September 4 - 10, 2016: Issue 279

GARDENS

Nature's garden. Sunflowers by the roadside - Eyrague, Provence, France - 1999
GARDENS
By George Repin

The entry for the word “garden” in the Macquarie Dictionary includes;
  1. a plot of ground devoted to the cultivation of useful or ornamental plants;
  2. a piece of ground, or other space, commonly with ornamental plants, trees, etc., used as a place of recreation;
  3. a fertile or delightful spot or region.
This rather prosaic entry encompasses many manifestations of the cultivation of plants by humans - for practical reasons (such as commercial market gardens and plots cultivated by subsistence farmers) or for pleasure, and the enjoyment of the beauty of the natural environment reproduced - as in parks, botanical gardens and even roof gardens.

Gardens vary greatly – in size, style and content – from extreme formality as at Versailles to a completely natural look giving little hint of the hand of man in their layout or design.

Outstanding gardens include the Keukenhof Garden in the Netherlands, Butchart Garden in British Columbia, Canada, the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew U.K., Versailles in France, the Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai, China, and the Villa dÉste at Tivoli in Italy.

Many gardens in China,  Japan and other countries of the East, because they are low key, restrained and deceptively unplanned, are conducive to meditation and quiet contemplation.

None of the following pictures are of famous gardens.  They are simply images of places that stimulated my interest to record.

All photos by George Repin

Garden of Villa Rufolo - Ravello, Italy - May 2011


Garden planted out for the forthcoming music festival - Ravello, Italy - May 2011


Display in greenhouse. Botanical Gardens, Wellington, N.Z. - December, 2011


Cactus Garden near Fairmont Hotel, Monaco - May 2011


In the gardens between Ave. Saint Martin and the sea, Monaco - May 2011


Formal garden in the Forbidden City - Beijing, China - September 2007


A garden at the Summer Palace, near Beijing, China - September 2007


A garden at Yuchang, China - September 2007


Garden at the Luk Sang Gallery, Bali, Indonesia - 1997


Formal garden of the Palais de la Berbie - Albi, France - 1999. The palace houses the Toulouse Lautrec Museum 


Detail of the formal garden of the Palais de la Berbie - Albi - France

Previous Reflections by George Repin 

The Nineteen Thirties  Remembering Rowe Street  The Sydney Push  Saturday Night at the Movies  Shooting Through Like A Bondi Tram  A Stop On The Road To Canberra  City Department Stores - Gone and Mostly Forgotten  An Australian Icon - thanks to Billy Hughes  Crossing The Pacific in the 1930s  Hill End  The Paragon at Katoomba  Seafood In Sydney  How Far From Sydney?  Cockatoo Island Over The Years  The Seagull at the Melbourne Festival in 1991  Busby's Bore  The Trocadero In Sydney  Cahill's restaurants Medical Pioneers in Australian Wine Making  Pedal Power and the Royal Flying Doctor Service  Pambula and the Charles Darwin Connection  Gloucester and the Barrington Tops  A Millenium Apart  Have You Stopped to Look?  Gulgong  Il Porcellino  Olympia Durham Hall  Sargent's Tea Rooms Pie Shops and Street Photographers The Ballet Russes and Their Friends in Australia  Hotels at Bondi  Alma Ata Conference - 1978 Keukenhof - 1954 The Lands Department Building and Yellowblock Sandstone  The Goroka Show - 1958  A Gem On The Quay  Staffa  The Matson Line and Keepsake Menus Kokeshi Dolls  The Coal Mine At Balmain  The Hyde Park Barracks  The Changing Faces Of Sydney From Pounds and Pence to Dollars and Cents Nell Tritton and Alexander Kerensky  Making A Difference In Ethiopia William Balmain  J C Bendrodt and Princes Restaurant Azzalin Orlando Romano and Romano's Restaurant Waldheim  Alcohol in Restaurants Before 1955  King Island Kelp  The Mercury Theatre  Around Angkor - 1963  Angkor Wat 1963 Costumes From the Ballets Russe Clifton at Kirribilli  Chairman Mao's Personal Physician  The Toby Tavern The MoKa at Kings Cross The Oceaographic  Museum  in Monaco  The Island of Elba Russian Fairy Tale Plates Meteora Souda Bay War Cemetery Barrow, Alaska Cloisonné  Tripitaka Koreana Minshuku The Third Man Photographs and Memories Not A Chagall!  Did You Listen? Did You Ask?  Napier (Ahuriri, Maori) New Zealand Borobudur  Ggantija Temples Plumes and Pearlshells  Murano  University of Padua  Ancient Puebloe Peoples - The Anasazi   Pula  The Gondolas of Venice Cinque Terre  Visiting the Iban David The Living Desert Bryce Canyon National Park   Aphrodisias   The Divine Comedy Caodaism  Sapa and local Hill People  A Few Children  Cappadocia  Symi Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre   Aboriginal Rock Art on Bigge Island    ANZAC Cove (Ari Burnu) 25 April, 1997  Hotere Garden Oputae  Children of the Trobriand Islands  Page Park Market - Rabaul  Rabual   Kotor, Montenegro   Galleries of Photographs I   Lascaux  Galleries of Photographs II  The Cathedral of St. James – Šibenik, Croatia  Ivan Meštrović  - Sculptor   Delphi   Gallery of Photographs III  The Handicrafts of Chiang Mai Raft Point  San Simeon - "Hearst Castle"  Floriade - The Netherlands - 1982  Russian New Year  Mycenae "Flightseeing" Out Of Anchorage Alaska  The White Pass and Yukon Route  Totem Poles  Tivkin Cemetery  Krka National Park - Croatia Tavistock Square and the BMA  Orthodox Easter  Wieliczka Salt Mine  A Walk on Santorini  Indonesian Snapshots Ephesus - The Library of Celsus  Ephesus - Some Places Of Interest  Waimea Canyon and the Kalalau Valley United Nations Headquarters 1958  A Miscellany of Flower Images 

Copyright George Repin 2016. All Rights Reserved.