THE GARDENER OF EDEN AT BRIEF...

         We visited the garden a half hour away from Bentota, which was the inspiration for James Broughton's poem The Gardener of Eden:

I am the old dreamer who never sleeps
I am timekeeper of the timeless dance
I preserve the long rhythms of the earth
and fertilize the rounds of desire

In my evergreen arboretum
I raise flowering hopes for the world
I plant seeds of perennial affection
and wait for their passionate bloom

Would you welcome that sight if you saw it?
Revalue the view you have lost?
Could you wake to the innocent morning
and follow the risks of your heart?

Every day I grow a dream in my garden
where the beds are laid out for love
When will you come to embrace it
and join in the joy of the dance?

 

James & Joel lived in this garden, designed by Bevis Bawa, for some months in 1979-80.  He was the older brother of architect Geoffrey Bawa who designed our guest-house in Bentota, about which I posted previously.

More of diving into Joel's memory bank! He'd only mentioned... as this excursion to a garden had gelled for our group. A garden ramble & lunch... with some friends.

The gatepost introduced the garden named Brief with some earthy eroticism. I was intrigued... who are these friends?  I am still--at this writing-- continuing to learn more about those folk!

 A large naked tree dominated this thus open view the house as we approached on our ramble though the jungle. Those branches promised a sheltering shade canopy in the hot summer sun.

Down slope was the cascade of lily pools up which we'd worked our feet...

A graceful more permanent canopy defined a perfect place for escape... perhaps with a book & tea. There was a bit of incongruous punctuation as a circle of pool water nearby... remember, the garden was designed by a lawyer liking things finalized. (This writer might have made a limier trio... his favored ellipsis.)

Donald Friend is another name in this historic curass which I'm getting acquainted with. He is a sculptor and painter whose work is scattered in various views. He is known for frank homo-eroticism.

   

 

This being closer to Nana's native biosphere, we benefited from his noting details of the terrain.

 

 

Another surprise was a picnic area with a cement ping pong table!  

 

 

Several paving stones had huge leaves cast into them.

While roots slithered along the same path. 

.

 

At the center top, on the verge with a lawn, a horse sculpture stood sentinel. 

[Is it also by Donald Friend?]

We met a gentleman named Karu, whose home James & Joel rented to live in for some months on that first visit. He has been active all these years as a resident gardener, landscaper & colorful character in Joel's many stories of this place.

 

A particularly fascinating exotic black bloom certainly caught our attention in a side garden...  a black spider lily!

The house's broad covered entry terrace brought us to meet Doolin, our host, who had inherited this property from Bawa...

plus the collection of art & historic photographs the home displays.

There is a fresco being restored.

This day trip was obviously pleasing to Joel! One detail I liked was the ceiling decorated with leaves from the garden!