Gardens – Journeys with Eileen Diane

Garden Flowers ~ Quotes ~ Photos ~ July 2024

July 21, 2024July 20, 2024Journeys with EileenDiane

To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour ~ William Blake

When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not ~ Georgia O’Keeffe

Happiness radiates like the fragrance from a flower and draws all good things towards you ~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

The flower in the vase smiles, but no longer laughs ~ Malcolm de Chazal

It gives you a good feeling. Each year, you rediscover in a garden the magic of life. A flower arrives, and it is a miracle. The leaves fall in the autumn, and it looks fantastic. There is a tenderness about a garden, and you can’t help but be sensitive to that ~ Hubert de Givenchy

Favorite Photos ~ 2023

December 29, 2023December 28, 2023Journeys with EileenDiane

May love and laughter light your days & warm your heart and home.

May good and faithful friends be yours wherever you may roam ~ Irish Blessing

Lilies ~ Quotes ~ Photos

August 6, 2023August 5, 2023Journeys with EileenDiane

A lily or a rose never pretends, and its beauty is that it is what it is ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

The rose does best as a rose. Lilies make the best lilies. And look! You – the best you around! ~ Rumi

Stars open among the lilies. Are you not blinded by such expressionless sirens? This is the silence of astounded souls ~ Sylvia Plath

The older I get the more I trust in the law according to which the rose and the lily bloom ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

May your life be like a wildflower, growing freely in the beauty and joy of each day ~ Anonymous

Road Trip to Yellowstone ~ Favorite Photos in Black & White ~ Quotes ~ May 2023

July 31, 2023July 30, 2023Journeys with EileenDiane

To see in color is a delight for the eye but to see in black and white is a delight for the soul ~ Andri Cauldwell

The simplicity of black and white is the complexity of the extraordinary ~ Vikrmn

The beauty of the world in black and white is a whisper to the heart and a call to the soul ~ Anonymous

With black and white, what you get is a timeless capture that doesn’t lean on colors but the pure essence of the subject ~ Anonymous

Savor your journeys, near or far, real or imagined

Boise Rose Garden, Boise, Idaho ~ Photos ~ May 2023

July 23, 2023July 22, 2023Journeys with EileenDiane

It is the time you have spent on your rose that makes her so important ~ Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Truths and roses have thorns about them ~ Henry David Thoreau

The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies. Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential. It seems to be constantly in the process of change: Yet at each state, at each moment, it is perfectly all right as it is ~ Paulo Coelho

If the rose puzzled its mind over the question of how it grew, it would not have been the miracle that it is ~ J. B. Yeats

Japanese Friendship Garden ~ Idaho Falls, Idaho ~ Photos ~ May 2023

June 28, 2023June 27, 2023Journeys with EileenDiane

The art of stone in a Japanese garden is that of placement. Its ideal does not deviate from that of nature. ~ Isamu Noguchi

In order to comprehend the beauty of a Japanese garden, it is necessary to understand – or at least to learn to understand ~ the beauty of stone. ~ Lafcadio Hearn

No one will understand a Japanese garden until you’ve walked through one, and you hear the crunch underfoot, and you smell it, and you experience it over time. Now there’s no photograph or any movie that can give you that experience ~ J. Carter Brown

The beautiful Japanese Friendship Garden, located on the Snake River, has a traditional Japanese garden gate, a viewing platform, a “Dragon Path” across a pond and a deck plus many water features. It was developed to celebrate thirty years association with their sister city in Japan, Tokai-Mura. It’s a marvelous place to spend time with nature prior to walking further to explore the Green Belt and the falls of Idaho Falls.

Road Trip to Yellowstone National Park ~ Overview ~ Photos ~ May 2023

June 5, 2023June 4, 2023Journeys with EileenDiane

I’ve always wanted to visit Yellowstone National Park and finally got there. It is spectacular and I understand why people make more than one visit and/or stay for longer than a few days. I planned to travel prior to Memorial Weekend and waited until the snow season was over (though there was snow on the ground in the higher elevations).

My route from western Washington started with the I-90, stopping in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. I had time to visit a favorite book store (“The Well Read Moose”) before heading to Butte, Montana to break up the drive. Leaving Butte, I went over Homestake Pass (6,329 feet, the Continental Divide) and then local Montana highways to West Yellowstone.

Yellowstone National Park has 5 entrances. I chose the West Entrance as the town is very close to the park. My favorite part was the Canyon area. And I mentally made a note to return to see more of the northern part of the park. Should you travel to this area, definitely check online or guide books for valuable information.

West Yellowstone has a fabulous Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. And while I saw magnificent bison in the park, I am glad I visited the Discovery Center to see the wolves and bears.

Leaving the park, I traveled via the South Exit, noting that the restaurant at Grant Village was closed but would open Memorial Weekend. The South Exit took me to the gorgeous Grand Teton National Park. It was an easy drive to Jackson, then over the Teton Pass (connecting Wyoming and Idaho, 8,432 feet; very steep, 10% grade but very beautiful) towards Idaho Falls.

I stopped in Idaho Falls to break up my trip as I headed to Boise. The falls and the Japanese garden are quite stunning and there is a nice green belt to walk along.

It was terrific revisiting Boise as I love the Rose Garden, Green Belt and the downtown area.

My last stop was Hood River, on the Columbia. Beautiful, windy area.

Below are some favorite photos. I will have additional posts with information about the areas, including favorite restaurants, and more photos.

Would I go back to Yellowstone? Most definitely … it is a treasure and should be on everyone’s travel list!

Savor your journeys, near or far, real or imagined

Point Defiance Park, Tacoma, WA ~ Photos ~ April 2023

April 28, 2023April 27, 2023Journeys with EileenDiane

Savor your journeys, near or far, real or imagined

Fall Begins ~ Point Defiance Park, Tacoma, WA ~ Sep 2022

September 25, 2022September 23, 2022Journeys with EileenDiane

Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

September tries its best to have us forget summer ~ Bernard Williams

September is the month of wonderful weather ~ Anonymous

Nostalgia ~ that’s autumn, dreaming through September. Just a million lovely things I will always remember ~ Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

September ~ where fall and summer meet ~ Will Wallace Harney

There is a time in late September when the leaves are still green, and the days are still warm, but somehow you know that it is all about to end as if summer was holding its breath, and when it let it out again, it would be autumn ~ Sharyn McCrumb