The art and magic of Lois's pond and yard

My friend, Lois, has the same creative juices that I had when transforming my grass into gardens.  She enjoys subtle hidden humor and everywhere you look there is something new to be found and enjoy.

Like my yard, she does much of this work herself, with help from her husband, Lee.  She prides herself on finding items to be up- cycled into artwork instead of cluttering up a landfill.

Most people would just stack their wood into a normal woodpile...not Lois.  She found these two huge tree trunks that were going to be thrown away and cleared out the centers to make a visually appealing and fun wood pile.

Some would say it makes a wonderful "frame" for your photographic subject.

She loves antiques and much of what she uses came from the old family farm and is now finding new life in creative ways.

Many of the artistic piling of objects are simply placed and balanced with no chemicals used to hold them together.

We talked about how this is symbolic of life.

That it is important to arrange your values in such a way to create balance and harmony.

To me it also speaks of how fragile life is, being able to tumble and come undone in a heartbeat.

I guess it also reminded me how "unbalanced" I can be sometimes when things get out of whack.

Even though there is plenty of artwork to enjoy, it's hard not to stop and sniff each of the plants that abound.

The pond is it's own special delight, and even though it is quite large, it's really a small part of the overall yard and gardens.

I have no idea what kind of insect this was that came in to say hello, it's very unusual.  I thought at first it might be a dragonfly, but I'm just not sure.

This metal dog sniffing up the tree cracked me up.

Another collection showing her love of things from yesteryear and showcasing their wonderful colored glass.

You can never have too much metal artwork and this creature visiting the birdbath brought a smile to my lips.

Just when you don't expect it, there's another little burst of color hidden among the plentiful ground cover.

They managed to harvest many of the rocks themselves that are used in the garden, hauling them for a great distance down the hillside.  She is not afraid of hard work and has the arm muscles to show it.

Another balancing act using hollowed out stumps.

More rocks delicately balanced in the garden.

There are lots of places to sit and enjoy the view as you tour this massive yard, and lots of shade to make it enjoyable.

This huge ball was commissioned by her to be created as a large tree ornament.  It also doubles as a bird feeder that allows the birds in but not the squirrels.

Part way up the hill there is an old bike - to me this gives a whole new meaning to having a mountain bike.

Watch out for the metal woman that lurks in the woods!

We came across these sweet little red mushrooms while on our walk.

These are just a small sampling of the polliwogs in the pond, there must be hundreds of them.

But to me the best part of this garden tour was when she told me how much visiting my yard had inspired her.  That was the richest praise anyone can ever hope for.

Watch for more photos of her pond on Photoshop Friday.  There was a sweet little water lily bud that just begged to be photographed and manipulated later.

Long Live the Queen of Garden Friends