Mourning in The Garden

The Eloquent Garden

Yesterday, I watered Avalene’s garden. I was alone there for the first time, because she died last Monday. She was 85. I feel sad that I can’t garden with her again. I always smiled in anticipation when I was driving to garden with her.  She loved gardening and was fun to garden with, we laughed, she engaged me with her beautiful full smile, conversation, talk of her family, daughters named from the garden – Primrose and Marguerite, her son, a granddaughter in Great Britain.

Avalene’s garden was full of history….well over 55 years of history. Some she shared with me, of beloved plants, difficult plants, plants given to her by her daughters, cuttings given and found. She called me when she began to suffer lots of pain in her hands. She said she needed me so that together we could do the garden jobs she wanted to do, but couldn’t…

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What are your earliest garden memories?

hang in there, am about to begin yet another Garden, this time in South America! reblogging helps me get into the mood fo blogging about my new Garden to be

The Eloquent Garden

Before I tell you something..I wonder if you’d like to write down your earliest garden memory? Get a  largish piece of paper, perhaps a hand-made paper, or something very lovely. You may even want to frame this one!  Now sit, preferably outside, gaze at the horizon, remembering. Then begin writing. Be as detailed as you can….flowers, activities, people, scents, feelings, colours, places, gardens, kitchens, there may even be memories you may think bad ones. Anything garden or nature-related.

Then, put your memories aside for the moment. Right now, I want to tell you about a morning in Brisbane, at a retirement village. We sit around tables with little terracotta bowls of dried rose petals, others with lavender flowers sitting on embroidered lace tablecloths. There are tiny drawstring bags in pink, purple, orange, white.  Huge bunches of rosemary and of roses in old-fashioned vases in the centre of each table.

I…

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We are not alone

I am soon to begin another Garden, from a site that is currently only tiles. In South America, yes indeed! so reblogging gets me into the mood for more blogging about this venture, I hope!

The Eloquent Garden

In my garden I am not alone….

My Mother is in my garden….. poignant reminder in a quirky pot I once bought her. She candidly confessed to me when packing up, years later, that she thought it a bit odd. But she kept it for 23 years anyway,  because I gave it to her.

My Mother is in my garden …..in the cutting that I took from a  frangipanni that grew in her front garden.

My Mum is in my garden … in the memorial lemon tree I planted,  because she was good at citrus trees. I think the strands of grey hair I took from her hairbrush are helping it along.

My Daughter is  in my Garden….Her favourite plant, Holmskoldia growing. Full of surprises, purple and blue delicate flowers in a beautiful unconventional mix like a Philip Treacy concoction, on a tough unstoppable plant.

My daughter’s in my garden…

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Eloquent Gardens speak of Love, Mystery, Unspoken Dreams, Comfort

The Eloquent Garden

I find lovely –

Joseph Austin’s art

“Seahorse and Coral.”  

Hints of sea lives,

languid coral

with seahorse contemplation.

“Lotus”

Buds and indolent vines

twine their way towards sunshine

to recline

on lily pads.

and Barbara Kingsolver’s  The Bean Trees,  ‘Wisteria vines have rhizobia, 

microscopic bugs that live underground in little knots on the roots.

They suck nitrogen out of the soil and turn it into fertiliser for the plant. 

Wisteria would not thrive without the rhizobia.’

‘An Eloquent garden plan of trees growing from stone’   Andy Goldsworthy’s ‘Garden of Stone’…

And I think it would be delightful to wander with a Beloved within

The Garden of Love at the Chateau de Villandry, Loire Valley France –

where clipped boxwood topiary illustrates four types of love stories:

tender, passionate, fickle, tragic

‘She felt an odd calm spirit here in the wilderness.

Was it like this when you fell…

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crazy little thing called change

yep, another reblog. Still good!

The Eloquent Garden

Humans seem  fascinated, sometimes obsessed with change. In the name of change, humans embark on some fabulous,  interesting, and some might say quite crazy behaviours.

I’ve just read “Maddadam’ by Margaret Atwood. Now she’s an author who’s  terrific at imagining change. She  takes our fantasies, our dreams of change and details them in dystopian comedy-dramas. “God’s Gardeners” in charge of the world. Hmm. Not so practical, it turns out. And that marvelous  fantasy that males and females have –  ‘if only we knew exactly when someone wanted to mate with us’ –  that would save us so much time and heartache we think. It’s wonderful what Atwood does with that one. I won’t spoil it for potential readers, but it does involve spontaneous colour change of body parts.

And plants and animals  change too in surprising, fascinating ways.  Convergent evolution, where two unrelated species take on the characteristics of one…

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Gardening, a cautionary tale – Living with the Alien, homage to Crazy Russian Hacker, Crocodile tea-towels, and reflections on cults

yes, some of the references are now a little out of date, but as a historical garden blog, still good. I am about to begin yet another GArden, this time in South America, so thought, why not reblog a few just get me in the blogging mood….

The Eloquent Garden

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Beautiful Venus Vinegar: Autumn Medicine & Magic

Behold the first fruit of my autumn equinox harvest! A magical Venus Vinegar composed of the most vitalizing wild foods, herbs and medicines offered by mother nature this season. And it is no ordin…

Source: Beautiful Venus Vinegar: Autumn Medicine & Magic

Sing-along-Sunday

haha..thanks Margi from Some Energy Thing…the healing power of Singing Along

Support “Murmurs”, a cinematic ASMR movie currently in production

I read this interview with Graeme Cole, who’s currently doing his MA in Film at Film Factory, Sarajevo..Gosh! a film about ASMR, paranoid love, a weird ear sex scene, actors Elma and Lockwood…a film-maker to watch and follow I believe..

ASMR University

Graeme Cole is a filmmaker who received his B.A. degree in Screen Studies from John Moores University in Liverpool, England.

In 2013, he moved to Bosnia where he is working on his M.F.A. degree in Filmmaking from the Sarajevo Film Academy’s Film.Factory.

Graeme has been creating independent films for over 15 years, and now he has decided to create a movie about ASMR.

The short description of his ASMR movie is, “A reclusive ASMR superstar invites an online date to her studio.  A paranoid romance with tingles.”

The film utilizes ASMR as a central theme to explore the meaning of intimacy and trust between individuals and within society.  This demonstrates a great understanding of ASMR by Graeme.  Intimacy and trust are believed by many ASMR video creators, ASMR video viewers, and myself to be at the core of ASMR.

The film is almost ready, but he does need some last…

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Countdown for Papagajka Film (The Parrot)!

You’ve heard me plug my daughter’s dream- now she’s on her final 46 hours of fundraising her debut feature film so if you were thinking about helping her then here is the link: http://j.mp/1xxTqDC

Just spend 30 secs having a look at the project to see if it intrigues you- it’s very mysterious!

(You can donate as little as 1 pound and every bit counts!)

Gardening, a cautionary tale – Living with the Alien, homage to Crazy Russian Hacker, Crocodile tea-towels, and reflections on cults

Waste not want not. Just eat your lumpy Porridge.

Oh, I just love this blog! His alliterative talents “practicing a pensive thought or two’, deep philosophical wonderings as to the discarding of meatlovers pizza, marriage tips and so much more..hope you enjoy also.

Oosterman Treats Blog

Some time back

I was abused from an early age by having to eat lumpy porridge. It has left its mark and no psychologist or therapist has given me any insight into how this continues to shape me into the present dysfunctional personae, still grappling with life so fraught with fits of uncertainty as to its real meaning or purpose.(Phew)

The weeks just prior and after the end of WW 2, Holland was on its knees. Oats, Biscuits and Spam was fought over by people running towards the US, Canadian and English Lancaster bombers overhead, dropping food parcels. I remember my dad running on a field towards one and bringing home a huge metal box with rock hard but very nutritious English biscuits. The sky was dark with food being parachuted , raining down on Rotterdam. How glorious a liberation it was! Dancing in the streets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_Manna_and_Chowhound

Despite the biscuits…

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My Brilliant Career as Unit Manager and what I found out about Actors and filmmaking

Many people who’ve had Brilliant Careers have to work very hard at them.

But sometimes they just fall into your lap. Or you fall into theirs.

And that’s how I discovered my Talent.

My Daughter, aspiring Director, was making a short film ‘The Storymaker.’ I said “Ok I’ll donate the money for on-set  food.’

Possibly right then, memories of culinary delights as she was growing up, a nostalgia for times past, overtook her.

More likely she was always on the lookout for a free, reliable worker. ‘How about you come down and do the catering?’

I discovered I had a Title. Unit Manager. That’d look very good on my CV.

I discovered that every day at 6AM the Crew would arrive, feeling very hungry. That they would be busy all day so would need many many cups of tea, coffee, snacks delivered on set for between takes.

And I discovered the Actors wait around, a lot. They’re therefore able to consume great quantities of lollies, chocolate. Amazing since they were all svelte.

A clue to why this is so, after the shoot. The DOP (Director of Photography) said ‘I won’t need to eat for a month after this.’

Ah. So now I know actors are special humans, with camel-like abilities. Fascinating.

I discovered that every afternoon a Call Sheet would be delivered to me. It’s an impressive document. It lists precisely the scenes, time of each scene, which cast or crew is involved. For me that meant how many would need to be kept fortified with tea, coffee, snacks, meals, drinks.

Next day, I discovered that the Call Sheet should have come with the disclaimer…”any resemblance to these stated intentions, will be accidental and hugely co-incidental.”

I discovered that if a scene is going well, there could be a sudden visit from the 1st AD (first Assistant Director) telling me that instead of lunch in an 15 minutes, it’d be in an hour. Then in ten minutes again would come the 1st AD with change of plan. ‘We need lunch, for actors in 20 min. For Crew, in a 50 minutes.’

I discovered my Talent for inventing recipes. If there’s an Olympic Category for innovative, speedy Recipe switching, I’m in with a chance. It was a lot like Demand Feeding, of which I was a proponent in the 80’s. But more menu variations and people involved.

I discovered that Haribo (Bears are excellent but any Haribo good) and Chocolate are essential. That without them the film won’t get made.

Actors have many fascinating tales to tell. They are obsessed with Film, stage, dancing, Haribo bears, and know hardship that they deal with in innovative ways.

Then, 4 years on, Emma’s lives in London. Again my Talents are called upon. She’s shooting ‘Scuffle’. Will I cater again? Love to.

This time I met a group of Dancers as well as actors.  Because the film was shot in  London, I had to order Good Weather as well as good food. Luckily for my reputation, I was able to deliver on both.

One recipe I served the Cast and Crew was Tuscan Vegetarian Terrine from Dr Heidi’s Anti-Aging Cookbook. There are lots of Superfoods in her book, as they are now called. Dr Heidi was ahead of her time, she wrote that book in 2007.

It’s very important for actors  to remain looking youthful. If it’s a long film shoot, actors need to remain looking the same age as when shooting began. That’s called continuity.

Those actors prone to Cosmetic enhancement could save a fortune on Botox and plastic surgery if all Unit Managers knew Dr Heidi’s as I do.

If word got out, Actors would probably refuse to be in any Films at all, unless I was Unit Manager. My Brilliant Career would become Stellar.

But I guess the Actors Plastic surgeons would probably put out a Hit on me then, movie-style. So I’ve decided to work exclusively on Emma’s films, as I like a quiet life.

For the  Terrine I layered sliced tomato, cooked pumpkin as the centre layer, basil, mozzarella cheese. I mixed together the salad dressing of fresh herbs,  1 tspn wholegrain mustard, 2 tblspns Balsamic Dressing, 2 tblspns Olive oil. Put dressing all over Terrine and refrigerate overnight.

Look at them. Director, and AD, thinking.

Sound Engineer, DOP, AD, Actors.  They look so hardworking. Soon they will consume amazing amounts of food.  And say “OH good, Haribo.’

Being a Director, you can change the way men look. You can put moustaches on them, without anyone crying assault, or control freak.

Here’s an Actor, choosing his Fruit salad. He looks a bit startled. Maybe he’s never had a woman put a moustache on for him.

Go ahead, choose exactly the one that’s perfect for you. Eat with abandon, because I have  a feeling things are not going to turn out well for you.

As I predicted, dead.

Gosh, Emma’s taken his moustache off him after he’s dead.

There’s a word for that, I’m sure. I won’t talk about that  on this Blog. My readers are sensitive people.

In January 2015,  Emma will shoot her first Feature full-length film ‘Papagajka.’

Emma’s written the script  and her film will be set in Sarajevo. It’s the first psychological thriller to be made there. It will be exciting to seeing how a year in Sarajevo, doing her MA at FilmFactory under the mentorship of the great Director Bela Tarr, has impacted on her film-making.

Sarajevo in fullon Winter? Not ideal for me or my Brilliant Career. I would be too cold.  I wouldn’t be at my best.

I met some of the other Film Factory young Directors when I was in Sarajevo. I discovered that Directors are very into Superfoods, so Emma will find one of them to be Unit Manager, I am sure. I could be UMC (Unit Manager Consultant) if she wants. That would look good on the Film Credits.

Perhaps the film after ‘Papagajka’ could be set somewhere warmer. Montenegro? Albania.

I believe they’re lovely in Spring,  fascinating places. I am bound to feel very creative in Warmer climes.

Emma’s film will be funded by her Indiegogo Campaign.

Please go on over to the site #PapagajkaFilm on Indiegogo,  and consider donating. There are some unique, fabulous Perks.

Emma’s mentors believe in her project, so they donated Perks too.  Bela Tarr! Guy Maddin, Brothers Quay! Jonathan Rosenbaum! Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Cristian Mungu!

Oh, look at the Vimeo! The Director herself talks about her film.

Gosh, Emma looks very good.  She looks about 21.  I think it’s all those Superfoods. You can see ‘Papagajka” in Sarajevo, in the background! Read about the Actors, Adnan Omerivic I met him in Tusla. And Susanna Cappellaro

The Crew, Aleksandra Niemczyb, I met her, she’s also into Superfoods. So she’ll be around for a long time, making  Artworks. Look at her website, I love ‘overheard – overlooked’ oil on wood works. And Guy Fixsen, wonderful with Soundscapes. That’s what the Sound, Music is called, I discovered. I’ve met him, too. Talented Annika Summerson DOP, Emma’s excited she will on her Project.

I discovered those are the perks, too, of being Unit Manager. Meeting diversely talented people who are, and will be, Filmmaking Greats.

And finding out all their food quirks.  But that’s a story for another blog!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting Lost, finding yourself, midnight plane snack-bars and duels for Papagajka Perks

I take a long trip, three flights in 34 hours, gloriously in defiance of gravity.

I discover Thai Airways now have adjustable-height foot rests that I can tip gently back and forward to keep that circulation moving. This is very comforting since I’m a fanatic avoider of DVT. I’ve got such a stash of anti DVT stockings, I expect anyday to be contacted by a TV show that feature Famous Collectors.

Watching ‘The Devil wears Prada’ for some extreme fashion tips completes my flying pleasure. Listening to ‘Flight of the Conchords’ just seems so right.

And reading matter ‘How to Kill Your Husband and other handy household tips’  (Attention: Potential Husbands, this was put in by someone else. Possibly the so-called deity who’s just seeing how far he take the limits of ridiculousness in my romances. Extreme Romance, is that an Olympic Sport?)

If the plane goes down, this book’s perfect for your Last Moments, such a soothing shade of Pink.

Then I discover! As if all these entertainments aren’t enough, now I can check ‘yes’ to “do you want to be available to chat to other passengers?’ Gosh!

Am I the kind of person who talks  to strangers? Am I that person? Am I losing myself, already, after leaving Australia for only five hours?

What then? Perhaps meetup and discovery of a common DVT phobia? Then finding this common ground, unhampered, uninhibited access to the midnight snack bar with another consenting adult?

You know about the Midnight  Snack Bar, yes? Late at night, the Flight Attendants are fed up and resting Somewhere at peace from audacious requests. Hopeful of maintaining satisfaction, they leave creative snacks out for those passengers unable, or unwilling, to sleep. Not everyone knows about this. Good place to swap tips on anti DVT exercises.

When we put ourselves in a different country, a different world, do we lose ourselves? Explore being someone else – try out new ways of being? Free of the usual encumbrances to be serious, funny, responsible, extreme.

I remember after my Daughter left home, went to live in Sydney. She said it was interesting seeing herself through the eyes of people who hadn’t known her all her life. Through the eyes of people she hadn’t grown up with or gone to school with. In a way she lost herself, left herself behind to begin to discover who she was.

And now, she’s in Sarajevo. Seeing herself, and the films she makes, through the eyes of people who speak another Language. Through the eyes of her fellow-students, this group of talented filmmakers and documentary makers from many countries – Spain, France, UK, America, Portugal, Singapore. Through the eyes of her mentor, Bela Tarr at Film Factory

Are her films autobiographical, I ask? Ways of seeing herself through her imagination?  She smiles. ‘There’s a little bit of many people  in my films.’ Her first Feature film ‘Papagajka” a psychological thriller, to be made next January, is about a woman who finds herself disoriented, in Sarajevo. As she comes to, she gradually takes on the life of someone else. There’s more. It’ll take you aback!

Rebecca Solnit has an article “A field guide to getting lost’ in Brain Pickings. She says “Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark.’ And, “Never to get lost is not to live, not to know how to get lost brings you to destruction. And it is somewhere in the terra-incognita in between lies a life of discovery.”

I spend three amazing weeks in Sarajevo. I see myself through the eyes of my Daughter. I see her through new eyes.

I lose myself in the culture, the sounds, the intensity, the mystery, the wonder of this brave, rose-filled country. I experience the unknown, or at least a small glimpse of it possible in such a short time. Sarajevo, Bosnia has such a long history, it would take much time there to know it.

I find myself there, too. I find possibilities. New pleasures. New friends. Imagine meeting a quantity surveyor from Melbourne, as I stare up at the gorgeousness of the newly renovated Town Hall. A  place of destruction and the burning of over 20,000 books during the siege of 1992-96. He was riding a bike all around Europe for three months, in Sarajevo. Discovering himself, perhaps? His friends seeing him in a different light as he sent home stories and photos.

I discover the smells of incense, like no other incense I’ve ever experienced, while walking up the amazing glass stairs beside the Synagogue. The pine scent of the sauna, clean pool smell, where I meet my Daughter for a swim, every day after she does her quota of writing her new script.

I discover I love the meditation, the  inspiration of swimming.

I bring that self home with me. I find a Gym here where I can swim and sauna. Yes in Brisbane, where it’s not even Summer, yet is very hot. Am I mad, or just renewed? Taken back to my Sarajevo self, that self visiting my Daughter.

A blog I’ve long followed is  Bucket List Publications, by a young woman who loves to travel the world.

I love that blog, not so much for the extreme of things she does, but for the feelings she has about her travels. Recently she wrote about the letters she gets and all the  different ways people see her for what she does, and doesn’t do. She’s criticised for traveling with her child. For leaving her at home. For traveling with her husband. For leaving him at home. It’s as if she’s two different people.

I’m back home now. The person I found, swims a lot, does a lot of yoga. Chats with strangers in steamy saunas. Is single. Sits in groovy coffee shops writing blogs. Does holiday things every day.  Smiles as though she’s on holiday. Plans to be in Albania in 2015. Leaves the door open for possibilities.

I help my Daughter promote her Campaign to get her Film Made. It’s an Indiegogo one  j.mp/1tAEIOD #PapagajkaFilm

Go on over to look now. Do something different. When  you donate even a small amount, that’ll help make her film. And you’ll be part of that. Your name on the Credits.

The Perks are one-of-a-kind, groovy ….a handwritten cocktail book invented from Bosnian spirits, especially for the post-shoot Cast party. You, drinking the cocktails at the Cast Party! Film props, custom decks of cards the Characters play with in the Film. Signed DVDs and postcards from famous filmmakers, A character named after you. The chance to be someone else.

Gosh you could even get together a group to go for the Extreme Reward, ‘Producer Party Perks’. Groovy! Party at Cannes with Emma, the DIrector, herself! See her do the famous Happy Dance.

You could all put together the money, then duel to decide who actually goes with her! (Tights obligatory!)

Come on, Antonio Banderas, rally a few close friends – maybe Simon Baker, Guy Pearce, Nicole Kidman, The Hemsworth brothers – just a suggestion…..

Chaos Rose – The Flower of the Rose Blooms in profusion in the World of Chaos

Blooming in profusion in a world of chaos – it is the Chaos Rose.

Roses have a language universal.

I arrive in Bosnia to visit my Daughter and to welcome me, she has sweetly placed a vase with a posy of red Roses and mint in lilac flower, in my room.

I look from the balcony of her house next morning  –  yellow roses arch to the top story, Blackberry canes heavy with ripe fruit, a green and lilac understory of  mint .

I walk this ancient city of Sarajevo and see gardens and balconies filled with roses and ivy geraniums.

Lives slightly glimpsed through windows and doorways partly hidden by cascading ivy and roses.

 

I see the “Roses of Sarajevo’, on streets where reddish resin fills mortar scars.

I see beside the streets the many, many little white gravestones of the men, women and children, who died in this invasion.

I visit the art display, “Genocide of the Bosnians 1992-1995′  painted by Dr Mevludin Ekmecic.

There are Rose bushes amongst the part-ruins of the bombed Morica Han Caravanserai,    where traders and their horses could stay.

Who knows what those Roses have seen amongst the chaos of those times?

And yet, I see in close proximity, Jewish Mosques, Greek Orthodox Churches, all day hear the blended sounds of Catholic bells, Muslim call to Prayer.

 

In the Caravanserai and the Old City area, people have stalls and shops with unique locally made art and jewellery.

I buy handpainted scenes of Sarajevo and am drawn irresistibly to a brass filigree-framed gold-orange worded picture  from “Art Denici”.

A painted butterfly bracelet in brass from ‘Egoist’ for a friends daughter. Handsewn glittery table mats for a friend who adores a sequin-overdose.

 

 

 

 

 

I see elderly ladies on footpaths, selling small treasures. Posies of homegrown flowers, roses, zinnias, mushrooms, beans, mysterious root vegetables. Amazingly, fruit massed with bees attracted by the super sweetness of the fruit.

Men with tiny stalls selling everything from corn on cob, to secondhand shoes and clothes and honey.

People living on their own resources.

 

In the country, huge pumpkins, garlic ropes, tomatoes deep red from the richness of the soil.

My Daughter and I wander the streets of Stolac, see huge pumpkins, take hot Chocolate while feeling the spray from the waterfall.

We walk along the river flowing under houses from Ottoman times, see giant pumpkins, buildings now completely colonised by plants and trees. Curious schoolboys ask shy questions, then give us chestnuts for the ducks.

And everywhere the  Rose. It blooms in profusion amongst the signs of chaos, the beauty, the history and wonder of this lovely, mysterious, intense, relaxing, country.

 

They say to drink from the Fountain in the Old Town means that you will return.

On the last day in Sarajevo, I admire more roses in a garden.

The Woman whose garden it is,  has a few English words and I have only a few Bosnian words. Therefore, we must use the Language of Flowers.

“Hvala’. Yes, she understands. Signs me to wait. She cuts three roses, red, yellow, apricot and hands them to me. We smile. I take the roses and inhale deeply. ‘Hvala.’

I give the roses to my Daughter as I leave Sarajevo that day.

Sri Chinmoy says ‘when we offer a rose to someone, the beauty and fragrance secretly stay with us.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

The roses of Sarajevo stay with me.

I was just wondering…..

                                                   I saw this on Chris’s desk at Statravel 

 

                                                              NOT ALL THOSE WHO WONDER ARE LOST

                                                                                       This is so true.

                                                                    Happy wandering. Fruitful wondering.

 

 

Change – The Secret Guide To Change

I really like this Blog from Sandra, hope you find it is thoughtful as I did.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the different perspectives on ‘Change’ from the seven of us in the Health and Happiness Collective bloghop.

We are soon to choose a new subject for our next bloghop.. I’ll keep you posted

 

Change – The Secret Guide To Change.

crazy little thing called change

Humans seem  fascinated, sometimes obsessed with change. In the name of change, humans embark on some fabulous,  interesting, and some might say quite crazy behaviours.

I’ve just read “Maddadam’ by Margaret Atwood. Now she’s an author who’s  terrific at imagining change. She  takes our fantasies, our dreams of change and details them in dystopian comedy-dramas. “God’s Gardeners” in charge of the world. Hmm. Not so practical, it turns out. And that marvelous  fantasy that males and females have –  ‘if only we knew exactly when someone wanted to mate with us’ –  that would save us so much time and heartache we think. It’s wonderful what Atwood does with that one. I won’t spoil it for potential readers, but it does involve spontaneous colour change of body parts.

And plants and animals  change too in surprising, fascinating ways.  Convergent evolution, where two unrelated species take on the characteristics of one another. Scientists suggest this may be explained by such things as shared climate which accounts for similar changes in both the species.

Then, Plant Chimeras, the shape shifters of the plant world are spontaneous mutations that create a bloom pattern called a pinwheel. This pattern is genetically unstable, but sometimes if you take a stem cutting,  a plant with the same flower can be reproduced.

Or you could take a cutting from a variegated plant and see what happens. What fun, being the creator.

You could deliberately try to replicate nature’s changes. And  perhaps you could also take an early morning garden walk and see what change has happened in your Garden, think about that change and how it relates to your life?

For isn’t our garden a projection of our dreams, fantasies, desires for change, desire for self-sufficiency, desire to control our environment or be at one with it.

Clare Marcus Cooper believes that our house is a mirror of our selves. Certainly a garden is an extension of that house.

A therapeutic gardener may ask you “what do you like in your garden? Why have you planted this? What do you like? What do you want to change? And in answering these questions, you will find some interesting questions and answers about your life. It’s Rainer Maria Rilke who says “we should try to love the questions themselves”, not only the answers.

Let’s see what my garden tells of. Last week I discover a delicate, yet at the same robust-looking trailing vine has mysteriously appeared under my papaw tree.  Its bright green heart shaped leaves and  clear white flowers surprise me, but  I welcome it into my garden and wait to see what it will do. Will it blend with my garden amiably, will it fit nicely with my other plants? Will it need curtailing, or shall I be happy for it to twine its way among the slightly restrained experimental wildness that is my back garden. Time will tell.

And there’s a new  dwarf zinnia, from Spring-scattered seeds, now a compact bush surprising me with many coloured flowers. Unlike the parent plant which, from memory, was pink. I think of Wally, now gone from this world, whose garden they came from. I think about him, wish I’d asked more questions, different questions.  Changes like this often bring regrets. But also the chance to change the way we are,  ask the questions while we can.

Twelve months ago, I put up a wire mesh frame so my outdoor sitting area could have a green wall to shade from summer afternoon sun. I chose to plant a honeysuckle vine, symbol of enduring love and loyalty in friendship and love. And now it’s lush and twining, fulfilling my imagination in planting it.

I placed a seat in my garden right in front of the wall of honeysuckle, for when I want to contemplate this vine and its meaning for me. What’s important in friendship, in loveship. What things help friendship stay through life’s changes.

And what of my cute, maintained front garden? I had to take out the pepper scented geranium, it just wasn’t suited.  Which left a space for something…..What a change in my garden two Flamingos make!

How else can the garden help us change? As Sarah, fellow blog-hopper of the Health and Happiness Collective  quoted in her blog the Wellness Ninja “when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.’ If work weighs you down, would a bunch of flowers on your desk help you and others change the way you look at situations? Would humming a song, my favourite for such occasions “Blue Skies,’ not only cheer you up, but confuse those workplace bullies? Would buying a new house plant while on your lunch break help your mood?

Perhaps planning to get your garden project moving along would give you a new outlook, get you in touch with what’s important for you. With what your dreams and desires are.

Would starting your day with a short garden walk help you change the way you look at things? Would planting a passion fruit vine be what you need?

Not such crazy ideas for change, I think. What about wearing a green wig? A little shape shifting?   Oh maybe that’s going a little too far.. but then again maybe not…….is seeing the world from another perspective,  shape shifting our brains?