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We’re back with another wonderful edition of Good Planets. For this edition, I asked contributors to send photos that are associated with memories. I believe you’ll agree that the following images and text are both lovely and fascinating.
Note: Click on all images to see larger views.

Xris of Flatbush Gardener sent this photo entitled Cherry Leaves in Stone Basin. He writes:

This basin is outside the entrance to the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Built from 1914-1915 and opened to the public in June 1915, it was the first Japanese garden to be created in an American public garden. This image speaks to “memory” for me in many ways. There are other times the basin has been filled with water from rain. The emptiness of the basin holds that memory for me. The leaves: the memory of the cherry trees above the basin, their flowers in Spring, how they look at other seasons, the memories of past winters like the one about to come.

There is another, darker kind of remembering which this basin, and the whole garden, holds for me. The Japanese Garden was designed by Takeo Shiota. He died in 1943 in a U.S. internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II. Read The Death of Takeo Shiota for my take on this.

Donna Wenger sent this photo that brings back her memory of a trip along a fjord in Norway. She writes:

This scenery of Naeroyfjord (Narrow Fjord) is almost beyond description. Steep high mountain sides; waterfalls tumbling down in thin clear streams; glossy smooth water in the fjord. Imagine what the first seafaring explorers must have thought when they sailed into a fjord and found such a wonderful protected harbor.

Wrenaissance Woman, of Wrenaissance Reflections, sent this photo and writes:

This picture is from our home and habitat in Virginia. Although I’m happy with my move overall, I invested a lot of time and emotional energy in creating a habitat there, and it was hard to leave it behind. In addition, we have a sentimental attachment to this plant. Our pussywillow was rooted from one which my husband rooted as an elementary school project, then planted in his parents’ backyard. We took a cutting from it and after several attempts, successfully rooted it in Virginia. I’m still trying to restart it here in Michigan.

Rebecca of Pocahontas County Fare sent this photo and writes:

Peonies are a memory trigger for me, both sight and smell. My great-grandmother planted these peonies on her Prescott, Iowa farm in the 1890’s. When my grandmother moved to town in the 1950’s she brought the peonies with her. My mother and I moved them to our farm after my grandmother died, and I have moved them to Maryland, and then to West Virginia. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting under these peony bushes, watching the ants.

When asked for a photo associated with a memory, robin of Dharma Bums wrote:

I remembered the other day one of the first things that sparked my interest in the natural world. I was in grade school when a teacher told the class about fossils. She showed us photographs. She told us how some fossils are hidden in rocks.

I was jazzed. I went home, went into the backyard, and proceeded to break open every rock I could find with an old hammer. I wanted to be a fossil hunter, and that was the beginning of my love for evolution and the natural world.

To accompany this memory, robin sent along photos of an associated memory of an amazing fossil find that she and roger came upon during a minus tide in Capitola, CA, in 1991. Do check out this post as it’s absolutely fascinating.

Liza of The Egret’s Nest sent along this image of a memory of a sacred place. She writes:

This huge Live Oak is in a small grove of them on Hummingbird Island in the middle of Elkhorn Slough — a nature preserve. The shelter from the sun that these spectacular trees provide is breathtaking and the area they enclose seems special.

Susannah of Wanderin’ Weeta sent along two photos and writes:

These photos bring back a time and place I love to remember.

Two summers ago, we house-sat in Strathcona, an old neighbourhood on the outskirts of Vancouver’s Chinatown, home to older Chinese families
and, now, hundreds of artists and enthusiastic gardeners. These are photos of the park in the centre: the waterpark, and its reflection in the window of an artist’s studio across the street. It seems to embrace all of Strathcona to me; the park, the greenery, the vibrant colours and somehow, the sense of community.

Gypsy from The Gypsy’s Caravan sent this lovely photo and writes:

I was riffling through my archives today, looking for a specific group in order to do a post, and I came across this one. It immediately evoked long summer days, with time to spend cooling off in the swimming hole after weeding the garden.

So, here’s to “Memories…” and hoping for warm weather soon.

Evan of Virginia sent along these two incredible photos of Great Falls on the Potomac River during an unusually high period for the river from two inches of rain and melting snow up stream. He writes that this is a 76 foot fall with about a 400 foot span.

Grrlscientist of Living the Scientific Life sent along a photo by Sylvain Duford. It’s of Mt. Baker, a familiar sight in Grllscientist’s home state of Washington.

My contribution are these two photos taken last October at a beach a few miles south of Crescent City in northern California.

Don and I stopped to watch the waves and wander about looking at the driftwood – of which there was a great deal. Suddenly we noticed that there were many flocks of Brown Pelicans flying just offshore. They were hugging the

waters along the edge of the beach, but had to fly out between the great rocks to round the end of the point of land. Flock after flock streamed past along the same path. When I finally turned away after photographing the pelicans, I found this feather resting lightly on the sand.

Thanks everyone for sharing your wonderful photos and associated memories on Good Planets. I hope all the links work and that I didn’t miss anyone’s submissions. If so, let me know as it’s never too late. The next two editions of Good Planets will be hosted by Vicki at A Mark on My Wall. They will appear on April 14th and 28th. Send your submissions to – vbennett [at] umich.edu
Also, you can peruse through past images from Good Plants in the archive, maintained by Pam of Tortoise Trail.