July 19, 2009

Loveliness Afloat

Corgyncombe Library NotesIn the book "Wall and Water Gardens" by Gertrude Jekyll, she begins the chapter "Water-Lilies" by writing: "It would be impossible to over-estimate the value of the cultivated Nymphaeas to our water-gardens. These grand plants enable us to compose a whole series of new pictures of plant beauty of the very highest order."

The book on the chair at water's edge is "The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" by Edith Holden. It is open to one of the July pages featuring water lilies and a dragonfly. This is a delightful nature diary from 1906 with many lovely paintings of birds and plants.

Fossils in stone collected from the stones that will be made into a stone wall at Corgyncombe Cottage.

In "The Springs of Joy" by Tasha Tudor, there is a sweet illustration of Tasha as a young girl and her corgi delighting in the water lilies. The cover illustration of Tasha Tudor's "1 is One" contains many small creatures that you would find near or in a pond amongst the cattails, such as a duck, a red-winged blackbird, a dragonfly, a spider, a turtle, and a frog sitting on a lily pad. Water lilies are in the border surrounding the water scene.

If Tasha Tudor were to think of past mistakes or unpleasantness in her life, all that was required for her to regain her cheerfulness was to turn her mind to water lilies. They are lovely indeed!

Tasha also noted that goslings could have the same cheering affect.


This afternoon no goslings could be found but this darling little duckling crossed our path. Here it is swimming at Corgyncombe. He was having the best time swimming and scooting under water and finding food from his natural habitat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No comments:

Post a Comment