Dreaming Of Tall Terra Cotta Pots

By Maryanna Gabriel

"The foolish man seeks happiness at a distance

The wise man grows it under his feet"
                           - Oppenheimer

Spring is a mad burst of glory around here and I am all in a tizzy with planting. My daughter sent an article to me. It is about a revived "old world" garden in France. The acreage and chateau belong to former Polish royalty. "Effortless" was how my daughter described the elegant photographs. I blink as I check my vision. I read such sentences as - Prince and Princess Poniatowski strolled past "ill conceived garden features" with the very same landscape designer as for the Chateau de Versailles. Apparently their mutual solution was a moat lined with irises and a boxwood arrangement resembling a treble clef, just the thing it would seem, for European society. 

I don't want to make Princess Pontiiatowski jealous.

Meanwhile, progress with design elements for my own forest wilderness has been slow. Sometimes I wildly fantasize what an unlimited budget would manifest. It's fun. In the interim I coax out the features I can with some sense of accomplishment. I wonder to myself if I should stroll leisurely past ill-conceived features of my own, glass of champagne in hand, dreaming of piazzas and terracing and tall terra cotta pots as I ask myself, what kind of footwear does Princess Poniatowski sport on such occasions? One wonders these things as one traipses past the shrubberies. Probably not heels I decide. It would depend I should think if there are photographers. The columbines seem to nod knowingly.