Perspective

Last week I showed a tiny speck of white at the end of the La Grande Allée.

You can see the drone camera easily in this photo. The speck of white at the end of La Grande Allée is much harder to make out.

In that post, I promised a closer view of that hint of white. And here it is.

Oh, my!  Could you tell from a distance that it was a chair?

The white crabapple trees along La Grande Allée have finished blooming now, thanks to several (wonderful) days of warm weather. I’m sorry they didn’t last longer but there is an up side — warmer days have brought the pink crabapple trees that mark the beginning and end of the ‘road’ into full bloom. Aren’t they gorgeous!

Pink crabapples trees (Malus ‘Profusion’) form squares on either side of the driveway that separates one part of La Grande Allée from the other. Here you can’t see the driveway but you do see all sixteen trees.

The tiny Adirondack chair is at the far end of La Grande Allée, providing the focal point that every allée calls out for.

This photo shows how the path curves as it comes close to the Adirondack chair. I took it a few weeks ago, before the pink crabapple trees came into bloom.

But why the sign calling for Perspective?

The shrinking letters on the sign guide the eye towards another chair in the distance.

Two Adirondack chairs, a big one far away, a little one close up. Perspective shouldn’t work that way!

The sign links the view of both chairs and plays around with the idea of what perspective is and how points of view differ, depending on where you stand — both literally and metaphorically — and when you are standing there.

Looking one way, you see this…

The little wildflower behind the chair leads your eye forwards, then disappears in the grass. Metaphorically, it leads into the unknown.

Turning around , you see something else, from another time.

This photo from May 22, 2018 shows the Dolgo crabapple trees just coming into bloom and the Profusion crabapple leaves emerging a dark reddish purple. This year, the Dolgo trees bloomed two weeks later because of the cooler spring.

When I was young, I drew telephone poles in a line, each one shorter and closer together than the one before. Doing this made it clear that the poles were moving away from me, suggesting there was a third dimension on a flat surface.

Our world isn’t flat. Standing on top of a hill, we may look out onto buildings or city lights at night, or maybe we see mountains retreating into the distance, becoming a paler and paler blue.  Occasionally, looking from a distance may allow us to gain perspective on what we see. We may relate one thing to another in a way we haven’t done before.

Those vanishing telephone poles made me and my vision the centre of the visible world. I’m not. Mixing things up helps me to see the chairs, the sign and the trees with eyes open wider. Perhaps it may help you, too.

La Grande Allée is part of Timelines, the 3 km trail that will open for the first time on July 20, when Glen Villa welcomes the general public. Anyone planning to walk this trail needs to wear good shoes. The ground may be dry but it could also be wet and slippery in spots.

To buy tickets for a morning or afternoon visit, click this link.