Metamorphoses...

Exactly a year ago today I photographed this small bee busying itself in the front garden beside one of our oriental poppies... but this year the blooms are several weeks away from opening. The wisteria in the back garden looks like it will open in June and the iris are still in bud.

With temperatures here forecast to be colder than the Arctic at this time of year, at least for the next two weeks, we'll be lucky if we experience the garden in full bloom before we go. 


And that, of course, is a reminder that we can't take any of this bounty for granted.




Perhaps it will be easier leaving the garden with the best still yet to come, and as we get closer to saying goodbye, I am grateful for the words of Pema Chodron:

                

That nothing is static or fixed, that all is fleeting and impermanent,  is the first mark of existence. It is the ordinary state of affairs.  Everything is in process. 

Nicholas

This is one of the earliest photographs of the garden design from the window of  my healing room, looking down. As we were clearing the cupboards earlier this week we happened upon the initial hand-painted drawings for this garden, created by our landscape designer.

We have placed them in a portfolio, along with a number of Nicholas' drawings and photographs and they will be all be coming with us on the Queen Mary. 

It was a relief to know that we still really like this design, that we will show it to our new landscape designers and take the things we most loved, including the plantings, and work to create some sort of fusion, blending the history of our present garden with our future hopes for a place of respite and reflection.

In looking at this in its earliest stages, I am reminded that we wanted the symbol of a journey, the gentle visual presence of the curving path gives us this daily focus. It is the journey, it is always about the journey, there is no way from here to there without it...

But...I can do all I can to make it absolutely beautiful along the way.

Judy