Spaces

A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?

But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Kahlil Gibran

INSIDE GRAY GARDENS

...Then there was the garden, named by former owner Anna Gilman Hill, author of "Forty Years of Gardening." We had to take everyone's word that there was actually a garden there. Happily we found Hill's book and a cache of old photographs showing the garden as it originally was, surrounded by dunes, just a few yards from the sea. "It was truly a gray garden," Hill wrote in her book. "The soft gray of the dunes, cement walls and sea mists gave us our color scheme as well as our name." She allowed "only flowers in pale colors" inside the walls.

From

How I Fell in Love With Grey Gardens

Sally Quinn

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 16, 2009

This captivating place ~with gorgeous photos~ inside Gray Gardens, before and after from the New York times, Homes and Gardens...The Secret Gardener

Honey and Orange Blossoms

Yesterday I went to preview a house for sale, the house looks tired and in dire need of TLC, but the backyard has this amazing little space, a secluded corner with broken cobblestones and an old forgotten rose garden, the place is overgrown with vines that climbed up to the trees forming a king of canopy. When I went under the the orange tree, I was taking by a jolt of memories so intense, I nearly cried...what an amazing feeling, it was the sweet aroma of the orange blossoms, the same aroma I remember from my grandmother's garden and I felt embraced in an aura of protection and if not for the fact that we were there to view the house and in a hurry, I would have sat in the very same spot to meditate.

I wonder if there are points of contact like a vortex in our every day time, where we can enter the other world dimension of days gone by...I long to go to my childhood home, like a ghost I would step back in time and visit my grandmothers garden, entering her kitchen, I see myself watching her move around cooking and doing all those things she did so well...she was a wonderful grandmother and my days were always full of her energy, she is in my mind like a busy bee who enters my present days leaving me with the sweet aroma of Spring blossoms and honey.

Moon Gardens

These paintings were inspired by my mother, she is always in search for a new technique and while talking about decoupage and collage, I got so charged up with her ideas that I went for it myself...these were all canvases I had started a while ago...I have many of these around. The base had various degrees of texture, some were going to be landscapes, I had a couple of seascapes too.
The process was a tad complicated because I had to try many layers before I got the desired look, but here they are...I called the series Moon Gardens...a Raven Song.

"Ravens are master magicians and represent transformational energy, revealing to us how to rid ourselves of our inner fears. Raven will show you how to go within in yourself, into the dark areas and then illuminate them, making you ‘sparkle’ and bringing out your true self. Inner conflicts should then be resolved, however long buried they are - this is the deepest healing..."

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade gristello.etsy.com

I love old houses and this one has one of the most beautiful westeria trees I have seen in years, I will be going back today to take more photos, because this house just sold.

The Gardener of my soul....Yoganandaji

There is a man I call

the gardener of my soul,

who's love for God has inspired me to meditate again.
I hope one day I can visit those places in Los Angeles where
he started his quest for introducing Eastern spirituality to the West.

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893 - 1952)

From the depths of slumber,
As I ascend the spiral stairway of wakefulness,
I whisper:
God! God! God!
Thou art the food, and when I break my fast
Of nightly separation from Thee,
I taste Thee, and mentally say:
God! God! God!
No matter where I go, the spotlight of my mind
Ever keeps turning on Thee,
And in the battle din of activity my silent war-cry is ever:
God! God! God!
When boisterous storms of trials shriek
And worries howl at me,
I drown their noises, loudly chanting:
God! God! God!
When my mind weaves dreams
With threads of memories,
On that magic cloth I do emboss:
God! God! God!
Every night, in time of deepest sleep,
My peace dreams and calls: Joy! Joy! Joy!
And my joy comes singing evermore:
God! God! God!
In waking, eating, working, dreaming, sleeping,
Serving, meditating, chanting, divinely loving,
My soul constantly hums, unheard by any:
God! God! God!

*~*~*
Prayer for Peace

My grandmother's garden

I took these photos in 1986 while visiting my hometown in Tulancingo Hidalgo Mexico.
This is my grandparents house, in this place my father was born in 1925. My grandparents had 10 children, the house had 5 bedrooms for the family, 4 of them around the garden, one on the back where most of the grand kids made their play room. There was a living room to the right as we entered the main gate, but my grandmother had a small corner where she will visit with anyone who came calling. She did not believe in taking people into the rest of the house, smart lady, she kept it simple, have coffee, visit, let the kids play where you can watch them without messing up the house.

I have found some of the same plants my grandmother used to have for my own garden, this is how I keep her garden alive in my home.








I lived in Tulancingo for 11 years, this garden along with *my maternal grandparents home where I was born hold the best memories of my childhood, and later on when living in Mexico city, we came every Summer for another 10 years until we moved to the USA.

*(Of that house I have nothing left but one glorious print of St. Anthony which I found in a back room before they demolished the place)

My grandparents house was sold and it is now a medical center, a tall building on top of my grandparents house which was in a corner lot, now crowned or filled in with many rooms. The only consolation I have is to know it is a place of healing, where many babies are born.

I am not quite sure how they designed the building because they kept some of the original rooms for other type of business, my grandma's living room...is the local office of Century 21! Their pharmacy is now where my grandparents bedroom suite used to be. I don't see what they did with the other side, because only the corner is visible in these photos.
The main entrance and all the windows are there.

I have this photo on my computer all the time, it makes me smile Tulancingo at night



This is the Tulancingo of my grandparents and I still remember many of those buildings