17, 2019 at 2:19 PM
I like the way the ice filled the groove.
Most people probably don’t associate water lilies with ice.
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December 17, 2019 at 3:10 AM
The water level must have been higher and then receded to fill the groove and then let it freeze. . . . The water-lily leaves don’t look quite ready for the ice, still being mostly green. Thanks for your comment, Steve.
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December 17, 2019 at 2:24 PM
Love the first photo!
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December 18, 2019 at 10:09 AM
Thank you, Anonymous. The cliff on the other side of the river block the light that hits the trees, so it stays pretty dark. I also made it a bit darker.
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December 18, 2019 at 7:58 PM
All but the final image reside in one of my favorite places: that spot right in front of us; no more than twelve feet from the lens. Nice set, Linda.
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December 19, 2019 at 4:18 PM
Thank you, John. I guess that’s one of my favorite places, too. I don’t take many long views, but now and then I like to give some context.
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December 19, 2019 at 5:00 PM
The long view of the river has a nice sense of place. I liked the way you wrapped up your post with it.
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December 19, 2019 at 6:55 PM
Thanks, John. I put it at the end to show where I’d been. I don’t consider it a stand-alone photograph. Glad it worked for you.
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December 20, 2019 at 4:33 PM
You’re making good use of the extra time in northern climes this year. I enjoyed the narrative at the top (also the fierce clinging of the roots). I agree with John (and you) that it’s nice to have the context shot at the end. #10 is really special, with an almost oriental spareness. Those oak leaves really made that image sing, and I love them in the others, esp. #5, #9, #11 and #12. I like seeing the waterlily leaves that way – nice light, too. And the sweep of Day lily leaves somehow reminds me of gardening – there’s a warm, happy hands-on feeling to that image. The sycamores are gorgeous against that dramatic, dark background. The flow of colors in #14 is interesting. Cold toes, me too! 🙂
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December 20, 2019 at 5:19 PM
Thanks, Lynn. I find that I am able to get used to the cold. It’s interesting; I wonder how much has to do with expectations. And it’s fun to see things in winter—they look so different from how they look the rest of the year. Driving 20 miles toward Cleveland and back the other day, it was almost disorienting. Sometimes I wasn’t quite sure where I was. About the oak leaves: I think I took them for granted when I photographed them, only seeing them as elements in a composition. But I gave them full appreciation at download. That’s happened before with me. Maybe that’s because I spend more time looking at (processing, posting) my photographs than I do at the individual scenes before me. Thanks for all your comments. Stay warm—except if you have to take a photograph. 😉
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December 21, 2019 at 11:15 AM
A striking series of images of fragmentation, complemented by the unusual captures of water puckering up into radiating lines, as it transitions into ice.
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December 25, 2019 at 1:49 PM
Thanks, Larry. I love the way you put it (“water puckering up into radiating lines, as it transitions into ice”). You are a language guy, aren’t you.
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December 25, 2019 at 3:19 PM