Sunday, April 26, 2015

Why the sunken garden makes me feel unsinkable

Visiting someone else's garden is always liberating: you're free of any responsibilities for unfinished seasonal chores, unblinkered of the eyesores of your garden design failures, and unburdened of battling nature's imperfections, your poor choices, or chance's victims.


I'm always glad to have an excuse to pop into the Sunken Garden at Radcliffe Institute. A tall brick wall encloses the street sides, so passersby are likely to miss this serene site unless they peek through the Radcliffe Yard gates. Once inside, sounds of a fountain and weathered memorial benches offer a respite from the daily grind.


Despite today's breezy, sunny weather, chilly temperatures continue to hold a full flowering spring at a distance.  Nevertheless, the fern fiddleheads are stretching through their netted coats, white-flowering magnolias (Magnolia x stellata) are flicking in the wind, and Siberian squills (Scilla siberica) circle the base of a massive beech tree.


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