Saturday 9 October 2010

MEMORIAL GARDEN UPDATE

When Davy built our office one of the planning conditions was that the surrounding acre of land should be landscaped. Our plan was submitted, agreed and we were delighted with the (expensive!) end result. The office was now enclosed in beautiful gardens and peaceful grassy areas.

Apart, that is, from a sizeable portion of land directly in front of the office. Davy said we were not to touch because it was to be his project and who were we to disagree with him when he was being this assertive? It was an eyesore and the planners and neighbours frequently complained about it.

So when Davy died last Christmas he left us with a huge dilema. What should we do with this area of waste ground? Dare we touch it? Dare we go against his wishes? We all loved him dearly and wanted to do the right thing, but we couldn't just leave this unsightly mess, especially as we sometimes have prestigious visitors.

So we mulled this over for several weeks and finally someone suggested we turn it into a Garden of Memorial. This felt right and work commenced.









I apologise, once again, for my appauling photography. These photographs don't actually portray how awful it was and how beautiful it is now.

We kept it simple with three trees, an Oak, a Copper Beech (Davy's favourite) and another tree which I can't remember the name of right now, but it has bright yellow foilage. We also planted shrubs along the back fence which will look beautiful in a couple of years time.

The tree in the far righthand corner is the Oak and it is under this that we quietly interred Davy's ashes early one sunny morning. It's visible from the office and the house so it seemed appropriate that this was to be his last resting place,close to the people that he loved and the business that he loved.

And here's the strange thing. Can you can just make out the the area surrounding the Oak tree is slightly raised? This was not planned.

11 comments:

Maggie May said...

That is a beautiful way of remembering Davy. It really looks lovely now.
I think your photos really do show the difference.
Maggie X

Nuts in May

Unknown said...

What a loving gesture!

ADDY said...

How lovely that he should have that lasting memorial and so close to home too. It must give you great comfort.

Sueann said...

A Memorial Garden is the perfect solution!
Hugs
SueAnn

CiCi said...

That is a lovely way to fulfill Davy's wishes.

Grit said...

gardens are wonderful places that evolve and change over time, just like people; it's a lovely way of remembering someone. thank you for sharing the photographs.

Anonymous said...

This is beautiful. Flagmaker

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

The land was a lot worse at one time Maggie, but I don't have a photo of that

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

I think that it is going to be a beautiful, tranquil place. Eventually we plan to have a couple of seating areas.

DogLover emailed me to point out that we have deviated from our original plan, but that's another story!

Strawberry Jam Anne said...

It looks beautiful and is a very fitting tribute for Davy. A lovely idea too to make it his resting place. How comforting! A x

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

Your are so right Anne, I think that we all get a lot of comfort from the garden. I know that I do.