Images of arcadia are with us
Where the story begins
Since I grew up in the heart of a big city I was not born a gardener. It was until my parents bought a cottage on a rural and raw countryside in Hessen that I discovered how wonderful it is sitting in the sun – watching my parents doing the cutting, planting and watering. Years went by and I did not work in the garden until my father died. My mother and I had to do all the work now to maintain the house and garden. That’s where my story begins.
Hard work on stony grounds
It’s hard work there. We have millions of big and small volcano stones in the soil. There’s not a single planting without digging stones with the hands. No spade helps us doing this.
To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow
Audrey Hepburn (actress)
During the last years especially in the summer heat we lost two old rhododendrons, a tree and some freshly planted flowers. It was sad to see but as I thought about how to save plants in changing climate conditions the garden kept crawling into my mind. I visited gardens in Ireland, Scotland and England, in Italy and Spain to study the formal structure and composition of garden areas and colourmixtures. Today I keep Goethes colour circle on my phone to train contrasting ideas.
Arcadia as a ground fantasy
Althoug the garden enriched my life latelely I did deal with images of arcadia before. As a photographer and writer I found it the ground fantasy we’re all longing for. For some arcadia is a garden, for others it’s an urban idyll with light furniture and a dream of green growing out of pots and herbarians. Wherever we live, images of arcadia are with us. Even today.
All pictures you see on this blog are of my courtesy. If you’d like to share one of them I’m happy when you leave a note.
Work fine and do well.
Christina