FROM MONET TO GARDENERS EVERYWHERE: CAPTURING THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPRESSIVE ART

A series of essays….

SO DELIGHTFUL TO THE EYE — A LARGE BOWL
OF DELICATE, COLORFUL CALLA LILIES!

….as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

I love it when the evening sunlight spreads itself so generously across the golf course behind our cottage. The Master Pastry Chef has outdone Herself as she generously smooths lemon buttercream along the gentle hills and slopes of the eighth fairway and splashes the trees and newly formed leaves with glittering fragments of gold leaf. Tree trunks are illuminated with pure light as the sun slowly sets in the western sky and I wonder if the playfulness of the sun and clouds will offer a sideshow of plum and salmon ribbons of color bursting through the diminishing blue sky. I can only sit here and hope to witness more of God’s magic as evening flows into night shadows.

THE EVENING SUNLIGHT LIBERALLY
FLOWS ACROSS THE EIGHTH FAIRWAY!

Our little cottage remains a constant work in progress, inside and out. We always knew this would be the case going into this rather large project almost six years ago while still living and working in Orlando. How can one fail to nurture and love something as giving as the roof and four walls that protect you from the elements and coddles you in such an indulgent way? Whatever work we do on our little cottage, the joy of living here comes back to us ten times over.

RHODODENDRON AND LAVENDER 
FILL THE SMALL FRONT YARD.

Yesterday, before sitting at our back deck to relax and observe the highlighting of the eighth fairway, we spent the day in Claude Monet mode, manipulating light and shadow to portray landscapes in a groundbreaking manner; arbiters of our personal works of art. Instead of depicting water lilies resting on a serene pond and Japanese footbridges, we filled cornflower blue and terra cotta pots with calla lilly pastels, the rich greens of rosemary and sage, and marigolds popping with the brightness of tangerine orange and sunshine yellow.

As a young man, Monet always enjoyed the outdoors. He had spent his entire youth moving from town to town along the river Seine. But wherever he lived, he planted flowers. He justified his obsessive garden-making on the grounds that flowers gave him a subject to paint while he was indoors. We learned about this specific point on our visit to the artist’s garden and home in Giverny, France, located fifty miles northwest of Paris, a few years ago. We were fortunate to have walked along the famous gravel paths, drifted under the arbors clad in a profusion of color and fragrant scents that arched just above our heads, and take note of the giant water lilies thriving among the gentle ripples of Giverny’s famous pond. Yes, we strolled across the Japanese footbridge and marveled at being able to walk in Monet’s footsteps and actually experienced the spiritual presence of this brilliant man.

SEVERAL PICTURES FROM OUR VISIT TO
GIVERNY— DAN IS WEARING A HAT
STANDING ON THE JAPANESE FOOTBRIDGE.

Dan has captured the essence of Giverny by painting from the pictures we’d taken while exploring those hallowed grounds. Just like the budding artists who moved to Giverny to learn from the master himself, Monet’s gift of individualizing the beauty that surrounded him continues to influence many of us who paint and enjoy gardening, today.

Our Monet moment yesterday consisted of combining swatches of color from the living plants we’d found most pleasing to our own eyes and transferring these plants in groups or stand-alone vignettes within the flower beds and pots. It was pleasing to discover how masterful, if only by the sheer joy of the work, a gardener utilizes shapes and color just as Monet had enjoyed doing so many years before. Gardening feeds the soul, encourages personal artistic expression, and stimulates, through our physical labor, the production of endorphins that help us diminish the perception of stress and pain.

THE BIG, BLUE POT THAT
LIVES ON OUR BACK DECK

FLOWERS AND HERBS—
OUR ATTEMPT AT KEEPING THEM
FROM BEING NIBBLED ON!

As the onset of the glorious sunset was tempting me with lemon buttercream and the sparkle of golden trees, I knew I was absolutely exhausted from the day’s labor. Grabbing an ice cold can of cherry and lime flavored La Croix sparkling water from the refrigerator, it was time to step out on the back deck, find a comfy seat, and observe the beauty that surrounded me. This is, truly, a magical time of the day!

Tomorrow we will tackle a few more studies in color and balance around the yard, revel in the fact that our fourteen-year-old granddaughter will be getting her first Pfizer inoculation, and eventually become exhausted, once again, while loving every moment of it. As each day, week, and month goes by, you will find us sitting on the back deck and marveling at the beauty all around us, including our own works of art, all while attempting to never take any of it for granted as long as our time here exists. Color us—happy!

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

Photos Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

 

CUTE BEE BUTTS AND OTHER GARDEN DELIGHTS

A series of essays....

THE ORANGERIE  AND THE PIECE D'EAU DES SUISSES
(FRENCH FORMAL GARDEN) IN THE
GARDENS OF VERSAILLES, FRANCE

       Courtesy of Wikipedia

....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E. Hughes

French Garden, English Garden, Victory Garden, Container Garden, Raised-bed Garden, Herb Garden, Butterfly Gardening.....and so on and so forth. The list goes on and on because people around the world are discovering the benefits of planting their own garden, whether it be Romantic or highly functional as a main food source. 

Our spirits are uplifted by the brilliant colors and sweet aromas wafting from a flower garden and the cost of this therapy can be much less than taking drugs or visiting a counselor once a week. Growing pesticide free, organic vegetables, fruits, and herbs gives us peace of mind and the possibility of sharing our bounty with neighbors and friends. Just like the Victory Gardens introduced during wartime and planted at private residences and public parks in order to reduce the pressure on the public food supply, many front yard gardens today can supply entire neighborhoods with food for their tables!

CUTE...

                                                Courtesy Daily LOL Picks

BEE-BUTTS!

  

                                           Courtesy eBaum's World

And, I’d almost bet that if we are conscientious about feeding ourselves organically, we are concerned about the ecosystem and the value of butterflies, moths, and the humble bee. Areas rich in butterflies and moths embody a wide range of environmental benefits, including pollination and natural pest control. Having bees buzzing around makes a garden lively and brings life to the yard, literally, because they are our natural pollinators and we wait each spring to witness the cute bee-butts sticking out from our flowers and  fruit trees blossoms.

BUTTERFLY POLLINATION

                                                
                                                     Coutesy mighiganbutterfly.org

BEE (BUG) HOTEL

                                                                      Courtesy greenlifegardens.com

If tiny houses are your thing.....what better way to develop your garden area than by implementing a tiny subdivision of bee and insect homes within it! They promise you little to no maintenance, absolutely no HOA (Home Owner Association) fees, and you never have to apply for permission to repaint it, add a tiny pool, or experience the pleasure of being told to power wash the driveway so that resale value is maintained or you'll be fined. Oh, you lucky, lucky bees!

I sit here in my new/older home in Michigan awaiting the opportunity to place my meager plantings into the ground and reap the benefits (eventually) of having these small, green sprouts fill my yard and deck with tiny shoots of new life, nourishment, and profound beauty! However, events of the last few days have clouded my good intentions, awakened new concerns, and prompted new research into the variety of and timing for planting each one in our yard.

My fears haunt me and with each passing day a new one creeps into my head, as well as my newly cultivated beds and existing plantings. 

THEY LOOK AT ME AS IF I WERE INTRUDING!

Waking up this morning and slinking into the kitchen to make coffee, I observed four deer munching their early morning salad of small, green leaves from our backyard shrubs as if they had their own buffet grandly set out before them. And, quite frankly....they did! Not being totally satisfied with our greens and, obviously, requiring mixed colors of vegetation in their diet, they collectively meandered across the road to our neighbor’s yard to feast on young, fresh purple leaves from a small bush living in Bob’s front yard. 

I must say that it has amazed me for several years now just how prolific the deer population in Kalamazoo is and how innocently and casually they roam from one neighborhood to another in search of shelter and nourishment all year long. Their lack of fear includes human activity, vehicles and streets, and pets. They gently travel from one spot to another seemingly lacking any threat of danger at all. This is precisely why I am so concerned for them.

Then, several days ago our newly cultivated flower beds and existing plantings were blanketed in snow from an unseasonable (so they say) storm in late April. Suddenly, it was like the Christmas morning we dream about; a winter’s wonderland lost between the colorful pages of a child’s book of fairy tales.

LATE APRIL SNOW SHOWER

SUCH BEAUTY IN NATURE!

There they were, snow-covered wooden-handled gardening tools allocated to the back deck a day earlier and sticking out of white/terracotta pots looking like frozen characters in a Federico Fellini movie, noting his distinct style of blending fantasy and baroque images with earthy displays made up of everyday objects. Cobalt blue pottery, normally baking in the Floridian sunshine, was now being magically coated in a myriad of frozen, white crystals.

I sit here on Google researching the eating habits of wild turkeys, fox, rabbits, coyote and several other species of God’s creatures thriving in the backyard and duly noted first-hand since moving here late last August. According to the ADW (Animal Diversity Web), the favorite munchies of my backyard friends include:

Wild Turkey....Fresh buds and grasses in the Spring.

Fox.................Fruit, berries, and nuts in the Spring.

Rabbits..........Herbivores. Having a plant-based diet which 

includes grasses, clover, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. They also eat fruits, seeds, roots, and buds. Lovely!

Coyotes........Carnivores but will eat insects, fruits and berries, deer, rabbits, and mice.

And, from what I’ve been reading, unless I’d like to introduce a new dimension into this flavorful ecological soup, it would take a bear, a cougar, a wolf, or a mountain lion to defeat the wily coyote. Hopefully, that’s not going to happen!

Given the fact that a wide range of garden types exist, I’ve been honing my planting skills in order to create a space that is not only pleasing to look at, easily maintained, but socially acceptable to all of the creatures who happen to inhabit our yard all year long. 

We should never mess with nature. Rather, we should enhance its natural order and be well aware of what keeps our world safe, happy, and healthy for all of God’s creatures to enjoy....including mankind!

Copyright © 2019 by Jacqueline E. Hughes

All rights reserved