Monday, 31 May 2010
Bowood and Byron; rhododendrons and more...
Beautiful, as always. I love the wisteria; it reminds me of "Enchanted April," with its opening advertisement looking for "Those Who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine."
Rhododendrons are our state flower, and everywhere there are banks of bright blossoms, hot and pale pinks and peaches and creams, dark purple and pure white. Then there are the azaleas, smaller but with the same bright colors. There are no 18th century homes, only cathedrals of tree and sky and grass set aflame with spring flowers.
Lovely photos of all my favourite acid-loving plants (try simulating the Himalayas back home in a chalky soil garden and you'll not get very far). That fabulous Wiltshire park was originally laid out by garden designer-to-the-stars Lancelot 'Capability' Brown (that's him in the avatar photo above being pawed by my autochthonous cat). They did things differently in the 18th century: whereas today the likes of the Marquis of Landsdowne would be up in arms about the merest sniff of a wind turbine being sited in the same county, Capability Brown was allowed to drown the entire village of Manning's Hill to accommodate the Marquis' proposed ornamental lake.
A most intriguing development, Justine, to turn your blog into a photograph album and leave it to the inimitable kairu and learned Stephen Pope to provide the commentary.
I can well imagine that having so nearly finished your book you’ve had quite enough of words for a while and want to seek refreshment amidst immaculately kept gardens and the wildness of nature.
After all, as the poet John Clare said:
“All nature has a feeling: woods, fields, brooks
Are life eternal; and in silence they
Speak happiness beyond the reach of books.”
Thank you for contribution, Lazywell, though I have turned into something of a fusspot about the disappearance of my last post on the blog. It's all very worrying, and I fear I may crack like an egg before the day is over.
'I have turned into something of a fusspot about the disappearance of my last post on the blog...'
That musical triple-clause about Bowood that finished '...an elephant in an orangery' has been going around in my head all afternoon. And just when I wanted to have another look at it, I find it's been swallowed up! There's something weird and dysfunctionally Google going on outside your control, Justine - that has to be the explanation for the disappearing blog post. Either that, or you've been horribly exposed as skimping on the requisite hours of slog with the online tutorial for the must-have i-Pad - no wonder your words have gone. (Have you checked to see if the Chanel's not evaporated along with the Bowood?)
Hope sanity returns and you're able to retrieve another version from somewhere...with (ahem) an additional photo of the Orangery perhaps?
Lazywell, thank you for that kind compliment, and for the poem.
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