you may wish to picnic or meditate or just doze on the camomile scented lawn or find a secluded nook for a tender moment with your lover.
it may sometimes rain in this nocturnal place but the protective canopy is such that any raindrops are warm and perfumed and so tiny that they merely moisten your skin.
the lawns glow softly, lit by gentle beams that randomly play, ebb and flow like waves skimming a tropical beach.
each tree in the garden is illuminated upwards by small fairy spotlights carefully secreted between the roots and on looking higher up, strings of pastel lights embroider the branches like raindrops in a mighty web.
at the centre of this magical place, a weeping willow cries into the lake as it stands alone and stooped inside the circle created by a single straight beam of white light from high above.
the lake is a stretch of deceptively dark water. in the shadows, its surface is glassylike and seemingly solid. beneath this solidity lurks many resting, sulky fish hiding and invisible but each sudden fishy move is captured by concealed sensors and a kaleidoscope of fins and scales captures the lights in a sudden hallucinogenic rainbow.
this movement-sensing light activity extends to the rest of the garden as everything that flies or crawls or jumps or wriggles is captured in a momentary flash. even a snail, as it makes its way down the path, will flash on and off with a pleasing strobing light. damselflies flicker blue and green above the water and a rabbit punches light into the ground with its back legs and its twitchy nose strikes up like a flaring match.
circles of mushrooms stand stiff and silent having pushed their little fists through the soil. they must be puffballs because each cloud of spores takes on the look of a small firework display.
flowers of every shape, size and colour, that would normally be asleep, will sway and dance and their rhythms stretches away into the distance, like some crazy floral Mexican wave saying ‘bye bye’. ‘bye bye’ to the footpath that leads you from the path, from the lights, from the dream and back to the real world.-- po, Nov 11 2004 my favourite poem. I pinched a metaphor, thanks Sylvia. http://plagiarist.com/poetry/1416/ [po, Nov 11 2004] Beautiful. If you had that garden I would give you these for it. http://www.halfbake.../Lava_20Lawn_20LampAnd also this. + [sartep, Nov 12 2004] Ipomoea alba, night-blooming moon flower http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipomoea_alba"The flowers open quickly in the evening and last through the night, remaining open until touched by the morning sun." [jutta, Apr 16 2007] coincidence? http://www.inthenig...o.uk/en/default.asp...created by Anne Wood famous for the teletubbies. [po, Sep 11 2007] Glow in the dark orchids http://www.rv-orchi...w-dark-orchids.html(Scroll down a little for the pictures) [doctorremulac3, Jan 09 2008] Glow-in-the-dark-pebbles to put around the glow-in-the-dark garden http://www.collecti....com/Item54045.aspx [doctorremulac3, Jan 09 2008] And a pond filled with firefly squid http://www.pinktent...s/firefly_squid.jpgAlthough squid might spoil the romantic mood of your garden. "What are those my love?" "Squid my darling. Thousands and thousands of squid." [doctorremulac3, Jan 09 2008] Light Festival, Glasgow, Nov 2007 (Flickr photo group) http://www.flickr.c...asgowradiance/pool/ [Jinbish, Jan 09 2008] Something to grow in it http://www.bbc.co.u...nvironment-15818662BBC News: Botanists discover 'remarkable' night-flowering orchid [Dub, Nov 22 2011] I got as far as the //tender moment with your lover// "Pheww po turn the heat down!"
Nah, only joking [+]-- skinflaps, Nov 11 2004 369 words are worth a picture. [+]-- yabba do yabba dabba, Nov 11 2004 My parents have something that approximates this in their backyard - - but I don't think it is as good as this sounds. [+]-- contracts, Nov 11 2004 lovely po. I especially like the hallucinogenic fishy lake kaleidoscope rainbow [+]-- zen_tom, Nov 11 2004 I tried to design my little back garden as a bit of a night-time haven. I now realise how far short it falls.-- wagster, Nov 11 2004 simply pofull, lovely...+++++-- blissmiss, Nov 11 2004 Beautiful, po. All the most interesting animals only come to life after nightfall.-- lostdog, Nov 11 2004 I enjoyed a tender moment reading that.-- FarmerJohn, Nov 12 2004 But soft! What light through yonder willow breaks? (+)-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 12 2004 "It is the west and Po is the moon"-- hippo, Nov 12 2004 I have been to a garden that was designed specifically for night time. It was very pretty. Not as complex as this though.-- harderthanjesus, Nov 12 2004 Very nice po! Except for //rabbit punches// - I hate those. :)-- Shz, Nov 12 2004 hippo, its more sarf-west really...-- po, Nov 12 2004 Well, isn't this delightful? Thank you, po. And even on my second reading I still saw "secluded nooky" - which seems appropriate...-- thud, Nov 12 2004 showing our age there, thud!-- po, Nov 13 2004 86œ. And you?-- thud, Nov 13 2004 that would be telling...-- po, Nov 13 2004 Beautiful.-- DrCurry, Nov 13 2004 fewer :)-- po, Nov 13 2004 Nice place. <digs hole and relieves self>-- The Kat, Nov 14 2004 Great, po. I love the part about the mushrooms!-- Pericles, Nov 15 2004 Flashing lights, fairy secretions, crazy Mexicans, hallucinogens - if I can stop seizing you can have a croissant.-- bungston, Nov 15 2004 poor Bung. you are ok, only the snail strobes.-- po, Nov 15 2004 What kind of mushrooms have you been eating, [po]? What a gorgeous gargen you've created. I can only wish my garden/patio was half as lovely.-- Machiavelli, Nov 15 2004 gargen?-- po, May 12 2005 No thanks. You?-- wagster, May 12 2005 now gargoyles, I missed.-- po, May 12 2005 Touché.-- wagster, May 12 2005 //a secluded nook for a tender moment with your lover// - reminds me of a poem my grand-dad wrote:
"Walk at ease. Do as you please - make love beneath the trees. But don't choose a fir - it's uncomfy for her and the pine needles stick in your knees"-- MikeyTheBikey, May 13 2005 oh bless! (sorry, just read that)-- po, Sep 08 2005 //at the centre of this magical place// m-f-d: magic...just kidding.-- goober, Sep 08 2005 Lovely po. I only know of four ways to make it happen. (In increasing order of desirability) 1: Traces of opium and LSD in the mist, 2: phosphoric paint, high speed servos and side scan motion sensitive sonar 3: Australian style dreamland 4: looking into my wife’s eyes.-- cjacks, Oct 05 2005 That's a lovely thing to say [cjacks].-- wagster, Oct 05 2005 nice link, BB. miss the strobing rabbits though.
what wags said, cjacks.-- po, Oct 05 2005 //86œ.//
Still trying to work this one out. ( sulky fish )Perfect.-- skinflaps, Mar 17 2007 Very very nice. Reminds me of the colorful fantasy posters I enjoyed viewing under uv light in my youth. [+]-- nth, Mar 17 2007 Secluded nook, here I come!-- bungston, Mar 17 2007 a really sweet love hotel-- Voice, Mar 19 2007 It still upsets me when I see bones on an idea like this. Still wishing for the anti-bone vote.
Beautiful, [po], just beautiful.
[+]-- Custardguts, Mar 20 2007 In Kage Baker's recently republished "The Children of the Company", a gardener who has become the tragic unrequited lover and company-ordained husband of a beautiful, but uncommunicative female of another humanoid species creates a night garden for his photophobic wife. "I explained that it was a bower of night, to be at its best in the darkness, like my pretty wife. [...] I told her stories, I told her about how I'd begin her garden as soon as the snows were gone and what rare flowers I'd plant there. [...] I paced out the area for the wonder I was going to make, Maeve's night-garden, and cut the terraces myself, and laid the forms for the concrete retaining walls and the stairs and balustrades."-- jutta, Apr 15 2007 Nice to see this churned :)
But it reminds me it's past my bedtime.-- pertinax, Apr 16 2007 While visiting Bermuda I was attracted by showy white flowers which were open at night. I was cautioned to take care when smelling them, since they were pollinated by flying cockroaches. Flowers are invitations, and night blooming flowers might be inviting a different crowd than frequents the day garden.
I hope Maeve likes bats and moths.-- bungston, Apr 16 2007 Heh, jutta said "unrequited love(r)". For those who don't know, do a search. It was/is a true classic. Also glad to see this revisited. It was a great un.-- blissmiss, Apr 16 2007 Although I read and bunned this when I first joined the hb, here is another glowing croissant with thanks written on it. +-- xandram, Sep 01 2007 am i the only one who thinks the whole thing reads like pronography? i have a dirty, dirty mind... : ) (daydreaming dirty thoughts) +-- k_sra, Sep 11 2007 see my link. wondering if I should have an acknowledgment.-- po, Sep 11 2007 Lovely (+), beyond words that I can call to the cause. Though I'd do it all with nature, phosphoescent algae, Foxfire, and mirrored pools reflecting moonlight, no, maybe I am unworthy even to comment on such a beautiful dream. Thank you for the moment in your garden.-- MisterQED, Jan 08 2008 I've seen IgglePiggle and its friends - they're pretty disturbing. Give me [po]'s night garden any day. Or just bring back the Tellytubbies.-- wagster, Jan 08 2008 Very nice.
A glow-in-the-dark garden could be pretty cool. I put a couple of links up. Who knew you could buy glow-in-the-dark pebbles for your garden? There's some mushrooms that glow, the pond could have lantern fish and that glowie algae. They've even crossed a firefly with an orchid (sort of) to make glowing flowers.
I tried to find where you could buy some but didn't have any luck. Anyway, check out the links.-- doctorremulac3, Jan 09 2008 thank you very much for those links.
btw, Kew Gardens apparently have been creating something like this during the winter months I believe.-- po, Jan 09 2008 BTW glow in the dark pebbles are OLD. For my honeymoon, we went to Pompeii and the guide explained that the white rocks imbedded in the streets were phosporescent and helped people get home at night.-- MisterQED, Jan 09 2008 {Linky}-- Dub, Nov 22 2011 well found link [Dub]!
I had a night blooming cactus for a long time, but one did have to stay up all night to catch it in bloom! (I'm getting too old for all that stuff.)-- xandram, Nov 22 2011 Nonsense!-- Dub, Nov 25 2011 random, halfbakery