Letters to garden makers

Dear Monty, Light I cannot gaze Like those eyes Into eyes Seeing beyond the surface Stars, pools, lights reflecting back. I struggle to see at all Vision blurred by unbelief How did it come to this ? Unlike St Paul Darkness blinds me I search for the light I blunder towards it. Image I look at dog sleeping I see that he is dog No more No less Dog does not strive to be different Does not have to be anything other than himself Dog is dog is dog He bears the image of the heavenly. False Moon Hub cap of former wheel Rusting in hemp agrimony Bracken and teasel A car graveyard Now turned green and purple Gives up its treasure A moon on the apple tree. Faith I agree That gardens can be a sanctuary Voices of sheep, robin and crow Mix in my semi sleep I awake to possibility In this cool pool of morning. Paul.

Dear Monty, My friend Charles Hawes in his excellent blog :  charleshawes.veddw.com  wrote in reply to a comment on a post; that God is good with planting but not with people. Maybe the issue is that people are not good with God ? Nature is beautiful but can also be ruthless and cruel (if humanistic values are applied). We think that death for us is somehow unjust, but we see that in nature it is part of the cycle of this living planet. We can accept the science of natural selection for flora and fauna but seem unable or perhaps unwilling to see that it also applies to us. We strive to find ways of living longer, despite the fact that the earth is beginning to groan under the burden. Horizon on the BBC this week explored how technology will allow us to monitor all aspects of our health, one scientist even suggested that we all be chipped, this suggestion seems to have been put forward in the belief it would be for our 'good' ! The trouble with rigorous sci...

Dear Monty, I'm not sure how long you intend having a cyber holiday, but I thought I would write anyway. Jake and Dinos Chapman said : " If you can't spend a day chucking clay at a wall, then you've stripped off a few of the tendrils that are necessary to doing this" Making art or a garden does involve play, experiment and above all, time out of the usual daily grind. I seem to have stripped off so many tendrils now that I feel as though I am cheating myself and the world by calling myself an artist. I have rarely drawn the garden, when I have the result has been largely unsatisfactory. Of course you cannot capture the whole garden in one drawing, just as you cannot experience the whole garden from one viewpoint. So what do you draw ? I have drawn the apple tree with the view beyond the garden before all the trees grew in the valley below. It is one of the few drawings I am happy with. It seems on looking back through my sketch book journal, that I ...

Monty, My creative elbow has seized up, perhaps painting a landscape will help. I live a small life - as small as it is it expands outwards from here via the web just like it does for many of us. This valley envelopes and sometimes encloses our lives. The folk of this valley are our bread and butter - we listen to their anger, frustration and joy with this thing called life. Life can be cruel, harsh and grim - that is the reality - but also equally real is the joy, sheer joy in the simple things - the love of family and friends, the sun after all that rain, finding a lime hawk moth caterpillar in the garden. 'There are many paths to enlightenment' Mine came through a daydream many years ago, it eventually led to an event in Jerusalem 2000 years ago which lifted me above the rooftops of Southsea in 1982, and lifts me to this faltering day. For me, when things get tough, the one vicar remains, despite ego, weakness and boasting. I will soon disappear fr...

Dear Monty, There is much to do to restore the old band hall to somewhere near its original appearance, but at least the new slate roof helps. I'm stuck in the past. Last week we visited Somerset to see friends who were celebrating 30 years of married life. They live on the edge of the Mendip Hills and have a view looking over the levels with Glastonbury Tor in the distance. I enjoyed the garden party on their steeply sloped garden which was less about the garden and all about the stunningly beautiful view. Both Dave and Beth are professional people at the top of their tree, and therefore their friends were likewise. A deep-seated insecurity started to rise in me and at one point it almost paralysed me. I'm not at the top of my chosen profession, and have always preferred to have feet planted on the ground, but this does not equip you well in the company of the aspirational in terms of like-minded conversation, or so my insecurity told me. We were welcomed and eas...

Dear Monty, I'm not sure you really need to know this, but the bees have gone, they were successfully relocated to a new hive somewhere nearer the sea. I regard this as a victory in the bid to care for the world a bit more. This is a small gesture I know, but I was so grateful to the members of Swansea and District Beekeepers' Society. I did have to destroy the few remaining stragglers however, because they were gathered around the chimney flue, and the builders would not go near them. They honey was almost clear and beautifully sweet, the comb dropped down three feet into the old flue and it took great effort to remove it along with the colony. I had a look down the flue, and despite being surrounded by the bees and unprotected, I was not stung. I have great respect for bees, and am no longer afraid of them. I am reading 'A French Garden Journey' and enjoying it very much, as much as my most favourite book based around the subject of gardens  'The Bad Te...

Dear Monty, From Hay on Wye  to the Dales, a ramble of thoughts. Hay on Wye I too muddle through most days, I am a muddling type of person. I identify with the French desire not to be bound by bureaucracy (which we seem to have a love affair with - so much so we are binding ourselves with bonds that are getting tighter - but we seem to accept them as though they are good for us !) Your ramble through France is akin to my ramble through life. I am not intellectual, but I ended up going to hear Rowan Williams and Neil MacGreggor discuss the relevance of Christian Imagery in art, a few days before trundling back again to listen to your presentation/promotion of 'The Road to Le Tholonet '. There is a tenuous link in my life with Rowan Williams, he has relatives that I have met in Ystradgynlais the next door village and a place I have worked in for the last 20 years, but also I discovered he went to my old school when it was a Grammar School. (not a Comprehensive School f...