"If poverty had been the keynote of the convent buildings, its garden was redolent of wealth. There was, even here, certain evidence of monastic austerity, in that no flowers grew for the sake of their beauty alone, but the formal beds beneath the peach trees were rich with thyme and lavender and purple rosemary, while the feet of the pear and apple trees, espaliered on the surrounding walls, stood deep in a silver drift of sage. A row of apricot trees lent support to a disciplined riot of vines; below it, in careful ranks, fading stems were weighted with the fabulous red of tomatoes. There was even a pair of orange trees, standing sentinel at the end of a box-bordered path, looking, with their symmetrical heads hung with glossy green fruit, for all the world like guardians of some fantastic gateway to fairytale, or to the herb-garden pictured on some faded medieval page ... basil, vervain, borage; saffron, hyssop, juniper; violet for heart's-ease, and blue clary and the little lemon thyme ... Over all hung the scent of spices and warm earth, and the resinous smell of the near pine-woods mingled sleepily with the fragrance of lavender. Not a bird sang, but the air was loud with bees."
From Thunder on the Right by Mary Stewart, today's Friday read.
The picture is of my own garden in summer - appropriate in once sense as my house used to be a convent, although what you see there owes more to these people than to the Sisters who lived here once upon a time.
A garden of delights, how beautiful it is.
Posted by: Toffeeapple | 20 January 2017 at 06:55 PM
How lovely it looks now! A walled garden is my very favourite thing.
Posted by: Callmemadam | 21 January 2017 at 08:15 AM
So lovely. I have a passion for houses and gardens with history. Its a subject that fascinates me.
Quite fittingly I'm reading Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose.
Posted by: Kim | 22 January 2017 at 08:13 AM
Usefully edible or merely decorative, old or newly created, I love all gardens. I'm currently waiting for library book reserves about the secrets of trees. After all they are capable of lasting considerably longer than humans, so must have a whole cache of secrets!
Posted by: Spade & Dagger | 23 January 2017 at 04:42 PM