A Favourite Thing [An English Garden] (General Garden)

Member Name: aefra

Product:	General Garden
Date:	12/07/02 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No unhappy corners, Whatever mood you want it to be

Disadvantages: None

If the following seems a little over- romantic for an op, it is because it is for Jill.

My garden is anything and everything that I want it to be. This tiny plot holds magic within it's boundaries, and has the never-ending ability to match or lighten my mood, however I feel. Winter or summer, a lovingly tended garden never stops smiling. At times, during the lushness of summer, it positively laughs as it invites me out to join it.

The senses are pandered to, and I am never more aware of them than when sitting by the pond listening to the music of splashing water. The Japanese are able to "tune" the sound of water with placement of rocks. For me the indisciplined sound of a mini torrent, interspersed with an almighty splash as a mirror carp leaps for a fly, is all I need to lift the spirits or sooth a troubled mind. I read once that if blackbirds were less common people would travel hundreds of miles just to hear one sing. I have my own songster whose music, just before an early-summer dawn, echoes back from the woods as it wakes the other stay-a-bed birds.

I am a tactile person who can't help welcoming the first bloom from a white delphinium with a gentle brush from the back of my hand, the same hand which plays with the narrow leaves of a bamboo just to hear them rustle in response.

Taste partners scent on the breeze. A light, soft inhalation takes in mint and sweetpeas and roses, lavender and rosemary. The white nicotiana fills the air with such perfume, it drowns my own Chanel and makes it suddenly seem tacky.

Beneath the tranquility, though, a busy miniature world goes about it's business. The soil is a-scurry with ants and brightly coloured beetles and the air full of butterflies around the buddleia. The bees are gentle souls who don't seem to mind if you accidentally brush them with a hand while weeding. I must admit that a "Sorry bee" apology is automatic when I do this
. Just in case.....:-) There is humour as a wood pigeon for some weird reason thought for a second that my pond was solid. It's strong wings saved me having to fish it out, with all the trauma this shy bird would experience. Then there is the sight of a magnificent heron flying over each morning quite low. I have no fears for my fish as the garden is too enclosed to invite a wary heron.

This blessed plot is not large, or grand, or designer planned. There is my pond, my beloved fish (some of which are over 20 years old) a mass of flowers and shrubs in no particular order, and any spare space filled with pots of colourful geraniums with happy faces.

At the end of the day in that very moment just before sunset, as the garden drops into silhouette and a soft silence, all the white flowers take on a glow in the fading light and make the dusk their own.

Why do I say my favourite thing is an *English* garden? That is because it is beneath an English sky.


"Jill Murphy asked me to write about one of my favourite things to help her celebrate her fourth anniversary of cancer-free living and to remind ourselves of all the nice things in the world. It takes more muscles to make a frown than a smile you know. If you'd like to join in, whether you've only just joined dooyoo, or you've been here ages, you're more than welcome. Just write about one of YOUR favourite things, make your title "A Favourite Thing: [ your choice]" and include this paragraph at the foot of your opinion. And post before Friday, 9th August."

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