Unimaginable in a Garden

In springtime it looks as if the only reason some tall trees grow is to hold rooks nests in their very highest branches. The pile of twigs looks dangerously precarious. And yet it survives wind and rain - as if it was a freak growth on the tree. Leo Higgins' Bird in Tree says it all.

Brid Ni Rinn's shining white carrara marble baby focusses all attention on the new arrival.

This is the beginning of everything. It is well named as Breith.. Beatha... Fas (Birth Life Growth).

There is no doubt that Annette McCormack's textured head is a Sympathetic Listener. But it suggest much more than that. A bronze bust tells a great deal about the subject. Much that it is not easy to put into words.

The Irish/English dictionary translates 'cumar' as a gathering, a confluence or a celebration. Is Cliodna Cussen's Cumar na mBan implying that women heading for the shops is a natural coming together or even a ritual revellery? Having the shopping bags behind their backs in all cases is surely not suggesting any deception?

Without water there is no life. Over the years there have been endless deaths because this vital resource could not be found or in protecting it. In Guardian of the Water is Nial Deacon suggesting a marker or a warning?

Katy Goodhue's Seilide is "a large shell that has been abandoned on the grass .. something to interact with, to sit on and to enjoy." Leona has found her own use for it!

Frightening, solemn, strange even grotesque might be emotions evoked but Catherine Greene's title Crossing suggests a movement between our world and a place after death. Is the bird there to protect or guide? Is the partial vale intended to hide or to show respect.

It is amazing to watch to watch the symmetry with which birds act. In taking off, in some many different flight movements. In James McCarthy's Birds they are all landing together. Coming down into a complex tangle of branches. And yet in perfect unison. Amazing.

Come and explore these unimaginable aspects of a garden. On your own. Again and again. On one of our regular tours.

- Frank Lewis