4 Jun 2011

The Saturday Snap: Secret Garden

This last week I went to London Zoo in Regents Park.  Have you been to this zoo recently?  It's changed a lot (for the better) since I was last there - unsurprisingly, as it's been quite a while since my last visit. (We're talking years, not months, here.)  I used to go and sketch there while my (then) baby son slept in his buggy (or I'd practise speed sketching while he watched the animals as a toddler). It used to feel very wrong and very grey, with all the compounds made of brutal concrete and very little vegetation. I felt so sorry for the animals, cooped up in that grey world but still able to see the park beyond the fences, so close but so far. So it was a very lovely surprise to rediscover the zoo as a beautifully lush and verdant space with lakes, shrubs, planting and grass at every turn - so much so that it was sometimes hard to spot the animals!   Of course, I completely forgot that it was half-term as well as the London tourist season and therefore the zoo became very crowded - but not before I'd happened upon an oasis of calm in the children's section. Not only, wow!, a giant 4 foot high flowerpot in the entrance but written on it a verse which summed up my thoughts on why I garden.  So this week's Saturday Snap (and verse) is

The Secret Garden


Secret Garden Flowerpot

The secret garden is a place
Where time moves at a slower pace.
Flowers sway, Leaves rustle,
Away from all the noise and bustle.

Ah, yes, my sentiments exactly. 

3 comments:

  1. How lovely. Not been to the zoo in years, perhaps it's time for a visit.

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  2. I've not been to the zoo in years!
    That's a great looking flowerpot...is there anything in it?
    I like the words, they're my sentiments as well! Flighty xx

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  3. Rachel, if you can fit a visit in during term time, it's a very peaceful place to visit, especially with small children or a sketchbook. (Although, like most things today, it's quite pricey to get in.)

    The flowerpot was very eye catching Flighty, although I was disappointed to see that the thyme planted in it had been allowed to die off in the drought. I might have to have a word with their gardeners .... ;o)

    Caro xx

    ReplyDelete

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