I decided I would commence a written blog, as opposed to my image dominant (Daily Blog) over at Wordpress. (www.janezlifeandtimes.wordpress.com)
It is a July Sunday afternoon. I am sitting in a large comfortable chair. A chair possibly built in your grandmother’s time. Big round arms and deep to sit in. It has been reupholstered in a deep maroon colour. With a relief rose-head pattern and the quote ‘What’s in a name, that which we call a Rose, By any other name would smell as sweet’, in relief between the flower heads. Unusual yes, however it works really well.
The winter sunshine is flooding the room. A gentle breeze is creating enough movement to be pleasant.
I can hear a bird chirping, perhaps it is two? They trill now and then; evoking memories of my parent’s cottage garden….my father built in a pond with a fountain, winding cobbled pathways; planted abundant english cottage flowers, and lush and a bountious vegetable garden.
My mother tended her roses, and entertained friends in the beautiful creation of my father’s imagination, and hands.
These recollections are even sweet for me, now they are gone.
The sound of ‘The Romantic Bach’ CD is soft in the background. Beyond that there is no sound other then the click clack of the keys I write upon.
I have been caught away in remembering’s of gardens through my life: Miss Turpin’s across the stream in Nelson. The large vegetable garden at the Big House in Epsom. The pink roses of my own home in Bentleigh. Assorted balcony gardens, gardens in pots.
If I look to my left I know I will see the herb garden, arranged in pots of many shapes and sizes. Parsley, sage, chives, basil and and half dead chili tree. It was abundant, the red chili pods are now bagged and frozen in the chest freezer.
The large room I sit in now, has a polished wooden floor. The curtains are all drawn open. I have bare feet and I can feel the cooler air dance across my toes. I can see white azaleas through the window and native shrubs and spindly trees beyond that.
A bare and stark bonsai tree sits atop the out door table setting: both await summer.
Sweet peas, a pale marigold and two pots of lavender await more immediate attention.
