Happy Halloween

 

Statuary can give a garden a sense of whimsey. This rat is in the garden at the Birmingham Museaum of Art, stands about 3 feet tall, and is realistically carved with fur, whiskers, and twitchy nose.

 

 

 

 

This blog is about gardens: gardens I tour and the garden I create. Earlier this month I toured the garden at the Birmingham Museaum of Art. I am sure it is a much admired garden, there may even be people who bring their lunch and sit in this garden to relax, but all I kept seeing was this giant rat.

The garden did have unity, a sense of belonging to itself (or to a big rat) and seemed to be laid out on a grid that reminded me of a rat's maze. There was an extremely large woman opposite the rat who matched it in proportion and scale.

Large potted plants provided repetition and sequence, and the pottery gave a bit of color to an otherwise all green garden. Variety was also provided by tree fern's soft frilly fronds in contrast to the stark white walls and huge dark rat.

Unfortunately, the only thing I took a picture of was this rat.

But really, he is all you see.