there were two surprise gardens for me today. no, nothing like the opulence of that one memorable garden estate yesterday. this time, of the 10 i toured, two were genuine 'gardens'.
at 138 roxborough, it was written that the house is as beautiful as its garden rooms. we didn't get to see the house of course, but the façade alone is tremendously beautiful. not outrageously beautiful, but elegant beautiful.
i was going to see the garden at 127 roxborough next to this one but there was a long line up. with a jaded attitude - it was past one, i was thirsty and needed badly to go the washroom - but for the beautiful smile of the receptionist, i went in. the top of the entrance to the 'foyer' is covered by a large elderberry tree bursting with its red berries. tropical plants and ferns on one side, all in large sizes! the wall leads to the enourmous bay window that overlooks the large foyer and the opposite side with plants lushed with multi-coloured flowers: roses, climatis, peonies. oh, and while others only had white or pink or red peonies, this garden has all those colours (not all together though) and YELLOW! yellow peonies!
then i get to the 'dining room' which just blew me away. i mean, look at that picture on the left. everything was impeccably set, it's like you're inside a large atrium, only you're outside in the searing heat. the large vase of fresh bouquet, apparently arranged by the owner herself, was on the covered garden table. it almost looked like it was freshly delivered by a florist. but on close inspection, you could still see the fresh sap on the stems through that beautiful stemmed vase. the flowers and leaves were all perfect!
the owner came out while i was at the foyer with her little grandson, probably 3 or 4 years old, and a younger lady who i presumed was the mother of the boy. i greeted them and she apologized for disturbing me (they found me standing alone in the foyer, just soaking in the beauty of the surroundings, i was actually taking a breather under the shade of large tree :-)). i complimented her for her beautiful gardens thanked her for letting us see it and she was very kind, saying it was a pleasure and that she hoped i would like the rest of her gardens. oh, boy! if there's any garden i'd like to covet, it would be this one. she said that her grandson wanted to see what a 'garden tour' looked like because he was wondering why there were so many people outside.
the next room was the "kitchen" where she had a fairly large size top of the line barbeque and around this little 'room', pots and pots and pots, in different sizes of large (hahaha!), of different kinds of herbs that are actually being used for cooking, as well as dozens of pots of plants with edible flowers.
the next two rooms were of more flowering plants, well maintained and cared for, which then led to a drive way and onto another street back to the front of the house where large trees shade the giant dogwood bushes that were teeming with flowers.
there was no more lineup in the garden next door. i went in and i couldn't help but imagine what disappointment the people got earlier for baking in the hot sun lining up to see a so-so garden. i told the new arrivals to skip it and go next door to 138 because if heaven has a garden that would have been it.
-o0o-
thank you for your views and comments. if i've missed your albums, please let me know. i like to think i'm pretty caught up but probably not.
WOW! I don't just want to see this one, I want to LIVE there! Let's just move in ... I'm sure that you saw two great ones. One for you and one for me! What a beautiful place ...love the photos. This is a "home." A place that people love and live in. One can always "feel" that when you enter. Well taken and beautifully written, summerfield. Thanks for the tour. :)
