Unglamour ( As I Went Out One Frosty Morning )

Embarrassed as I am not to have revealed much of this garden - because so much of it is in formation, and lacks shapeliness or even shape - I took myself ( with frozen fingers ) and my accomplice ( with frozen feet ) out, this frosty morning ( throwing caution into the compost heap ), and took these arbitrary profiles...

Above, a couple of found beams...the redgum plank on the right will soon become a garden seat, giving me endless hours of outdoor entertainment...

Above, a stand of iris - species/variety?

Above, a faux woodland, or the beginnings of one...

Above, the area to the left is the largest of my compost heaps, interrupted by the careless intrusion of a shadowed figure in dressing-gown...

Fox in Socks - not bored at all... 

Above, some of the eucalypts I fortunately don't have to coax to survive...

I adore the orange daisy above, and there'll be some smart alec out there who knows what it is...

Some sort of Yucca thing...

Perhaps my favourite garden objet d'art...

Above, evidence of frost. I decided not to have breakfast in a reclining position...

At least I know these fabulous camellias are red...or crimson...

Above, two varieties of Hardenbergia climbing on a most attractive wire fence. The tougher and more common purple variety is determined to strangle the meek and delicate mauve variety - isn't it always the way?

I told you there was frost...

Above, my silvery bed with birch rods defining the circle, cut across by dramatic, gothic shadows. Go away, Fellini...

Above, lovely blue star flowers. Occasionally something grows according to plan...

winterflora

In a Way to Garden

How we do what we do in the particular informs how we do what we do in the overall.
Gardening is not only an expression of energy, but an approach, a delineation of temperament, judgement and attitude.
Gardens today encompass definitions they once never had, and perhaps there are others we no longer apply.
I'm not saying these images represent gardens as they are known, but they may be gardens seen from another angle.

A Fleet Scramble to Footscray Park

Melbourne is such a vast city now, that you can have lived here for over 50 years as I have done, and not have seen considerable stretches of it - especially when you don't drive.
I had reason to visit Victoria University at Footscray today, and afterwards, took time to explore adjacent Footscray Park.

Created in 1911 after a campaign by local residents, this 37 acre park beside the Maribyrnong River is regarded as one of the most intact Edwardian public gardens in Australia.

The first garden to be listed with Heritage Victoria, it has, in its formal framework, a series of rustic pergolas, arbours, bridges, pools and stonework walls made of local basalt. 

The lovely fountain above has a platypus either side of it.
The park seems to have only a small number of visitors, cut off as it is from its surroundings by busy Ballarat Road. I saw only a handful of others during my visit, among them builders making repairs as part of the park's centennial upgrade.

Above, a handsome and oblingingly composed Chestnut Teal ( Anas castanea ), and below, part of the gateway through which I came and went.

Plain as Knuckles

Plain as knuckles, plain as sleet,
plain as nothing left to eat.

Phones are plain, that never ring,
toil's plain as anything.

The facts are plain as dentistry,
and numb all spontaneity.

Dump all plainness in a bin,
and get things un-plain happenin',

 

'Cause plains of sameness are a sin.



As I've made only too apparent, there's alot of work to do in my garden-in-winter, but it is not a photogenic site. Today I got a sequence of tasks done, and in-between, wrote this poem and composed these 'plain' pictures.


Plain as Knuckles

Plain as knuckles, plain as sleet,
plain as nothing left to eat.

Phones are plain, that never ring,
toil's plain as anything.

The facts are plain as dentistry,
and numb all spontaneity.

Dump all plainness in a bin,
and get things un-plain happenin',

'Cause plains of sameness are a sin.


Faisal Grant, 02 July, 2011.