We picked a dandy time to visit the gardens. I hadn't been there for at least 18 years... almost 19, when Jeremy was a tiny infant. It's so far away, and because of my reluctance to drive on freeways, it might as well be the moon.
But my friend Liz apparently feels quite at home on freeways. She didn't let the crush of cars trouble her, or the honking big trucks moseying over the line toward us. She kept tabs on all the lanes just fine, and we reached there and home in one piece.
The gardens were not very crowded, as befits the middle of the week when most schools are not yet on break. We had a clear field to look at the Chinese gardens and plenty of opportunity to speak to the docents. One came over to us when she heard us discussing the lotus plants growing in the lake. I think I have a picture of them here, but perhaps it didn't take. The camera was full, and I had to dump some pictures. I didn't want to dump all of them though, so I could only take a couple. Let's see what came out.
I can tell you that the wisteria were in bloom, and the plum, as well as the cherry trees. There were gorgeous striped white and red camellias, and we were impressed by the scope of the gardens, which made beautiful use of the landscape in which they were placed--the mountains and the existing trees. From any angle, there were inspiring views, and close up, wonderful details, like carvings of camellias in the wooden doors, a bamboo forest (I've never seen one of them before), and a courtyard made up of white stones placed on end and cemented in patterns interspersed with dark elongated stones. I wish I would have had enough room on the camera to show you. It's hard to describe.
We marveled at the miniature garden of Chinese bonsai type trees, arranged in landscapes resembling entire ecosystems, complete with jagged rocks for mountains, moss for grass, and the tortured looking contours of these trees, purposely stunted and made to look as though they were growing on a windy bluff. There were olive trees, evergreens, and tiny forests of a variety I don't remember.
Before coming to the gardens, we stopped at a noodle joint and filled up for the whole day--Vietnamese vegetarian spring rolls with molten peanut chile sauce and a salad with Thai bbq chicken. I walked it all off by the end of the day.
2 comments:
The Chinese excel at controlling nature, don't they. Your descriptions make the gardens sound like a labyrinth of patterns and color. I'm so glad you got to go.
It was indeed a riot of color and form. It is interesting that the Chinese control nature by making it seem as if it is being itself. We, on the other hand, and I am thinking of topiary and 18th century gardens, with their symmetry, seem to prefer overt artificiality much of the time. But then again, there are wild looking Western gardens as well.
Post a Comment