He lost one of his shoes among the cabbages, and the other shoe amongst the potatoes.After losing them, he ran on four legs and went faster, so that I think he might have got away altogether if he had not unfortunately run into a gooseberry net, and got caught by the large buttons on his jacket. It was a blue jacket with brass buttons, quite new. Beatrix Potter
While out weeding between the beans and cucumbers, I startled a baby rabbit from under the large zucchini leaves. I presumed he was munching on my brussels sprouts and shooed him away. He ran right into a low wire-net fence and struggled to get out. I watched as he finally managed to squeeze underneath and scurry away. Beatrix Potter's classic tale and artwork flashed through my mind. I found myself looking for a small blue jacket to hang in my garden. And this is just one of the ways I find the garden life imitating art.
We look at nature and are reminded of a painting, a poem or a book, forgetting that the piece was first inspired by nature itself.
At first, art imitates life. Then life will imitate art. Then life will find its very existence from the arts. Fyodor Dostoevsky
No doubt, Beatrix Potter was able to write such tales because of her study of nature. She must have seen rabbits do just as the one in my garden had. Her art imitated life.
She moved to the Lake District in Northern England to buy her own farm and continue her art in the area where she first started drawing and studying nature. Her life became a celebration of the natural beauty around her, and her legacy to us is so much more that a series of children's books.
I was able to appreciate Beatrix Potter's art when I was young, though being brought up far from the English countryside and gardening of any sort. Now I find myself trying to recreate some of what I read about and imagined to be an idyllic country life.
Apple trees fit into this idyllic picture garden. My backyard had three. One fell over and the other was cut down to tame the overgrowth and allow in a bit more sunlight. The trees were mainly for ornamental purposes, not producing much to harvest. The surviving tree produces an overabundance of hard green apples that weigh down its branches till they nearly reach the ground. The apples never ripen or need to be picked from the tree. They must be gathered from the lawn and carted off to be dumped by the truck load. So why don't I have it cut down? Simply, it inspires me. I love to look out at its blossoms in spring, and watch the animals that are drawn to its fallen fruit all summer: squirrels, rabbits, one possum and a groundhog, along with all the birds (and children) in its branches.
Inspired by Gerald Durrell's books, I visited the olive groves on the island of Corfu. I found these nets rolled up and hanging under the trees. After a few more visits to Greece later in the year and watching the whole season of "The Durrells", on BBC television, I learned what they were for. They are harvest nets spread out under the trees to catch the olives when they ripen and fall. It is the easiest way to harvest the olives, and has remained unchanged over the years. This gave me the idea to use nets to 'harvest' the apples from my tree. I found some used to protect fruit trees in Walmart, and staked them out below the tree. Just about everyone living here or visiting has been tripped up by the nets, and there is no easy way to remove them for mowing, but so far they are an effective way of collecting all the fallen apples. I haven't had any rabbit get caught it the nets yet, although squirrels have been seen wrestling the apples out.
Something as simple as this dragonfly which caused my son to stop and photograph while cutting the fairway; the image and idea was shared, it's existence appreciated and caused us to go out and search for more. My son has begun to come home with all sorts of living samples and even picked up a pair of hitchhiking protesters the other day. Curiosity is fostered and creativity born.
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