Around the stone wall, the garden appears as the secret return!

I had intended to write about the home garden as an escape...

But then a dream got in the way.

Fast asleep I dream that I enter a hidden garden, one that I pass during my morning walk. An elderly gentleman owns the property, the strange part is that I have toured this garden in real life (it was on the second annual eyedrum garden tour) yet, the way that this garden is hidden continues to entice my curiosities each time I walk along beside the towering front wall masoned out of Georgia's granite or up the street next to the garden shed that sits blocking the side entrance view.

In my dream, I am found out among the garden's Albertine Rose. I can not resist sticking my nose in to the center of soft fluffy pink petals. In my sleep, I feel it's silkiness against my skin. Then a woman, I believe one of the man's three daughters (of course, I don't really know if this man has any daughters or children for that matter!), approaches me. "Excuse me. Can I help you?" "Oh! I'm afraid you've caught me... could not resist another minute. I walk by here and I only want to see the garden." The woman then sits down right there on the ground next to me, a worn stone path, and tells me of how she played in the garden as a child and how her family has watched it grow and how the garden is just another part of the family. Then we walk inside the grand old mansion and have iced sweet tea.

You see, the wall or overgrown plant is what creates a dream garden or a garden to dream of and one that's worthy of pondering a dream while sitting upon an hand forged metal bench under an arbor covered in Clematis Armandii . Gardens are designed, cultivated and maintained to serve a higher purpose than that of just being eye candies. The Japanese garden, for instance, helps in Zen meditation; it relaxes the senses and takes the mind off concerns that cloud one’s consciousness. Even Jesus goes to the garden, unloading the burden in his heart in the garden of Gethsemane. The proper garden provides privacy for it's owner and mystery for those on the outside.

So, I guess this post is about the garden as an escape after all...