Art or Indulgence?

[doversoul1]

This is only my guess so please don’t quote.

One of ff’s pictures reminds me of another landscape that Japanese gardens are supposed to evoke. Some gardens of palaces (?), shrines, or rich merchants’ houses are designed to realise (as much as practically possible) the ‘land where peach trees blossom into the hazy distance’, the air is filled with heavenly music and beautiful women offer you drinks (we are talking about the creation of a few centuries ago). These gardens usually have spectacular displays of flowers but unlike English gardens, the flowers tend to be one sort: typically plum and cherry blossoms, camellias, irises, or azaleas. And as such these gardens are often only open to the public at the height of their flowering season. Other worldly in a very different sense from the austere beauty of Zen gardens.

[Anastasius]

There's 'garden's and 'gardening'. Gardens in the context of Capability Brown, for example. Or Kew. Or a Japanese garden.

'Gardening' on the other hand is purely and simply the love and enjoyment of growing and nurturing plants ( and the occasional shrub) and choosing what to the eye is harmonious and to the nose fragrant. In other words a typical English garden.

I think I've come full circle !

[Richard Barrett]

I found myself in Kew Gardens the day before yesterday and was reminded of this thread. The garden is on such a scale that the glass sculptures don't dominate the scenery as much as one might think, except for the multicoloured globes scattered around the Japanese rock garden which at first sight I thought would have been better put somewhere less obviously austere in design, but after a while they grew on me. Apart from that, it seemed to me that alongside the glasshouses, the treetop walkway and the general highly manicured quality of the gardens, the sculptures were not so much out of place as just a bit kitschy and plakativ. But it is public art after all.

[doversoul1]

I found myself in Kew Gardens the day before yesterday and was reminded of this thread. The garden is on such a scale that the glass sculptures don't dominate the scenery as much as one might think, except for the multicoloured globes scattered around the Japanese rock garden which at first sight I thought would have been better put somewhere less obviously austere in design, but after a while they grew on me. Apart from that, it seemed to me that alongside the glasshouses, the treetop walkway and the general highly manicured quality of the gardens, the sculptures were not so much out of place as just a bit kitschy and plakativ. But it is public art after all.

Thank you for the update.

I went to a garden centre in a nearby village which was one of the more affluent areas around here and was surprised to find how people were willing to pay a lot money in order to place things in their gardens.

[Anastasius]

"So there osnae a God, eh no Mr McHoan?
No, Asheley, there isn't.
Whit aboot Wombles, Mr McHoan?
What's that, Darren?
The Wombles, Mr McHoan. Of Wimbledon Common..................Are they real Mr Mc Hoan?
Of course they are, he nodded. You've seen them on television, havn't you ?
Aye
Aye. Well then, of course they're real; real puppets"


Iain Banks The Crow Road

His early death was such a sad loss. I have all his books ...in both genre (although there was some crossover) ... even including his university stories....delighted to say all in hardback. Such a brilliant mind. Or is that Mind ?

On the gardening front, am delighted to say that in a couple of days time we will be strolling amidst the gardens of Kyoto ..and the far flung Imperial gardens.

[doversoul1]

On the gardening front, am delighted to say that in a couple of days time we will be strolling amidst the gardens of Kyoto ..and the far flung Imperial gardens.

If you have time, try visit some gardens in Nara. I find them so much more subtle (if gardens can be subtle) than those in Kyoto.

[Richard Barrett]

Still, I found my one day in Kyoto a wonderful experience. I can see how the Imperial Palace gardens might be regarded as unsubtle, but they do have some beautiful hidden corners. I hope you find them, Anastasius.