Category Archives: Gardens

Asters

Donald Culross Peattie An Almanac for Moderns September Fifth [entry devoted to asters] Here some call the white ones frostflower, for they come as the frost comes, as a breath upon the landscape, a silver rime of chill flowering in … Continue reading

Posted in Gardens | Leave a comment

3 Lecture-Letters on Wabi-Sabi

for Pauline and Désirée Letter One Hello So glad you signed up for the weekly Wabi Sabi info flow. This week — surprise — there are no pictures. I was looking at the well seasoned wok in which almost nothing … Continue reading

Posted in Gardens, Perception, Storytelling | Leave a comment

Horticultural Rorschach

The front of a card sent by my friend Nicola made by her friend and hairdresser Kevin. Sent to mark my birthday. I love the translucent quality of the bloom. I think they are parrot tulips. Nicola says they could … Continue reading

Posted in Gardens | Leave a comment

As the Wisteria Twines

A wondrous woody vine, wisteria stretches up and over supporting structures just like this opening verse Don’t blame the wisteria for setting off a feeling like freedom a feeling like joy Deborah Landau “don’t blame the wisteria” in Soft targets … Continue reading

Posted in Gardens, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Reluctance of the Verb

The allusion here is to the secret life of plants and the roots/routes of tree talk. On trees communicating with each other see https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-whispering-trees-180968084/ An analogy between the human world of relations and trees in the city] concludes “Boxed In” … Continue reading

Posted in Gardens, Perception | Tagged | Leave a comment

Plant Contemplation and the End of Contemplation

Roger Deakin Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees “The Bluebell Picnic” On the art and garden of John Nash Quite why so many woodland plants are poisonous is an interesting question, but the bluebell is one of them. The sleep of … Continue reading

Posted in Gardens | Tagged | Leave a comment

Ever Green In the Archive

From ad copy from the London Review of Books Spring is here, but the LRB, like cypress, pine, fir, cedar, spruce, hemlock, juniper, eucalyptus and magnolia trees, is evergreen. Which is to say that pieces and issues from a month, … Continue reading

Posted in Gardens | Tagged | Leave a comment

Unplucked by the Copy Editor

The Gardens of Emily Dickinson by Judith Farr sports a close up of the stamens of a daylily on its cover and a fragment from Dickinson (1058) “Bloom — is Result” (in Emily’s hand?) It is up close that some … Continue reading

Posted in Booklore, Gardens, Poetry | Leave a comment

The Return

Garden Lore of Ancient Athens (1963) Excavations of the Athenian Agora Picture Books No. 8 American School of Classical Studies at Athens I am captivated by the story of the origin of the Corinthian order of columns in the section … Continue reading

Posted in Gardens | Leave a comment

Blousy Blooms

Gillian Sze has an impeccable eye for the cartographies of sensuality. Take this bit from “Mapping the Garden” in Peeling Rambutan . . . A brothel of lilacs Four bushes of heavy-chested women. Their embraces can last two weeks. They … Continue reading

Posted in Gardens, Poetry | Leave a comment