Monday 5 April 2010

How would you feel?

How do you see your garden? How do you think other's view it? I see mine as a mini nature reserve, wild and unkept around the edges.......
I can see beauty in most flowers, and the changing seasons.

A tiny insect inside a bloom fascinates me, and I can spend many moments just studying the little creature.
I like my photographs to show the romantic in me.
I love the thought that I may one day walk into the copse and find a woodmouse sitting on the toadstools.
I like all things mystical and magical.......and have much hidden in secret places.
BUT how would you view my garden if you came to visit? Have I created an illusion by showing you my garden as I see it? After all I tend to live in a dream world.
Walking back to the house and the noise of the plane broke the spell I was under.......and brought me very much back to reality.
How would you feel if fellow bloggers came to visit your garden? Would you worry that they would be disappointed?
Tku Gail.....I enjoyed your post today and it made me think.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

I absolutly `Love` your garden Cheryl..very elegantly beautiful...
I think it represents you perfectly..TFI
I hope you have had a lovely Easter.....
(I spent today at the Lakes with the GC )Quite dismal weather but beautiful :)xxx

Have a lovely week:)X

Marigold Jam said...

Not at all - my garden is just as I have said - a work in progress!! I love the look of yours though and especially that lovely blue and pink lungwort flower - I'm sure we'd love your garden if we came to visit.

Jane

Roses and Lilacs said...

I'm afraid I see my garden thru some kind of romantic rose colored glasses too. On our blogs we project the image we see and that we want others to see. Reality might not be as perfect. My gardens are surrounded by vistas of ugly corn fields and old farm buildings. I almost never show them in my photos. As I see it, my garden, my choice.
Marnie

Cheryl said...

Tku Terrie.....you are always too kind. The lakes....beautiful. Spent many a holiday there and loved each and every moment.

Cheryl said...

Jane, I think I tend to show what I want people to see and keep the other bits to myself.......hence the illusion.....

Lungwort is just gorgeous.....

Tku for dropping by....

Cheryl said...

Marnie.....I could not agree more....I think we are definately on the same wave length.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I think your garden would be magical. I know I wouldn't be disappointed when seeing it. Even though I would be seeing it through my eyes I would look with your loving kind spirit.

I have had Bloggers in my garden before. I know one of them was disappointed. Ha.. I don't feel bad about that. I truly garden for the birds, bees, butterflies and any other creatures that may wander by. I keep it a little neater than I used to because my DB is retired and he helps (pushes) me to do so. He loves nature too though so much is tolerated. Now that I am older I can't do a lot of the things I have done in the past. Or I should say as much as I did in the past. I find myself planting bushes instead of more perennials and just trying to keep up. Such is life I guess. I always see my garden as a work in progress.

Liz said...

Hi Cheryl,

I think anyone would love to walk around your garden, certainly from your images it seems like any wildlife gardener's dream.

I'm also certain that one day you will see your Woodmouse on a Toadstool :)

We all have those dark little corners that we don't want people to see, or rather we don't see them let alone show them to others!

Cheryl said...

I love your attitude Lisa, but then I knew that I would. You are always so accepting, a lovely quality......

Cheryl said...

Hi Liz.....it is most certainly a wildlife garden.....it is also extremely untidy at times. I am smiling as I type.....

I would love to see a woodmouse on the toadstool...wouldn't that be just perfect.

I suppose at the end of the day beauty is in the eye of the beholder.....

Tku for you kind comment.....

o2bhiking said...

I live in a townhouse and have no place for a garden, but I always enjoy those of others, including yours. Thanks for sharing. It is always beautiful. I bet if Beatrice Potter had seen it, she would have written a book about it, something like "The Tale of Wanda Woodmouse and the Toadstool."

Gail said...

Dear Cheryl, I have long admired your garden and the spiritual feeling that surrounds it! You know what I mean~~it's a safe place for souls to enter!

I went into an almost panic thinking that it wasn't all in bloom...but, then i reminded myself that the woman coming was a friend and a gardener and that the garden is mine, for nature and wildlife...not the neighbors. Like Lisa I did have a visitor who I could tell was very disappointed...He never said one word about anything! LOL!

gail

Wendy said...

I love the mystical, romantic and spiritual quality of your garden too. All living things are welcome. I see you putting heart and soul into serving Mother Earth and her creatures and in return, Mother Earth sends you gifts - a hedgehog to nurture, a little bee who has lost its way, a new species of bird, and much, much more.

I don't really know how people would see my garden. Some would be disappointed and others just accepting of my garden and how it reflects who I am.

beckie said...

Cheryl, your garden would be a most magical place to me. I know how hard you work to create a santuary for all of nature and I would see that. Blooms are gorgeous, but not all a garden is made of. It's the purpose that should come to mind and with yours it would. Oh, if only I could see it some day.

My garden is what it is-a work in progress, as others have said. I like it and if some one else doesn't, oh well. :) My garden is for me to enjoy. A place to plant what I like. A place for the bees and butterflies and birds.

No, I don't think I would be upset if others didn't see it like I do. It makes me happy and that is enough.

Cheryl said...

Hi Art...tku....your comment made me smile.

Cheryl said...

Hi Gail....I think you are very generous to invite fellow gardeners to your space. It takes a lot of courage.....

I am not that confident in showing others but I love the garden and at the end of the day that is all that matters.......

Cheryl said...

Hi Wendy....tku, you are so very kind.

I can honestly say, I just enjoy seeing other people's gardens. When someone has loved and tended a space, regardless of it's layout etc, it is surely beautiful.

Cheryl said...

Wendy.....meant to say hope things are improving daily......thinking of you often.

Monica the Garden Faerie said...

I view my garden very much like yours. I have a lot of weeds no matter what I do and unkempt edges. I do think others might not see the beauty I see in it, but I would love bloggers to visit my garden. I have been lucky to visit four garden bloggers gardens, but no one has yet seen mine.(I would want some advance notice, though, just so I could panic for a few days, LOL.)

Cheryl said...

Dear Beckie....that is what I like a positive attitude. You love it and that is that. I am sure your garden reflects your spirit.....

Thank you re my garden. I suppose this year has been so different....I have spent more time taking things out (winter and rabbit damage) than planting up.
The garden will come, it's just taking a long time......

Cheryl said...

Monica....your comments are always great. I do love your attitude to life. I perhaps one day will come visit your garden....who knows!!

Dan said...

Hi Cheryl
I think the space that is your garden should reflect what you most would like to see in it, and what you enjoy most. I doubt the little woodmouse would feel at home in a plucked and pruned garden as he would on a magic toadstool ;o)
I wouldn't let the worry of what other people might think ever, ever take the shine off the beautiful sanctuary you have created.
Best wishes
Dan
PS Hugs to Nella

Rose said...

I know I would not be disappointed if I saw your garden in person, Cheryl; I'm sure I would be as captivated by it as I was by Gail's garden when I got to see hers last fall. But this is something I do think about myself--I worry if someone visits they will notice weeds or plants that need pruning. And most of all, I'm afraid that a visitor would expect a much larger garden area than what I have. But Beckie comes over quite frequently during gardening season, and she sees my garden as I do--we notice only the beauty and ignore the rest.

Remember this one of these days--my garden is small:)

Cheryl said...

Dan....tku for your very kind comment. I keep a lot of the nettles and other such weeds to help the butterflies and bees. Also the rabbits cause a constant mess which I am learning to live with. Netting has kept them away from rambling roses etc but does not give a finished look. All in all, it is not your average garden.....but in saying all that I love it.

Cheryl said...

Hi Rose.....my last garden was very small and even though I say so myself very beautiful. It was a walled garden and even now I miss it. Being 'big' does not make a garden......it is the person who tends it.

One of the most exquisite gardens I have ever seen was a tiny japanese moss garden......absolutely stunning.

Ha...love your last sentence.....

Brenda Kay Ledford said...

I absolutely love your garden. Your flowers are so beautiful. What a joy to visit your blog.

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

I think I would be very nervous to have someone looking at my garden through critical eyes. I know I very much look at my garden through my mind's eye of how I want it to be, not as it is in reality. I tend to live in a dream world also--something that got me in a lot of trouble growing up! ;-)

I think your photos do show the romantic in you, and have helped many of us to slow down and revel in the beauty and wonder of a bee or bloom.

NCmountainwoman said...

I have pieced together a vision of your garden based on the photographs you have provided. I know I would love it...in fact, I already love it.