{"id":4963,"date":"2017-03-27T15:38:18","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T15:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siteandinsight.com\/?p=4963"},"modified":"2017-03-27T15:38:18","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T15:38:18","slug":"garden-plans-im-dreaming-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/garden-plans-im-dreaming-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Garden Plans: I’m Dreaming Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that winter has dumped several feet of snow on a garden that was almost snow-free, I’m back by the fire, metaphorically at least, dreaming of the seasons\u00a0ahead.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"I

I took this photo about ten days ago after a fresh snowfall. Today is grey. And maybe more snow will fall. I hope not.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I’m dreaming about\u00a0a trail\u00a0that will lead around the property. I’m considering the route it will follow\u00a0and what I will call it. I know the purpose of the trail — it will connect\u00a0art installations now in place and others I’m working on, or planning. And while there are problems about\u00a0the route, the big question is what\u00a0the trail should be called.<\/p>\n

The choice of a name may seem inconsequential but in my mind it matters enormously. A name does more than describe, it defines\u00a0significance, and finding the right name is proving more difficult than I anticipated. The name I’m searching for will\u00a0encapsulate\u00a0what links\u00a0the different installations and how\u00a0they add to the experience of walking the land. It will identify something meaningful.<\/p>\n

The trail as it now exists starts in the Upper Field beside the Skating Pond and leads into the woods.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"In

In Transit\/En Route is a path lined with signs that ask questions about time, space and our relationship to them.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The end point of this installation, called\u00a0In Transit\/En Route,<\/em> is a clearing, where\u00a0a bench offers a place to sit and reflect. (I’ve written more about In Transit\/En Route<\/em>\u00a0here<\/a>, here<\/a> and here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"This

This is the Sundial Clearing. On the left is an uncomfortable pine box that serves as a bench. The shadow of a dead pine tree marks the hours of the day as it hits upright posts placed around the circle.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The trail continues beyond the sundial clearing into a meadow-like area with a small stream.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"You

You can see a bit of the trail on the left side of this photo, taken in 2009. Last fall we cleared the brush that was smothering\u00a0the wildflowers. I’m betting that now they will return.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Currently there is no installation in this space, tentatively named the water meadow. I plan\u00a0to create something for the site but I don’t know what, although Heraclitus comes to mind. Over the summer I’ll spend time in the area, giving it\u00a0a chance to speak — \u00a0and giving myself time\u00a0to hear it.<\/p>\n

Beyond\u00a0the water meadow, the path splits and splits again. At the second division, a tall tree trunk painted yellow announces Two Roads.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"This

I learned only recently that the ‘yellow wood’ Frost refers to is not the yellow of New England’s autumn foliage but a wood full of yellow daffodils. I’m still trying to get my head around this change of season.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

As in the poem, the two roads that present a choice to the walker lead to much the same place. At that spot, years ago, there was a farmhouse and a barn. Now it’s a quiet spot, out of the way, with a glade that reminds me of a poem by Yeats. In a year or two\u00a0I will make an installation for the site, and possibly Yeats’ poem will be the genesis. But my\u00a0idea\u00a0needs time to grow and ripen, like the nine rows of beans he dreams of planting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"From

From the farmhouse there used to be\u00a0a wide view onto the lake. We are restoring the view gradually.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beyond this site the route becomes complicated. There are simply too many ways to go, and too many sites that call out for recognition. The marks that history has left on the land often dictate where an installation\u00a0needs to be placed and these land marks are not arranged\u00a0neatly in a\u00a0loop. Sometimes they veer off abruptly. Sometimes they are too close together, or too far apart. And sometimes the rhythm of the walk dictates the need for\u00a0an installation even if there are no historical marks or striking natural features. \u00a0That is the case in the fields near Lilac Cottage, a small house surrounded by lilac bushes, that many decades ago\u00a0was used by a tenant farmer.<\/p>\n

On two sides of the cottage are farm fields, and I’m working now on installations for both. Crossing one field will be a simple avenue of crabapple trees that I hope to plant in early spring. Crossing the other will be a more complex installation, inspired Ian Hamilton Finlay’s Scottish garden,\u00a0Little Sparta, and tentatively titled The Past Looms Large.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"My

The installation I’m working on now\u00a0will lead across this field towards the Big Chair. I hope to complete the project by May, so stayed tuned.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Logic dictates that\u00a0the path continue beyond the Big Chair, from the sun-filled field into a rather gloomy forest. The transition from light to shade is abrupt and is matched by a change in topography. From a dry, relatively\u00a0flat field, the path leads downward, becoming increasingly soggy, provoking\u00a0a \u00a0change in mood that I hope to make explicit. (Dante, anyone?)<\/p>\n

Following this same path, walkers reach\u00a0Orin’s Sugarbush<\/em>, a\u00a0project that needs only a few finishing touches before it is complete. (For more about this installation, click here<\/a>\u00a0and here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"On

On a snowy day in January, my husband and i snowshoed past Orin’s Sugarbush. It is magical in winter, when the\u00a0tin maple leaves suspended from the trees chime in the wind.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

A short distance beyond Orin’s Sugarbush<\/em> the path comes out into another\u00a0field. Here, walkers cross a stream before heading up the hill to the Skating Pond where they began.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The

My son calls this the metaphoric bridge. In one direction the words are written in French, in the other, in English. And despite what the signs say, the bridge is actual.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Walking the trail I’ve sketched out would take a fast\u00a0walker an hour at least. Loops off the main trail could easily add another hour or more. And loops seem necessary: at almost every junction another site calls out to be honoured.<\/p>\n

These site specific installations speak to what was, but also to what may be. It is easy to walk across the land and see nothing, or to see only a tiny part of what is there. It’s easy to miss the spirit of the place. My hope is that the art I create makes this more difficult. That it helps us to see.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"I've

I’ve been watching this tree rot for half a dozen years or more. Each time I pass it, I stop and notice what has changed.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Which bring me back to what this trail will be called. I’m searching for a name that brings to the surface the ideas that link the\u00a0installations. Regular readers will know that I like using words outdoors. (I wrote about this recently on the English website ThinkinGardens. You can read that here<\/a>.) Words are a part of the\u00a0installations I’ve created to date and that will probably\u00a0continue. The passage of time and the history of the site are elements as well,\u00a0yet\u00a0I know there is something more, something deeper that I haven’t identified.<\/p>\n

I want a name that rolls off the tongue easily, that isn’t pretentious. Most important, though, it needs to encapsulate what the trail as a whole reveals about the land and the experience of being on it. It needs to speak to the deep heart’s core.<\/p>\n

Do you have suggestions? I welcome individual words or combinations of words — even crazy thoughts. Because who knows where a\u00a0thought will lead?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that winter has dumped several feet of snow on a garden that was almost snow-free, I’m back by the fire, metaphorically at least, dreaming of the seasons\u00a0ahead.     I’m dreaming about\u00a0a trail\u00a0that will lead around the property. I’m considering the route it will follow\u00a0and what I will call it. I know the purpose…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,24,38],"tags":[35,37,39,685,686,687,688,689,656],"class_list":["post-4963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-design","category-glen-villa","tag-art-2","tag-glen-villa","tag-in-transiten-route","tag-magritte-bridge","tag-orins-sugarbush","tag-the-past-looms-large","tag-trail","tag-two-roads","tag-water-meadow","category-34","category-24","category-38","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}