h a l f b a k e r yI didn't say you were on to something, I said you were on something.
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a night garden
a garden designed specifically for night-time enjoyment. | |
you may wish to picnic or meditate or just doze on the camomile scented lawn or find a secluded nook for a tender moment with your lover.
it may sometimes rain in this nocturnal place but the protective canopy is such that any raindrops are warm and perfumed and so tiny that they merely moisten your
skin.
the lawns glow softly, lit by gentle beams that randomly play, ebb and flow like waves skimming a tropical beach.
each tree in the garden is illuminated upwards by small fairy spotlights carefully secreted between the roots and on looking higher up, strings of pastel lights embroider the branches like raindrops in a mighty web.
at the centre of this magical place, a weeping willow cries into the lake as it stands alone and stooped inside the circle created by a single straight beam of white light from high above.
the lake is a stretch of deceptively dark water. in the shadows, its surface is glassylike and seemingly solid. beneath this solidity lurks many resting, sulky fish hiding and invisible but each sudden fishy move is captured by concealed sensors and a kaleidoscope of fins and scales captures the lights in a sudden hallucinogenic rainbow.
this movement-sensing light activity extends to the rest of the garden as everything that flies or crawls or jumps or wriggles is captured in a momentary flash. even a snail, as it makes its way down the path, will flash on and off with a pleasing strobing light. damselflies flicker blue and green above the water and a rabbit punches light into the ground with its back legs and its twitchy nose strikes up like a flaring match.
circles of mushrooms stand stiff and silent having pushed their little fists through the soil. they must be puffballs because each cloud of spores takes on the look of a small firework display.
flowers of every shape, size and colour, that would normally be asleep, will sway and dance and their rhythms stretches away into the distance, like some crazy floral Mexican wave saying bye bye. bye bye to the footpath that leads you from the path, from the lights, from the dream and back to the real world.
my favourite poem. I pinched a metaphor, thanks Sylvia.
http://plagiarist.com/poetry/1416/ [po, Nov 11 2004]
Beautiful. If you had that garden I would give you these for it.
http://www.halfbake.../Lava_20Lawn_20Lamp And also this. + [sartep, Nov 12 2004]
Ipomoea alba, night-blooming moon flower
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipomoea_alba "The flowers open quickly in the evening and last through the night, remaining open until touched by the morning sun." [jutta, Apr 16 2007]
coincidence?
http://www.inthenig...o.uk/en/default.asp ...created by Anne Wood famous for the teletubbies. [po, Sep 11 2007]
Glow in the dark orchids
http://www.rv-orchi...w-dark-orchids.html (Scroll down a little for the pictures) [doctorremulac3, Jan 09 2008]
Glow-in-the-dark-pebbles to put around the glow-in-the-dark garden
http://www.collecti....com/Item54045.aspx [doctorremulac3, Jan 09 2008]
And a pond filled with firefly squid
http://www.pinktent...s/firefly_squid.jpg Although squid might spoil the romantic mood of your garden. "What are those my love?" "Squid my darling. Thousands and thousands of squid." [doctorremulac3, Jan 09 2008]
Light Festival, Glasgow, Nov 2007 (Flickr photo group)
http://www.flickr.c...asgowradiance/pool/ [Jinbish, Jan 09 2008]
Something to grow in it
http://www.bbc.co.u...nvironment-15818662 BBC News: Botanists discover 'remarkable' night-flowering orchid [Dub, Nov 22 2011]
[link]
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I got as far as the //tender moment with your lover//
"Pheww po turn the heat down!" |
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369 words are worth a picture. [+] |
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My parents have something that approximates this in their backyard - - but I don't think it is as good as this sounds. [+] |
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lovely po. I especially like the hallucinogenic fishy lake kaleidoscope rainbow [+] |
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I tried to design my little back garden as a bit of a night-time haven. I now realise how far short it falls. |
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simply pofull, lovely...+++++ |
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Beautiful, po. All the most interesting animals only come to life after nightfall. |
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I enjoyed a tender moment reading that. |
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But soft! What light through yonder willow breaks? (+) |
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"It is the west and Po is the moon" |
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I have been to a garden that was designed specifically for night time. It was very pretty. Not as complex as this though. |
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Very nice po! Except for //rabbit punches// - I hate those. :) |
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hippo, its more sarf-west really... |
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Well, isn't this delightful? Thank you, po. And even on my second reading I still saw "secluded nooky" - which seems appropriate... |
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showing our age there, thud! |
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Nice place. <digs hole and relieves self> |
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Great, po. I love the part about the mushrooms! |
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Flashing lights, fairy secretions, crazy Mexicans, hallucinogens - if I can stop seizing you can have a croissant. |
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poor Bung. you are ok, only the snail strobes. |
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What kind of mushrooms have you been eating, [po]? What a gorgeous gargen you've created. I can only wish my garden/patio was half as lovely. |
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//a secluded nook for a tender moment with your lover// - reminds me of a poem my grand-dad wrote: |
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"Walk at ease. Do as you please - make love beneath the trees. But don't choose a fir - it's uncomfy for her and the pine needles stick in your knees" |
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oh bless! (sorry, just read that) |
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//at the centre of this magical place//
m-f-d: magic...just kidding. |
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Lovely po. I only know of four ways to make it happen. (In increasing order of desirability) 1: Traces of opium and LSD in the mist, 2: phosphoric paint, high speed servos and side scan motion sensitive sonar 3: Australian style dreamland 4: looking into my wifes eyes. |
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That's a lovely thing to say [cjacks]. |
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nice link, BB. miss the strobing rabbits though. |
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Still trying to work this one out. ( sulky fish )Perfect. |
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Very very nice. Reminds me of the colorful fantasy posters I enjoyed viewing under uv light in my youth. [+] |
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Secluded nook, here I come! |
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a really sweet love hotel |
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It still upsets me when I see bones on an idea like this. Still wishing for the anti-bone vote. |
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Beautiful, [po], just beautiful. |
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In Kage Baker's recently republished "The Children of the Company", a gardener who has become the tragic unrequited lover and company-ordained husband of a beautiful, but uncommunicative female of another humanoid species creates a night garden for his photophobic wife. "I explained that it was a bower of night, to be at its best in the darkness, like my pretty wife. [...] I told her stories, I told her about how I'd begin her garden as soon as the snows were gone and what rare flowers I'd plant there. [...] I paced out the area for the wonder I was going to make, Maeve's night-garden, and cut the terraces myself, and laid the forms for the concrete retaining walls and the stairs and balustrades." |
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Nice to see this churned :) |
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But it reminds me it's past my bedtime. |
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While visiting Bermuda I was attracted by showy white flowers which were open at night. I was cautioned to take care when smelling them, since they were pollinated by flying cockroaches. Flowers are invitations, and night blooming flowers might be inviting a different crowd than frequents the day garden. |
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I hope Maeve likes bats and moths. |
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Heh, jutta said "unrequited love(r)".
For those who don't know, do a search. It
was/is a true classic.
Also glad to see this revisited. It was a
great un. |
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Although I read and bunned this when I first joined the hb, here is another glowing croissant with thanks written on it. + |
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am i the only one who thinks the whole thing reads like pronography? i have a dirty, dirty mind... : ) (daydreaming dirty thoughts) + |
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see my link. wondering if I should have an acknowledgment. |
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Lovely (+), beyond words that I can call to the cause. Though I'd do it all with nature, phosphoescent algae, Foxfire, and mirrored pools reflecting moonlight, no, maybe I am unworthy even to comment on such a beautiful dream. Thank you for the moment in your garden. |
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I've seen IgglePiggle and its friends - they're pretty disturbing. Give me [po]'s night garden any day. Or just bring back the Tellytubbies. |
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A glow-in-the-dark garden could be pretty cool. I put a couple of links up. Who knew you could buy glow-in-the-dark pebbles for your garden? There's some mushrooms that glow, the pond could have lantern fish and that glowie algae. They've even crossed a firefly with an orchid (sort of) to make glowing flowers. |
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I tried to find where you could buy some but didn't have any luck. Anyway, check out the links. |
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thank you very much for those links. |
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btw, Kew Gardens apparently have been creating something like this during the winter months I believe. |
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BTW glow in the dark pebbles are OLD. For my honeymoon, we went to Pompeii and the guide explained that the white rocks imbedded in the streets were phosporescent and helped people get home at night. |
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I had a night blooming cactus for a long time, but one did have to stay up all night to catch it in bloom! (I'm getting too old for all that stuff.) |
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