Pretty native plants and fountain at Cat’s garden
At my friend Cat‘s garden one afternoon, I was stopped in my tracks by this pretty vignette: a bubbling fountain with a plucked orange flower catching the ripples, and ballerina-skirted purple coneflowers dancing behind it.
Cat is so good at creating eye-catching moments like this.
She teases me about how I always take a picture of her “hippie” St. Francis statue. I think of him as looking more Celtic, but it’s true that I adore him and his offering of blue glass and a stone heart.
As storm clouds moved in, I admired a Maximilian sunflower stretching sun-rayed flowers skyward. Yay for summer rain, for simple flowers, and for friends’ gardens.
__________________________
Digging Deeper
Come learn about gardening and design at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, authors, and gardeners a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. Season 8 kicks off in fall 2024. Stay tuned for more info!
All material © 2024 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
I love that last photo – and envy you the summer rain. We did get 2/100ths of an inch last week but even that’s an anomaly.
Getting this much rain in July is such an unusual occurrence here. I’m grateful for it.
Summer rain–it must have been wonderful. Happy you got some!
I agree Celtic more than hippie. But cool either way.
Looks like that fountain is ideal for songbirds to splash in on a hot afternoon.
It sure does. Her garden is friendly in many other ways to birds too. Backing up to a wooded canyon, with an open meadow in between, she has excellent bird-watching conditions.
Pam -I especially like the Saint Francis statue in Cat’s garden. In my book, The Roses at the End of the Road, I wrote about the comfortably shaped stone for sitting that my husband found in the field and brought to the Rose Walk. He ordered me to sit on it! When I was comfortable he looked to me to see if I understood the message he was giving me – Saint Fiacre is not only the patron saint of gardeners, he is also the patron saint of French taxi drivers, he said. French taxi drivers suffer from ‘le fic’, hemorrhoids. Inside the Church of Saint Fiacre is a stone bearing the imprint of the saint’s botom; sitting on this stone and it is said to cure the ailment. My husband was so excited. “Don’t you understand what this means? This means that St. Fiacre was here! He walked these Heathan hills and left his imprint for us gardeners, just as he did for the French taxi drivers. He made me sit on the stone – and finally asked if I felt a cure taking place. “I sat in silence for a moment, thin sighed. I don’t know what you mean about a cure, but just look at this perfect day. And I think the garden looks perfect too. I no longer have the St. Fiarcre stone, but I have remembered the lesson – that we stop – and admire the beauty that we have cultivated.
A funny story, Pat, and also a good lesson shared from it. 🙂