Old furniture takes up too much space in the corner as the pieces spill onto the grass and rub up against the stone path which divides the garden. A green plastic chair is laden down with washing to be hung on the line, a line that is old and has seen many a wash through all sorts of weather. A breezy day today...a breeze which carries the sound of the palm tress leaves whistle throughout the topsy turvey garden. An old chimineas stands waiting to burn whatever is put into it and throw out puffs of smoke in return..
Surely the wheelbarrow precariously balanced against the garage wall is dangerous? Yet it looks like it has grown from the ground beneath it,so in place and at home it looks as it stares lovingly at the gooseberry trees which seeing these Spring days, have decided to share beautifully vibrant green buds with the wheelbarrow and rest of the garden..The caterpillars will soon arrive to dampen down the gooseberries spirits as they'll nibble the pretty green leaves.For now all is well in gooseberry land.
By the old apple tree which looks like a wise old woman in her late nineties with an arched back, plenty of wrinkles and a stubbornness about her,there are pretty rocks hidden at her trunk. They shade small sprouts of parsley and sage and the odd dandelion..
Behind the old lady apple tree and against the stone back wall of the garden, a healthy luscious deep green ivy grows. It's thrilled to be part of the garden as it protects tiny birds that live amongst its leaves..They chirp and sing,happy that there is finally warmth after a bitterly cold and snowy winter.
A cardboard box full of shoes leans against the concrete ramp, which delivers occupants of the gardens house to their back door. The old shoes are a mixture of children's sized wellies, twenty odd years old, deep red slippers which appear to have lost their cosiness in the elements of outdoor weather..and a pink pair of sandals which look modern and out of place.
The concrete ramp is a wonderful work of purposeful built art and very much part of the garden. It allows pushchairs, wheelchairs, trolleys, bicycles, roller skates, motorbikes..anything with wheels access to the humble back door of the home of 82.
Either side of the ramp are pots of all shapes and sizes filled with colourful and not so colourful flowers. Of course at the top of the ramp at the back door where the flower pots end sits a blue lamp and this makes sense in the topsy turvey garden.
Two handy little steps lead down from the ramp making a quick route to the shed. A shed painted white recently. It has a very country look about it..it looks more like a tiny house than a shed with its concrete walls and gutter on the edge of its roof. The small lock on the wooden door looks like what an eight year old girl would have on her diary. The girl would probably be more upset with the contents of her diary being stolen by a thief than the owner of the shed having its contents stolen.
The shed owner would more than likely think the thief would be "doing me a favour!"
The nicely sized window of the shed doesn't appear to be able to close..I believe it has been that way since it was built many many many years ago..the net curtains on the window could certainly do with a wash, I believe they were once white but are now a dark grey ash colour.
A pile of bricks sit outside the shed waiting to be laid around the weathered looking bird pool. The bricks sit in little columns at the legs of an ancient looking bench.It looks as though it would comfortably sit 3 or 4..although the wooden slats of the bench look like the sitting experience wouldn't be that comfortable at all..the pots of paint dotted around the garden look like they would be far more comfortable to sit on!
Directly across from the shed at the opposite side of the garden is the sock tree. The owner uses this particular tree of the garden to dry the ridiculous amount of socks she needs to for the two dwellers of the house.
Hanging from the old lady apple tree is an old oil burner lamp rusty and very antique looking. It hangs from the branch day in day out, waiting patiently to hopefully be used again some day. Just above the oil burner lamp on a branch slightly higher is an empty bird feeder..and slightly to the left of these two useful items, rammed between two thick branches is an old blue plastic children's toy boat. It's lived in the garden for a number of years since abandoned by its little boy owner who sadly had to grow up and leave the topsy turvey garden to create one of his own.
And they are what stick out in my mind as the memorable parts of this magical little hidden garden creation. The excessive amount of chives, sacks of turf, random empty baskets and beautiful bluebells also resonate in my memory along with the clean underwear that sits on the grass since falling from the washing line.
The house that comes along with the garden deserves its own story but as anyone who has ever seen the topsy turvey garden of 82 will know, I will need many a day more to discuss the house's very own unique topsy turveyness!
