Botanicals.

By Alison September 25, 2007 5 Comments 2 Min Read

Forget048_2

Forget049

There is a National Trust manor house near me that has a room in which I would gladly set up a writing desk and fountain my thoughts onto parchment laid paper for the rest of my life. In a grand house it does not possess any grandeur of its own… indeed it is probably the smallest room in the hall, but in my  memory the walls are lined with  watery botanicals,  exquisitely executed and displayed in all their floral loveliness, in such a way there is no wall to be seen…

Perhaps I made that room up. Sometimes we take only the essence of a room, a time or a place home with us. Sometimes a little seed of inspiration is sewn  and the rest  is just imagination creating  a space we want to exist. A place we could live in.

Whatever…. but forever after I have loved botanical drawings, paintings and best of all the kitschy overcoloured botanical images to be found in mid century gardening books, the kind it doesn’t give me heart failure to rip out and pin onto my inpsiration board, nor shove carelessly into the frame of a mirror…

Like these delightfully exuberant images from  a gorgeous  little gardening book I found at the bottom  of a very dirty suitcase called "Gardening For Children and Beginners" which tickled my green fingered fancy and speaks in the kind of plain english, lets acknowledge kids are mini people way so wonderfully peculiar to vintage kids books…

"To those of you who not only love seeing flowers but want to grow them for yourselves, I am going to try and tell about different kinds of gardens belonging to different boys and girls, in the hope that one or more of them may have something that will interest and help with your own. It is rather fun hearing what other people do or do not do, even if we do not want to do exactly the same! You will  find in gardening – as in most things- that hearing and seeing what other people do is the way to learn lots of new things, and if we add these to our own experiments we shall never be tired or bored…"

Scrumptious! Close your eyes and you  can just hear the deliciously plummy British accents can’t you?

5 Comments

  1. cheri says:

    Hiya your words transported me.Thak you for uplifting thoughts and inspiration.I hope your cold is better too.

  2. I am so thankful whenever I find a book/creative individual who treats children as if they possess thoughts, feelings, etc. Sounds like this book fits the bill. I wish I was better at encouraging my children in our garden…this beast the Internet is way too distracting, I'm afraid. How lovely, though, that pansies are a cold weather annual. I will put that on my to-do list…with my children.

  3. Michele says:

    I just wanted to say thank you. I stumbled across your site a few days ago in an attempt to find ways to create a more cozy home for my 2 year old daughter and husband. I was captivated by your site and spent the last several nights reading through the archives. I even have my best friend hooked! You have put so much work into your site and so much of yourself into it which really personalizes it and makes it the most special thing I have ever found on the net. I look forward to going to your site everday to continue getting fabulous ideas. Your son is so lucky to have such a wonderful mommy.
    Michele
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

  4. Michele says:

    I just wanted to say thank you. I stumbled across your site a few days ago in an attempt to find ways to create a more cozy home for my 2 year old daughter and husband. I was captivated by your site and spent the last several nights reading through the archives. I even have my best friend hooked! You have put so much work into your site and so much of yourself into it which really personalizes it and makes it the most special thing I have ever found on the net. I look forward to going to your site everday to continue getting fabulous ideas. Your son is so lucky to have such a wonderful mommy.
    Michele
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

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