Perhaps it's best I took these shots indoors, at night, with my trusty Canon PowerShot G2 - you'd never guess, would you? - for how else would anyone believe this book wasn't the stuff of dreams?
Published by Peter Garnett, of London, in 1949, Donald McCormick's 'Islands for Sale' advises potential buyers how they may be able to sail to their dreams. I can only assume that after the war, a newfound zeal for freedom encouraged a spirit of exploration. Who, in their right mind, hasn't wanted, at times, to escape to an island? I confess it's been a dream of mine, but one I'm acutely aware cannot happen, and shouldn't...the world hasn't been made for me to have whatever I want; it's here for me to be part of. Islands represent an isolationism, apparently timeless, but possibly stuck in time.
And my excuse for posting 'Islands for Sale' here, apart from its beguiling oddness, is that gardens too are sorts of islands, but their redemption or redeeming virtue lies in the fact they're alive. However much they might appear to be islands, or isolated, or conceptual, gardens are implanted in a wider landscape. What occurs in them has ramifications outside their fences. And from outside their fences, there comes to the garden-maker a dialogue elucidating values of aspiration.
Thought-provoking concept--islands.
ReplyDelete".the world hasn't been made for me to have whatever I want; it's here for me to be part of." i realy liked that ... its so true and not many people realise it... i have lived in an island. did not like it. and indeed, i felt isolated. i prefer gardens...
ReplyDelete-you `ve got a reply on your muchsroom question at my blog : )
James, yes. Perhaps we inhabit a variety of islands, and move between them?
ReplyDeleteHi Demie...there's so much encouragement around these days to be selfish. When you take others into account, you grow much bigger.
ReplyDeleteA cousin of mine has moved to a small island in Tonga - and I'm so jealous. Having read The Swiss Family Robinson, Robinson Crusoe, The Coral Island etc as a kid it just seems the most exciting thing. Perhaps, though it's just as well I haven't moved there with him. Perhaps it would just have been a terrible disappointment (he's really struggling to make a living) and besides, I wouldn't now be the gardener at the Priory. Back to my books then ...
ReplyDeleteDave, that sounds pretty good. I'd be tempted to drift off to Tonga myself. My concern with islands is not the islands themselves, but the correlative stranding of a lone individual. Sometimes, I tell you, I want to be entirely alone, but I know that feeling is essentially unhelpful...it would be like falling into a deep sleep, waiting to wake up and be alive.
ReplyDeleteLast time we returned from Switzerland to South Africa we sailed via St Helena South Atlantic Ocean. And left a Canadian couple there, they wanted an island, somewhere WARM. Lost touch, we wonder what happened ...
ReplyDeleteThe wind and the wellies, blogs from a Scottish island.
To the birds our island of My Garden is just part of their patch.
St Helena! Now that'd be an island worth visiting! What an interesting place to decide to see.
ReplyDeleteBirds are lucky, aren't they, being able to get around ( without passports )!