Dear Diary,
I found Ned in his shed this morning and told him how Miss Noring had offered her box for my efforts in hunting for their Merkin. I suspect he was not yet fully awake for his eyes glazed over as he tried to make sense of my words and then he grinned and gave me a wink.
He seemed to become more confused again when I showed him the five minature bushes she had given me and I suggested they be best arranged in a quincunx somewhere in the garden.
I spent much of the day walking in the hills above Netherdale, from Netherscale Fell to Netherback by way of Netherdale Crags. It was bright at first but the clouds gathered and the rain began to fall so that by the time I returned to the valley I was muddy and wet. I was not in the best of moods as I returned to the Grange and was about to remove my soiled boots when Ned called me over.
"Come see your lady garden," he said proudly.
He had arranged the bushes in a 'V' shape and not quincuncially as I had intended.
"It really looks like a lady garden, don't it?" He beamed.
"What is the sixth plant you have used at the bottom of the 'V'?" I asked resignedly.
"A 'rubus cockburnianus'," he laughed, " 'Propriate eh? But we'll have to keep it trimmed."
Kristin Chenowith - Home
14 years ago
9 comments:
Poor Wayne! Ned is having his fun with you.
-h
Dear Wayne,
Perhaps a simple diagram would have helped Ned. After all he was probably just going by memory or what he had a feel for.
You would be wise to keep the rubus cockburnianus well under control Ned seems quite aware of what can happen when that type of thing is not kept in check.
Horticulturally yours,
B.
Kind Sir,
I do realize that the English Garden is a bit more wild than the more geometric & ordered French, but you have intrigued me once again! Oh, we want a rubus cock here in the colonies! Glad to hear you are trimming & excuse the comment about my undergarments, but the fine & the rough are often at close quarters here in the colonies!
Yours humbly & redfaced,
Beau Tibbs
My dear Mr. Austen,
Ned's eccentric arrangement calls to mind the grander landscape scheme employed by Sir Francis Dashwood at West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire. Friends of the late Sir Francis will be aware that he had the grounds laid out in the form of "Leda and the swan". A swan-shaped lake was created with it's head nestling in the "lady garden" of the outspread legs of a reclining "Leda".
When I installed the Priapus fountain and temple, close to the lake at Castle Buckwell, my estate was besieged by gawpers, oglers, peeping Toms and day trippers from Edinburgh and Glasgow.
I was obliged to arm my gamekeepers and grooms with blunderbusses and it was only after they had discharged several volleys of buckshot ( a thrilling sight ) that the crowds were dispersed.
I pray that Ned's creation at Thrushcock Grange will not attract similar attention. I fear that you might be beseiged by day trippers from Leeds.
Yours etc, Sir Studly Buckwell
My dear Gentlemen,
The rubus cockburnianus was wilting somewhat in recent days but I am glad to report it is looking much more pert.
My dear Mr Tibbs you are forgiven your indiscretion and I clasp you to my bosom in friendship.
Yours expansively,
Wayne Austen
My dear Mr Buckwell,
Your comment appears! I fear there is some ghost about this thread.
Castle Buckwell sounds delightful and does you credit. I appreciate a man with a vision more than a large endowment...Poppycock! Of course I do not!
Yours transparently,
Wayne Austen
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