The garden has celebrated autumn this year rather than abandoned itself to melancholy decay. We’re fortunate in the gardens of Ednovean Farm to have a backbone for the planting of sub tropical palms and topiary. These stalwarts of the garden will remain reassuringly unchanged throughout the season. Consequently it has to be the changing colours of the Fig trees, hydrangeas and grasses that have enthralled me with the spirit of the season. Each day the autumn colours have glowed in soft buttery yellows, fading bronze and russet, revelling in that special low slanting light of the closing year.
Autumn days in the garden and a spirit of place
This month as well as sharing my photos with you, I will explore the spirit of place in our garden, as I return to photograph it again and again.
Genius Loci
I was intrigued enough to look up the beguiling phrase and found Wikipedia has given me permission “in contemporary usage” to adopt the phrase to refer to our gardens distinctive atmosphere.
“In contemporary usage, genius loci usually refer to a location’s distinctive atmosphere, the spirit of place.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius_loci
The harmony of autumn
There is a harmony now in the Italian Garden as the grasses sway in its very centre and even days when a dramatic golden light prevails.
I often returned to photograph the heart of the garden as autumn has progressed. The garden that is the very Hortus conclusus I explored in my July Garden Diary.
Here in the central garden, with a theatrical stone David, there is a stillness and peace about it – genius loci. A sense of envelopment in a private world sheltered from the distracting views and winds that wheel around the outer gardens.
Autumn brings new life to our garden
As our autumn days draw to a close a new collection of robins have arrived with brighter red breasts than our usual tiny incumbents. For a few days a persistent cheeping took place from every bush and building until the garden was divided according to each ones need, ready for the winter days to come.
The autumn winds that brought about a change to our garden this autumn, when several boughs were ripped from the trees.
Suddenly a view was restored that I hardly knew I had been missing until I saw it again. It was like an old friend retuning and a renewed spirit of place and connection with the outer landscape.
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