The other week we purchased our first ever rose (we got it half price from a garden centre in Hampstead, recommended by our friends Kate and Simon – bonus!). As soon as we brought it back to Stockwell, we welcomed it into it’s new home – a shiny blue oil can – marvellous:
I’ve been very much enjoying our little garden, and the magical surprises that accompany it. Even this morning Kirsty got me to sit outside in the garden, and proceeded to cut my hair (for all the neighbours to see) in the new pop-up hair salon. Here’s me before:
…and after (I apologise for my crazed looks – maybe it’s because I’ve just been woken up):
Having had my surprise haircut, we ventured off to see a fantastic secret garden at the Serpentine in Hyde Park. It is called ‘hortus conclusus’ – the enclosed garden, and is very impressive. The outside looks quite dark and imposing, but once you get in, you find yourself in a beautiful ‘garden within a garden’. The creator Peter Zumthor wrote that ‘everytime I imagine a garden…it turns into a magical place…sheltered places of great intimacy where I want to stay for a long time‘. This is what I think of our ghetto garden.
While we were walking in what Peter Zumthor calls this ‘most intimate landscape’, Kirsty leaned in to give me a kiss. She then paused to say ‘mm it’s rather unfortunate I’ve gone off your smell’. I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, but replied ‘I’ll get a new aftershave or shower gel then’. Thinking that was a great solution to the problem, kirsty went on to explain ‘no, it’s not that, it’s your skin’. This followed an incident earlier in the week where kirsty woke me up in the middle of the night and got me to brush my teeth because my breath smelled. Kirsty has told me whilst writing this, that she didn’t have the heart to inform me that it didn’t make a difference. Let’s hope that kirsty’s heightened sense of smell diminishes soon!
Good news just in:
I’ve just had the smell test and we can confirm that it is only my face that smells. This is difficult to hide but I am optimistic that at least it’s a smaller area to work on.
For more on the enclosed garden see links below:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/aug/07/gardens-dan-pearson-serpentine-pavilion
http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2011/04/serpentine_gallery_pavillion_2011_zumthor.html
ps I love the poem ‘Solitude’ by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, but I’d like to insert 2 words:
‘laugh [at yourself] and the world laughs with you’
This is hilarious, your blog is completely brilliant Bruce! I also went to the secret garden at the serpentine this weekend and loved it too.