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"Pure style is my way of life... a blueprint for living in the 21st Century"

Garden moods

31 May 2013

My garden has moods and textures that change with the time of day, the quality of light, and whatever the elements are supplying.

On a late afternoon in May the garden is a visual intoxication of light and shade: low long beams track the brilliance of the tulips, the green gloss finish of the grass, and the bees that dangle and dodge on the highways of rays.

Like a sleek well fed cat sprawling in the sun, the garden seems to exude a kind of contentment which washes over me as I weed, plant or sit by the shed thinking about nothing in particular.

Late afternoon tulips in the sunshine curl and unfurl in a siesta of translucent languorous petals.

The alliums shimmer and fizz in purple brilliance, edible pompoms for feasting bees

I want to eat it up, the deliciousness of the garden; it primes the appetite for taste and smell for the visual and the sensual. This is the time of day to sit under the blossom of the apple tree in the dappled shade and eat meringues, cream and raspberries.

NB the wallflowers - especially the lipstick pink ones, see below - are spectacular this spring!

Garden Mood 11
On the other hand, or perhaps I should say something more garden-like like spade, or trowel, the dullest no-show-of -sun-day, gives the garden a rather wonderful saturated matt quality, like a fabric or a Hockney landscape. And all the colours and textures of leaves and petals seem to advance and intensify against the grey canvas of sky, see pictures below

Beetroot ripples and stripes of a `Triumph` tulip, below

Silvery green grey Globe artichoke foliage is on my list to become a Pure Style paint colour

Over the last day or so my moveable feast of a garden is more a green and purple scene of alliums, nodding and swaying in the breeze as the remaining tulips wither and shrivel .

A grey day, but the rich colour of Mr Campbell`s bluebells almost sings in contrast.

NB Mr Cambell`s bluebells are the descendants of those that were flowering here in the garden when the previous owners Bernard, and his parents did all the things that people did before technology, like taking afternoon tea in the shed, or sitting in deckchairs in Flannels waiting for Cook to ring the bell for luncheon.