Waylaid by Gardening Books

It is interesting that when one is looking for a specific book, one invariably picks up a book one hasn't looked at for ages and is waylaid by it. Yesterday I was looking for my copy of Life of Pi which Perry had given to us one Christmas as it was a Man Booker prize for 2002. Instead I found my Gardens of the Spirit book by Roni Jay which I hadn't looked at for quite a while. I love the simplicity of the outlay of the book, the lovely photographs and the whole concept of gardens as a spiritual practice is so appealing. We have a wild garden, meaning there is no real structure to it and it rambles here and rambles there, there may be a path, or there may not be in which case you are either walking on carpets of gum tree bark and leaves or getting oxtongue thistle heads in your socks. The pond for me is the focal point of the garden and then to read that a Taoist garden has a verandah which is open and straight, looking out on a pond which was created with the rocks and slate the previous owner left behind, I have inadvertently created a Taoist garden with day lilies , water lilies and a view between the trees which leads to the front of the place. Reading the book made me enthusiastic again and because it was cool and overcast went out and did a heap of cutting back, especially the "Kiss-me-quick" which are apt to get straggly. They come back with renewed vigor especially now we have had rain today. Brian has planted new tomato plants he got from the Farmer's Market yesterday.
We had our friends from Goolwa come to lunch today. I made the Coronation Chicken dish which is very good on a summers day. We had a very nice Chardonnay to go with it and finished up with a summerfruit crumble my friend brought along. They reminded us too, that the Victor Harbor Rotary Art show is on now so we will go and see it Tuesday morning.