Editorial
Reviews:
"Her
exquisite photographs and beautiful text teach us
to ponder the real meaning of life and the paths
we choose. A joyful read!" Nancy
Callaway, Pine Mountain, Georgia, Former Board
Member of American Horticulture Society.
"...
exquisite images..." Helen
Longest-Slaughter, Nature Photographer
Magazine.
"...a
treasured book to be passed, with love, from
generation to generation." Velma
Daniels, reviewer (The Bookworm for Winter
Haven News, ).
"...outstanding...perfect
full-page photos of flowers, wise essays of
inspiration..." Erica Bridges of
Cypress Gardens.
"...
creative vision so beautifully portrayed...Her
love for all that is wild comes shining
through...much to be enjoyed," David
Middleton, professional photographer and writer
whose books include A Celebration of North
America's Old Growth Wilderness, and The
New Key to Ecuador and the Galapagos.
Book
Description:
Beautiful nature
photography of southern wildflowers accompanied
by southern stories— inspirational essays
born out of a lifetime of southern living.
"Seldom does a book come along that has
essays that compliment the photography, equal to
the photography complementing the essays... The
messages of the wildflowers, combined with the
messages from the heart of Janie Moore Green,
makes this a treasured book to be passed, with
love, from generation to generation." (Velma
Daniels, The Book Worm for Winter Haven News, ).
The
Inside Flap:
Travel with nature
photographer and award winning author, Janie
Moore Greene, through the pages of Dancing
Petals. Drive with her from the shores of
Florida’s Panhandle, along the middle
Georgia highways to the meadows and mountain
peaks of the Appalachians.
Before you even
realize you’ve left home, you will find
yourself standing in fields of Black-eyed Susans
or sitting in meadows among scattered Bluets. You
will kneel with a camera before yellow daisies
and ride horseback through the North Carolina
rain forests in search of lilies.
Dancing Petals
will help you discover that deep sense of
stillness within when you look into the center of
a wildflower. The sensitive essays will free your
creativity and allow it to bubble up out of the
depths of your soul. Treasured wildflower
photographs will inspire you to unearth the
remarkable and extraordinary jewels of your own
life.
The
Back Cover:
Dance through the petals
on the music of nature's song. See the early
morning dew on wildflower petals. Feel the
flutter of butterfly wings. Breathe the fragrance
of flower filled meadows. Let nature's silence
touch the music of your soul.
Author's
Comments:
I'm a Southerner and
thoroughly grounded in the South. I wanted this
wildflower book to be born from my own
groundedness .... my roots. I've always loved
telling stories and listening to the stories of
others. Therefore, the reflections in Dancing
Petals are short stories taken from my life
and used as a vehicle through which I've woven a
thread of an inspirational theme. I've included
memories and narratives from my childhood, my
marriage, and my family, and have interlaced some
of life's simple but valuable lessons through
these experiences. I also love to photograph
nature, so I combined my love of storytelling and
my love of nature photography to create Dancing
Petals. The pictures in this book are from
several wildflower photographic expeditions I
made in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and North
Carolina. There are photographs of a Colombine, a
Pink and a Yellow Lady's slipper, Easter Lilies,
Carolina Lilies, Dwarf Crested Irises, Violets
and many other kinds of wildflowers indigenous to
the Southeastern United States.
Anne Guilfoyle, a
former Audubon magazine editor, suggested the
title of this book when I asked her advice about
the photographs to include in my first book, Dancing
Feathers. "Leave the wildflowers out ,
she said. "Use only the wading birds. Then
do another book using your wildflowers and call
it Dancing Petals." With those words,
the seeds for Dancing Petals were planted
inside of me.
Chapter
Excerpt:
From the Introduction
Wildflowers are a
delight to see, touch, and smell. Soft, velvety,
serene, pure in form, colorful and full of truth,
they speak to the heart and mind and lift it into
a kind of exhilarating joy. They can be seen
anywhere ... on a hillside, in the meadows, or
along the roads. I often see them when my
husband, Roy, and I are returning home from one
of his fishing trips. Usually we catch a glimpse
of them in the spring as we go whizzing by in our
comfortable automobiles, hurrying from place to
place, but by the time we finally decide to stop,
a week or two later, they're almost gone.
We should all take
the time to enjoy them along life's way. For as
Thoreau said, "Heaven lies at your feet as
well as over your head." I believe that
Nature is truly humanity's gift from God. And
oftentimes, in our hasty living we forget about
earth's smaller treasures and their value to our
souls. In our hours and days of rushing, we
forget that the soul, at times, needs stillness.
It should be grounded, and lay fallow as a field
of wildflowers must lay fallow before they bloom.
So I invite you to
come with me now, to take a little time, to dance
with me through the petals. Discover that deep
sense of stillness within you when you look into
the center of a wildflower. As it speaks to you,
let the creativity bubble up out of your soul,
like clear springs that stir beneath the ground
of your being. Bring your paint brushes, sketch
pad, journal, camera or other vehicle of
creativity. Use your imagination. Walk your own
path through the pages of Dancing Petals.
Unearth the remarkable and extraordinary jewels
of your life .... your unique individuality ....
the divine and holy seeds lying dormant within
you, your truth.
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