Thursday, September 2, 2010

Shadow Gardens








Shadow Gardens 01 & 01

digital prints shot and processed on iPhone 3GS: Photo FX, Iris & LoMob apps


Just when it had begun to feel like Autumn must be around the corner, we have been blessed with a few warm days and bright sunlight. This has given me some lovely shadows to play with and I've created the two images posted above.
We're taking advantage of the good weather while we can, as our garden is the scene of a major project. Much as I love our home, I'd gladly leave this town: too many sad things have happened to us here, but for the moment, we must stay put. The compromise is to build a little studio space for me, at the bottom of our garden. Today's task has been grappling with an old honeysuckle that scrambled, in a free and easy fashion, through the trellis pergola and fence that bound the area where my studio will be situated. I've been brutal with the loppers and secateurs but it takes a lot to kill Honeysuckle and I'm confident that this time next year, it will have sprung back with renewed vigor. Of more concern to me are the Grape Vines that trailed through the other side of the now-dismantled pergola. This year, for the first time, the vines have borne grapes that are actually sweet and edible and I am leaving it in the ground until the very last minute. With any luck, I shan't have to move it at all and I'll train the vines over the replacement pergola I'm going to build in front of the wooden chalet. We're having to find somewhere to put all the junk, I mean: "vintage treasures and things that might come in useful" amassed over the past 20 years, so the rest of our garden resembles a reclamation yard. This makes me very anxious and so, in an attempt to keep calm, I'm doing lots of visualisation exercises: in my favourite, I'm sitting under a vine-clad pergola, outside my cosy studio, sipping a glass of home made elderflower wine, whilst admiring my beautiful, newly-planted borders as rain pitter-patters gently on the garden pond. Ah yes...the pond...in reality, it's an overgrown bog and will remain so for yet another year, should the weather turn foul in October...



7 comments:

MrCachet said...

LOL. Is this studio going to have a roof?

Nettie Edwards said...

If we were building it, that would be a very good question as we a rarely finish anything. However, on this occasion, we're getting a company in to do it: job should be done in just three days: roof and all! Huzzah!

Kate England said...

Congratulations on your new studio!!!!!!! I really enjoyed reading about the project and of course, your gorgeous photography! I hope this re-start gives you what you need, and there's nothing like autumn for a fresh start! Sorry about the sadness, connected with the area you live in... Here's hoping that your renewed home will give you shelter against it.

pondlife said...

Ah, but is there life in that Pond?

Caterina Giglio said...

how wonderful a new studio! congratulations! and I loved seeing the photos, do share photos of your studio on completion! three days is so fast!!! xx's

Seth said...

A new studio...how special for you! Enjoy the process of building it and the challenges that go with that too. Love the shadow images...mysterious and compelling.

deb said...

Oh how I wish I could make a work as wistful and melancholy as those pictures at the beginning of this post... Good luck with the construction project, I'll be sending good thoughts your way having just finished one up myself.