Raking My Way through Japanese Gardens

My first encounter with a Karesansui garden was at the Huntington Library/Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. I’ve had some question marks over my head ever since.

Karesansui gardens are those made up of light colored gravel or sand, with some larger rocks in situ. You’ll probably see linear effects made by a wooden rake. The fine gravel is immaculately clean.

Shitenno-ji Honbo Garden in Osaka, Japan

When these staged scenes are encountered they offer a sense of calm and contemplation. So I thought it would be a tranquil afternoon learning about this type of garden. Peace was not to be had—conflict was.

There is much complex information about this type of garden, much theorized and debated symbolism, philosophical attitudes, and age-old historical reference to explore.

To boot, there is controversy about the term we wantonly use today—‘Zen Garden.’ How we often use the term may not be culturally consistent with the origins. And take note that we must not bandy about the terms ‘contemplation’ and ‘meditation’ when we speak of the Karesansui.

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It’s an Amazing Day

I love this story found at the Guardian Saturday, November 6, 2010. In fact I love it so much I’m just going to link right to it for you to read yourself . . . and I’ll take the rest of the day off.

Headline: “Luftwaffe spy photo reveals lost Tudor garden—Grass rings in photograph of Lyveden New Bield’s grounds reveal historically important labyrinth, says English Heritage.” You may wonder why this story is newsy now. I did too, but I’ll take any opportunity to plug the past.

While we’re speaking of mazes and the like, see this recent entry in the Therapeutic Landscapes Network (great site & community!) about Labyrinths in the Healing Garden. This particular post is where I learned that “a favorite quote of labyrinth enthusiasts comes from the philosopher and theologian St. Augustine (345-430 A.D.) who said, ‘Solviture ambulando. It is solved by walking.’” 

I can’t say it any better than these folks did, so without further ado, I’ll retreat to a sanctuary to solve some shopping problems, walk my soles off, and get lost in the labyrinth of a parking garage.

Nancy R. Peck

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A Most Unusual Telescope

Thirty five years ago, engineer-machinist-inventor Fred Schleipman went on a solar eclipse expedition. Between shadow bands he met Bert Willard, an optical engineer and member of the Springfield Telescope Makers of Springfield, Vermont. 

When visiting Willard’s makers-club, Schleipman became enamored with a telescope on display—an original Porter Garden Telescope. Schleipman then began his next expedition, i.e., to re-create it. So unique and fine, it would be a pity to have this instrument of beauty fall into obscurity.

Photo courtesy of Telescopes of Vermont

Finally in this decade these garden telescopes are being offered— re-created by limited edition and found at Telescopes of Vermont . The team involved in this endeavor includes Fred Schleipman, Russ Schleipman, Bert Willard, Dave Nugent and Jim Daley. Each individual has a story to tell as you’ll find on the “About Us” page.

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Finding Culture at Gate C7

Photo by Nancy R. Peck

Waiting for a flight. Ten-minute delay to boarding. Ten minutes pass. Then another ten-minute delay to boarding. Call it terminal waiting. I lift a book out of my slumped briefcase on the carpet.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the captain has informed me . . . that he has called in the ground crew for a maintenance check . . . the aircraft apparently hit a bird over the runway on its way in this morning. 

I begin to read the inside flap, then the preface.

Rows of airport wait-seats face each other. Casually seated across is a man about my age. He’s dressed informally yet neatly— black top and black pants. And the apparel actually matches in color saturation. The outfit is punctuated by a set of clean chic sneakers.

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This Gardener Preferred Dandelions to Drawing Rooms

“I tend my flowers for thee—Bright Absentee! . . .” begins just one of Emily Dickinson’s nearly 1800 poems. She lived from 1830 to 1886 in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Locally at the time, Dickinson was perhaps best known for her gardening acumen, not as much as a poet. She was considered a bit of a recluse preferring “dandelions to drawing rooms.” But when she did pay a call with bunches of garden flowers, verse enclosed, she quipped “they valued the posy more than the poetry.”

Emily began studying botany at age 9 and amassed a collection of 424 pressed flower specimens. She had a special admiration for cultivating scented exotic flowers, writing that she “could inhabit the Spice Isles merely by crossing the dining room to the conservatory, where the plants hang in baskets.”

If, like me, you missed the New York Botanical Garden’s “Emily Dickinson’s Garden: The Poetry of Flowers” show, you can get a sense of it by linking to NPR here. Sit down, click on the recording, close your eyes (in that order) and take in some garden therapy for yourself. Once you’ve opened your eyes, there’s a little slide show for a sense of what the well-thought-out show must have been like.

Sources: NPR, Wikipedia, NY Times links here.

You also might be interested in the Emily Dickinson Museum.

“. . .Thy Daisy—Draped for thee!

Nancy R. Peck

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