Becky is back with another Square Challenge this January.
We’ll mostly be looking for shapes and lines, or anything geometric that has been created by animators, architects, artists, astronomers, carpenters, cartographers, designers, engineers, landscape gardeners, navigators, scientists, urban planners, and . . . . . Well everyone really as this branch of mathematics seems to be part of everyday life.
If you want to join in either daily, weekly or just on the odd occasion then please visit Becky, the only rule is that the photo MUST be a square – that is four equal sides! You have been warned 😉
Becky is back with another Square Challenge this January.
We’ll mostly be looking for shapes and lines, or anything geometric that has been created by animators, architects, artists, astronomers, carpenters, cartographers, designers, engineers, landscape gardeners, navigators, scientists, urban planners, and . . . . . Well everyone really as this branch of mathematics seems to be part of everyday life.
If you want to join in either daily, weekly or just on the odd occasion then please visit Becky, the only rule is that the photo MUST be a square – that is four equal sides! You have been warned 😉
This week’s Monochrome Madness is being hosted by the lovely Margaret from From Pyrenees to Pennines and her chosen theme is Music. I wondered whether I had any related photos as it is a genre I don’t usually photograph, but I was surprised by what I could find. The first one taken in Victoria Falls in December 2000 was memorable by its location and also the fact that these guys are actually blind.
Blind Street Performers, Victoria Falls
I seem to be fond of drummers though don’t let my OH hear me say that.
Barcelona drummersDrummers in Chinese New Year Parade, San FranciscoDrumming the beat at the Brolly Parade, Kirkcudbright Jazz Festival
Brass instruments also at the Kirkcudbright Brolly Parade (also the feature image is from that event)
A music ensemble on Millennium Green, Ludlow during the Arts festivalPractising in Norwich Cathedral
Music score
A Welsh organ
My singer-songwriter OH playing at the St Just Lafrowda festival in 2023
And there is nothing better than listening to music than dancing to it!
Those of you who have followed me for a while will know that I am passionate about flowers, nature and gardens. In fact I even have a blog dedicated to them. Earth Laughs in Flowers is no longer being updated but it is a resource of my garden visits from around the world. Wherever I travel I seek out a garden.
“My garden is all overblown with roses,
My spirit is all overblown with rhyme”
~ Vita Sackville-West
So what can I say in a single post? What do gardens mean to me?
A lot of the pleasure of a garden of one’s own is nurturing the plants through their lives. Sowing seeds, watching them grow, making sure they have the right conditions, changing them if not. It’s a lot like having children or pets. You make mistakes. You learn. And when things go well, it makes you happy. And when they don’t you try again.
(Please click on an image to enlarge / scroll through the gallery)
Details
I like to visit other gardens for many reasons. Combining a walk in pleasant surroundings is one. Having a nosey around small gardens to pick up ideas of what might work in my own is another. Large estates often have stunning vistas too. Then there are the design features, colour combinations to copy, unusual plants to admire, tiny details picked up through the camera lens, a walled garden, a fragrant garden, an edible garden, a secret garden to explore, gardens to relax in and listen to nature: mindfulness.
Colours to admire
Alliums at Kew Garden, May 2024Euphorbia in the Delos garden, Sissinghurst, May 2024Roses and Achillea and Bugloss at Mottisfont, June 2024Ghislaine de Feligonde (Musk rose)Roses and foxgloves and hardy geraniums at Mottisfont, June 2024Rosa Mundi (Gallica var, officinalis ‘Versicolor’)Tintinhull Garden, Somerset – Pool garden with towering foxgloves. June 2024Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ at Sissinghurst
Design Ideas to inspire
The new Delos-inspired garden at Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent, re-imagined from Vita and Harold’s original vision. May 2024Rose Garden, Sherborne Castle and Gardens, Dorset, June 2024Hot borders, Sissinghurst, May 2024
Vistas
View of Sherborne’s Old Castle from Sherborne Castle and Gardens, Dorset, June 2024Sherborne Castle and Gardens, Dorset, June 2024Kew Garden, London, May 2024Oast Houses at Sissinghurst from the Delos garden, May 2024Cool, tranquil and calming aspect in Sissinghurst Castle Garden, May 2024
Somewhere to relax
Sherborne Castle and Gardens, Dorset, June 2024Ginkgo Tree – Sherborne Castle and Gardens, Dorset, June 2024Relaxing in the walled garden at Mottisfont, Hampshire. June 2024Meadow and orchard in Sissinghurst Castle Garden, May 2024
The last words come from my favourite garden designer who says it much better than I can.
“I try for beauty and harmony everywhere, and especially for harmony of colour. A garden so treated gives the delightful feeling of repose, and refreshment, and purest enjoyment of beauty, that seems to my understanding to be the best fulfilment of its purpose; while to the diligent worker its happiness is like the offering of a constant hymn of praise.
For I hold that the best purpose of a garden is to give delight and to give refreshment of mind, to soothe, to refine, and to lift up the heart in a spirit of praise and thankfulness.”
~ Gertrude Jekyll (Wood and Garden)
One thing that I noticed whilst living in Shropshire was the way the trees looked, especially in winter. Weirdly shaped limbs reaching for the sky, often looking as though they were leaning over to have a conversation. I called them my Ent trees.
Ents are a species of sentient beings in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy world of Middle-earth who closely resemble trees; their leader is Treebeard of Fangorn forest. Their name is derived from an Old English word for “giant”.
I always thought Shropshire and the Welsh Marches were the inspiration behind Tolkien’s novels.
Join in with Sarah this week if you have some black and white trees to share.
TRAVEL WORDS 