GreygirlGarden: Movement

It's not always the case that another day feels like a new day. The past few inparticular have seemed more of an extension of the same - one long, slow day.

I am at my most weird-headed in the morning, no matter what time that happens to be, but this morning I took my tea into the garden and it was a living thing again.
There has been some sort of shift. I'm not sure how but that doesn't matter to me as much as the fact that I have moved towards something resembling daylight.

I've been looking at a book of Turner's paintings. Thinking about him being lashed to a ship's mast to fully experience a storm at sea in order to paint the truth of it. How in company at dinner he would rather watch the light on the Thames than listen to conversation.

Then I found some photos I took of Lindisfarne, which lead to Gertrude Jekyll - the wonderfully eccentric garden designer and horticulturalist, who took me straight back to Turner since she was a massive fan of his work.
He had a direct influence on how she would plant bold clumps of plants to create large areas of colour, for naturalness and expression.

There are always these threads running through your inner life, only you can't always see them or pick them up. Sometimes they become a tangled mess in your head, which is never good, but things connect in the unconscious and conscious minds. We are so much more than mere physical beings, yet seem to prize the physical and outer world over everything.

But back to Gertrude, who was a gal worth more than a mention. A gardening legend, no less.

"Planting ground is painting a landscape with living things."


Gertrude Jekyll, painting by Sir William Nicholson

The Gertrude Jekyll Garden at Lindisfarne Castle

Gertrude Jekyll stayed at Lindisfarne Castle in May and November of 1906. She travelled there by train with 3 shillings worth of Bulls Eyes, the architect and friend Edwin Lutyens and his raven Black Jack.
Lutyens spent most of his time making a cage for the raven whilst Gertrude explored the island, sketching and planting. Evenings were spent entertaining her host and his guests by singing French songs, accompanied on the violin by the provost of Jedburgh.

Edwin Lutyens designed the paths and garden walls in January 1911. Shortly afterwards Gertrude had added two planting plans, the first for the initial year, a mix of vegetables and annual flowers. The second was for a permanent planting of shrubs, herbaceous perennials and a single border for veg.