The tree as shelter; the branches of the tree weep down instead of rising up, reaching down to the water, down to the ground. You can pass through into this sheltered space, behind the green curtain. Then you feel like you are in a room enclosed but not entrapped. The veil of leaves is dense… Continue reading Shelter
Month: June 2023
Up for sale
At the Saturday flea market on the Bürkliplatz someone is selling piecemeal a botanical collection. The plants have been carefully flattened and taped down onto sturdy paper and placed between a folded sheet. Each has a white identification tag giving the botanical classification, location where it was collected and the date– all in the year… Continue reading Up for sale
Alter Botanischer Garten
From the hotel room I look across at the old botanical garden. I am intrigued by use of the word ‘old’ in the naming. Did it mean that it was the abandoned garden like the old pair of shoes, tossed aside, replaced by the new? From my room I have the impression this is the… Continue reading Alter Botanischer Garten
Freedom to flourish
On the train to Zürich from Bremen I overheard a fellow passenger and tourist say. “I love visiting Switzerland. It is like being in paradise…” Unsaid but implied… because Switzerland is so clean. Paradise in the imagining of this man, is a clean place, empty of the detritus of humans. It is true, Zürich, a… Continue reading Freedom to flourish
Sun baking
Since I first spotted it I notice that the tortoise is up sunning itself every morning on the corner of the platform around the duck house. When I first saw it a few days ago I thought it was fake, that, as a prank, a young adult had swum or waded out and put it… Continue reading Sun baking
Big bonsai?
The strange out of proportions of these two olive trees grabbed my attention. Everything about them seemed wrong. The thick, rough trunks spoke of older mature trees— how old I was not sure, 40-50 years? They have the truncated size of a full tree cut down and cut up, a chunk of the trunk taken… Continue reading Big bonsai?