Yesterday my friends Kris and Rose joined me on a San Diego Horticultural Society garden tour in Encinitas, California. Three ladies with different needs and talents off on a journey to see how others tackled their landscape.
We talked of many things that day – the garden, our dogs, and the men in our lives. In the case of the latter it ultimately became a discussion over lunch on how many cars each owned. We never came upon a definite number. We were never quite sure that what was told us by our beloved was the actual count. Another story. Back to the tour.
The last house on the garden tour made an impression on me. I may not have done things in quite the same way, but I loved the kind of freestyle, creative feel of the home. The owner, an artist, was not afraid to add color or a bit of bohemian style to her yard which she had plenty of and which she had spent over twenty years developing. There were so many elements that I was a bit overwhelmed. Birdhouses, arbors, tool boxes and shovels had all been decorated with defiant color as well as ceramic and stone. Each room, each facet, called to different aspects of myself. Having money helped in some of what I saw, but having fearlessness was definitely an asset. Did I know how to be fearless?
At one house, the third on the tour, the owner took a small landscape area and made it lush and warm, with a mind towards water conservation and an eye towards color and shape. Another form of fearlessness, perhaps more demure, but just as impactful.
I am cautious by nature, but my friends and I discovered a bit of heaven that day on the tour. A reminder maybe to not be afraid to experiment with unique elements, whether vintage or contemporary. At the end of the day, we were left inspired, ready to tackle our own yards with fearless abandon. Maybe to discover that our own little piece of the world, however small, was worth the bother.
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