Day 129 - Fickle chance

We have now arrived at the last folder of photographs I ever took of this place, and they show my glorious new design, as developed as it ever got. Six days later I was in hospital after a life-changing accident.

I am pleased to be able to report that the following photographs now do begin to give an idea of how this area of the garden was intended to work, although at the moment it was still very see-through. In maturity, each area would be shielded from the view of all the others, apart from the deliberate through view from end to end of the plot over the lower-growing herbaceous central strip.


Many of the beds had been dug in their entirety and mulched with fresh material, the circular enclosures were now clearly visible -

The top end of the feature was done. I still had to finish the far end and put in the next two circular lawns, but I had completed more than half of the work already in a relatively short space of time. I was optimistic, buoyant and at the top of my game -

The next shot probably shows better than any the potential of the new scheme. It shows the circle at the top which I hoped eventually would become a water feature, but which for now was planted with a central tree surrounded by a cluster of Pittosporum 'Tom Thumb'. Looking straight down the central axis from here, the Echinaceas can be seen, in a number of different varieties, over which it would be possible to look from end to end, from one focal point to the other. At the same time, the degree to which the main path wanders from side to side is also clearly visible. This would have the effect of retarding visitors' progress through the garden, and encouraging contemplation. I expected those who worked there to hate it, as it would impede their journey to the supermarket to buy their lunch, but then, I wasn't doing it for them, and I had provided a straight path down the side for those in a hurry -

Just two more shots will complete the picture -

and, from halfway down -

On 19th May, six days later, on my way home from a shopping expedition to buy ingredients for a party we were holding to celebrate our earlier wedding, on a bright, dry, sunny afternoon, I inexplicably had an accident which shattered my leg and destroyed my career. If you want to know more about this, you have to read my Kindle Trilogy 'Cancel the Cup Cakes', beginning with Volume 1, Nil-by-Mouth. There is a link at the top of the blog.