I have always been inspired romantically by the English gardens made famous by both their beauty and tranquility. Nobility, it seemed, always had at least two or three of them, centered with beautiful statuettes and water fountains. There is no better place to both relax and reflect than among nature in its finest, trimmed and manipulated by man’s imagination. So it has always been my dream to have a little piece of romantic whimsies in my backyard … someday, somehow.
Well I finally had my chance when at the age of 37, my life and career took a sudden change for the better. After many years of tolling in the creative of young minds and player baby-sitter to a bunch of spoiled rotten brats, I was able to pursue a career in that which I loved most … horses. It all began so suddenly that I almost forget how I got here and right now, that doesn’t really matter as I sit down to pen my thoughts on when the garden first began to take a more interesting part of my life.
When I first was able to afford a landscaper to come and create the beginnings of my countryside English garden, I didn’t really have an ultimate plan in mind. I just knew that I wanted a secret garden of my own; a place where I would be able to withdraw from my everyday and reflect in nature’s comfort and beauty. I’ll never forget the day it started. There were workers everywhere! I was on a pretty barren spot of land … two acres of flat grassland with a line of trees at the back and the pitiful attempts I had made around the house to bring a little beauty in.
There were truckloads of dirt being brought in and digging going on, it seemed, forever. A lazy stream that fed from a waterfall with colorful fish and water plants was going through one side close beside a weathered-looking planting shed. Odds and ends that I had collected from various places that had a whimsical yet classic look to them were added throughout. As the garden began to slowly take shape and all kinds of shrubbery and foliage was brought in, I knew that there were a few things I was missing to really make this a true countryside English garden. Statues … I needed statues. No English garden was complete without them.
So a trip to the masonry was next on my agenda when I could find a spare weekend to shop. But one beautiful spring Saturday afternoon, I found the time and the will to get it down. I don’t really remember details like what I was wearing or how I was wearing my hair but I do remember being very casual and comfortable for the light warm day and possessing a somewhat inane sense of excitement in finding just the right pieces. There were a few spots I had in mind to look but none really appealed to me. They just weren’t what I was looking for although not really knowing what it was didn’t help either. I just knew that when I found them, I would know!
Just when I thought that I wouldn’t find anything that weekend and was on the verge of frustrated tears, a sign off the main road caught my attention: Romantic Statuettes, Just for You. I almost missed the turn as I remember feeling like this was my last hope and turned off onto a country road that led down the road about seven or eight miles. I pulled up to a place that almost looked like it had been thrown up at the last moment; as if it had been an after-thought but there were hundreds of statues setting about and all of a beautiful, almost glassy, marble. I mingled among them for hours … the little old lady beneath the tent seemingly lost in the book she was reading as I browsed. There were a few pieces I was interested in … a little cherub with his bow and arrow cocked, a beautiful Italian-inspired vase, a lovely half-nude girl in her late teens pulling long hair back into a thin ribbon and then, just as I thought I had found all that I might want, I saw him.
He was magnificent and I was drawn both to the elegant beauty and the raw sexuality that this carved piece of stone possessed. He was crouched down, one knee more forward than the other which covered his sex, seemingly rippled muscles ran down his lithe bared form, locks of wavy hair falling in a loose tangle over his forehead, eyes that seemed to blaze at me from their stony depths as I gazed at him in awe. I remember shaking my head some to clear the daze that the statue had drawn me into and knew immediately that this was the centerpiece to my secret garden … the piece that would draw me into the heart of my hidden paradise where I could unwind and relax.
The hardest part was waiting for him and the others of course, to be delivered. The garden was almost complete and I was awe-struck by its beauty. It looked as if it had been there for years and I was thankful that I had been a part of creating something beautiful from the extra money I was making. Then the day came where they were delivered. I remember not being able to take my eyes off him as they set him into place in the heart of my new special place. When they finally left, I stood on my back deck and looked out over my garden. It was so beautiful and so welcoming; I just knew that it would be the pride of my home. Its entrance was guarded by an arbor adorned by blooming wisteria and a little iron gate that beckoned me within. Broken shells crushed into small fragments lined the pathway that wound through its beauty. It was as if this garden has advertised only for the most lovely and softest singing birds to come make their permanent home in its foliage. Each step further into the garden took me to a place where I had never been before. I was transported from one state of being to another with each step further into its depths that I went.