« Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air. »

Thread for May 17th, 2020 (1)

I know how fortunate I am to have this within my 5km.
I hesitated to share it, but the season is short, and I think a few people who know it, and those who do not, may take pleasure in a memory of summers past...and those to come. (2)

We enter the garden to be greeted by the first gasp of colour climbing the steep hillside before our eyes.
(3)

The day is mild, dull, sultry almost, beneath the trees.
Only the occasional glimpse of sunlight through the branches.
Calm and still.
A few odd voices penetrate the stillness from time to time.
The birds and the breeze have taken over this space.
(4)

Around each corner another surprise awaits us.
(5)

The trunks of the trees are gnarled and tortuous as they weave their way towards the light, each one competing with the next, to reach the light, or so it seems.
(6)

They have names I think, but they are whispered so quietly that I cannot quite remember them. (7)

They are surrounded by a community of trees. Hugely ancient branches of the native woods intermingled with some tropical types.
(8)

And the light that peeps through their branches. (9)

Then on to the hidden treasures from ancient times, the fallen dolmen which I always happen upon but cannot find first off, hidden as it is amongst the winding paths.
(10)

A final farewell (11)

On the pathway home, we step by to let an older couple pass.
Frail, finding it hard to walk, bowed with the weight of weeks at home, no doubt, determined to make it to this feast for the senses.
Their clear sense of purpose-perhaps an annual May pilgrimage? (12)

This is the Rhododendron Garden. Magnificent always.
We are:

« Eloquently new and abandoned to its delirious beat.
O unworn world enrapture me, encapture me in a web
Of fabulous grass and eternal voices by a beech,
Feed the gaping need of my senses, give me ad lib
(13)

To pray unselfconsciously with overflowing speech
For this soul needs to be honoured with a new dress woven
From green and blue things and arguments that cannot be proven. »

I hope you enjoyed the tour!
(14)