Rest while Winter Rages

by Deborah Watkins. Posted on January 17, 2015

17 Jan

Cover image and poem reproduced with kind permission from Angelica Dooley, Brigit’s Garden

Anyone familiar with my this blog will know that I am a great fan of Brigit’s Garden, the Irish wildflower sanctuary founded by Jenny Beale and designed by Mary Reynolds. Consisting of four interlocking gardens inspired by four celtic seasons – samhain (winter), imbolc (spring), bealtaine (summer) and lughnasa (autumn), the gardens incorporate a myriad of native Irish plants, a woodland area, lake, wild flower meadows as well as specially commissioned sculpture by Irish artists. It is a beautiful place to visit at any time of year but I think it is exquisite in early summer ( when the wild flowers are in full bloom ) and also in winter.

There is something about the winter garden that is compelling and moving. The image of the sleeping woman formed out of the earth and the bronze figure ( made by Linda Brunker ) at rest on the island have I believe helped me to appreciate the beauty of this season. I should explain that I have not always appreciated winter, especially since moving to Connemara almost twenty four years ago. Growing up in Kildare and the suburbs of Dublin, I had a fairly indifferent attitude towards the winter months but this is simply not possible in Connemara, where the climate has a kind of physical, elemental force. I struggled with it for many years, particularly as a young mother battling with the practicalities of moving small children around in bad weather.

The winter garden under snowfall reproduced with kind permission from Brigit’s Garden

What is it about this sleeping woman – rendered out of the earth and so delicately portrayed in bronze – that is so captivating? When you walk out onto the island, she seems so peaceful by the curve of the water, under the simple lines of the trees that for an instant you worry, in case she might be disturbed.

Close up of sleeping woman from Stream

Perhaps it is simply that she reminds us that there is a time for rest, in nature and in life and that this is natural and necessary. There is comfort in this tranquil interpretation of winter because it offers us calm and reassurance.

Thank you to Angelica Dooley who had given me permission to reproduce her beautiful haiku.

You can visit the garden website at www.brigitsgarden.ie

Lay down your sweet head

and rest while winter rages.

Charge your weary soul.

(Angelica Dooley)

Celebrate the Season at Brigit’s Garden

by Deborah Watkins. Posted on April 1, 2014

01 Apr

(I’ve written about this place before, one of my favourite places to visit in the West. I’ve recycled it a bit and it will appear again in the next issue of the Connemara Journal.)

Longer, warmer days are here at last. If you are looking for somewhere different to enjoy the Spring air, look no further than Brigit’s Garden in Rosscahill, just outside Galway. If you haven’t been, it’s a must at any time of the year but especially in Spring and early Summer when the wild flowers come into their own. The garden is a not-for-profit organisation and registered charity set up by Jenny Beale out of her passion for nature and the environment. Designed by Mary Reynolds ( the first Irish person to win a gold medal at the prestigious Chelsea flower show ) it is a ‘natural’ garden in every sense of the word. There are few straight lines – paths curve and wind, circles pop up everywhere – sunken, interlocking, a tiny moon like island and a great sundial. Wild flowers and grasses, herbs and plants are celebrated in bursts of colour that greet you at every turn.

The design is based on the four Irish seasons – four gardens that interconnect and take you on a voyage through the Irish festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasa. The journey mirrors the cycle of life from conception and birth through to old age and death.

Samhain ( Halloween ) begins on the 31st October and marks the beginning of the cycle. It is celebrated in the Winter garden which pays homage to a time for death, with a promise of re-birth. It is a period of sleep and reflection, evoked by a mound of earth that has been shaped into the sleeping body of a woman, wrapped around a pool. Another figure made of bronze rests on the ground in an island within the pool. She is listening to the earth, waiting for it to stir again and bring forth new life.

The bronze woman in the Winter Garden

Imbolc is the Spring garden. This is the old Irish name for the festival now known as St. Brigit’s day. In the garden’s cycle of life it is a place for the young, where children can play and enjoy the basketwork swings and a wildflower meadow.

May day heralds the festival of Bealtaine which is celebrated in the Summer garden. This is a time of young adulthood, sexual awakenings and marriage. The garden tells the story of Diarmuid and Grainne, the fleeing lovers in Irish mythology. Their bed is a grassy hollow facing the sun. A path of standing stones leads to a throne where the lovers unite and sit together.

The Summer Garden

The Autumn garden marks the festival of Lughnasa which begins in August. It is a time of harvest and celebration. Spiral beds contain herbs for cooking as well as healing. Two circular lawns interlink to create a large space for dancing and a long table provides a picnic area. Three yew trees mark the exit of the Lughnasa garden which signifies the end of the cycle and the possibility of renewal which lies ahead.

There is much more to see – a woodland walk, a living willow play area for children and a wishing tree. You can round off your visit in the cafe which offers a tempting variety of home baked cakes. A treasure of a place, almost on our doorstep and well worth a visit.

November

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on November 5, 2012

05 Nov

November is a difficult month. It’s the shock of losing the hour and the suddenness of it – it always feels more like losing two when overnight it’s dark at 6.00pm instead of 8.00pm. A sixth of the day gone, just like that, slipped out of the day and vanished into the blackness. I think the body reels from it for a while, misses the light without knowing what is the matter or what it is missing. It seems like a starker thing here in Connemara where nature is magnified; bigger spaces, bigger winds, giant silhouettes of mountains and grey days of rain in blustery torrents or invisible misty sheets. It’s taken me a long time to learn an acceptance of this and I have spent too much time resenting the end of the year and fighting the gloom of the approaching Winter with a grumble and a moan.

This changed for me after a trip to Brigit’s Garden just outside Galway city where I began to see the Winter garden sculpture (below) for what it is. This image of the sleeping woman is such a beautiful one. She is so peaceful looking and such a quiet, gentle figure in the space that you want to tiptoe around her for fear her slumber might be disturbed. Unexpectedly, it was she who woke me up to the reality of Winter as a necessary time in the cycle of the seasons. Just as we humans must sleep at the end of the day, the earth needs to rest and recover, to shed it’s leaves and all it’s colour and to sleep, so that it can prepare for new growth ahead. The secret for me was to see this changing time as a human form.

Image taken from Stream

Robert Frost has personified the gloominess we might feel at this time of year in his poem ‘My November Guest’ (below).

My November Guest

My Sorrow, when she’s here with me,

Thinks these dark days of autumn rain

Are beautiful as days can be;

She loves the bare, the withered tree;

She walks the sodden pasture land.

Her pleasure will not let me stay.

She talks and I am fain to list;

She’s glad the birds are gone away,

She’s glad her simple worsted gray

Is silver now with clinging mist.

The desolate, deserted trees,

The faded earth, the heavy sky,

The beauties she so truly sees,

She thinks I have no eye for these,

And vexes me for reasons why.

Not yesterday I learned to know

The love of bare November days

Before the coming of the snow,

But it were vain to tell her so,

And they are better for her praise.

Robert Frost ( 1874 – 1963 )

The humanising of sorrow in this poem lessens it. It is no longer an overwhelming feeling but a human being, a woman who has simply stepped in, although she is uninvited. Frost acknowledges her presence and by doing so he accepts these feelings while he tells of the beauty of Winter, the ‘faded earth’ and the silver ‘clinging mist’. It’s a struggle because she ‘vexes him for reasons why’ but he is listening and seeing nature’s beauty for himself, he has learned to ‘know the love of bare November days.’

As I think perhaps I have too.

Cover image is ‘Harsh Life’ by Inez Streefkerk

Brigit’s Garden

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on July 2, 2012

02 Jul

I went on a trip to Brigit’s Garden recently with my family. This is a not-for-profit organisation and a registered charity set up by Jenny Beale out of her passion for nature and the environment. The gardens were designed by Irish landscape designer Mary Reynolds who was the first Irish person to win a gold medal at the prestigious Chelsea flower show and is arguably one of the best designers in the country. The gardens are located in Rosscahil which is just a few miles outside Galway city. They are set within an 11 acre site of native woodland and wildflower meadows and they celebrate our natural landscape in a design based on the four Irish seasons. These four gardens interconnect and take us on a journey through the Irish seasonal festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasa. The gardens mirror the cycle of life from conception and birth through to old age and death.

Samhain ( Halloween ) begins on the 31st of October and marks the beginning of the yearly cycle. It is celebrated here in the winter garden (below) which pays homage to a time for death but with the promise of re-birth. It is a period of sleep and reflection which is evoked by a mound of earth that has been shaped into the sleeping body of a woman wrapped around a pool. Another figure made of bronze leaves rests on the ground in an island within the pool. She is listening to the earth, waiting for it to stir again and bring forth new life.

Image taken from Pbase Gallery

Image taken from Stream

Imbolc is the Spring garden. This is the old Irish name for the festival that welcomes the arrival of Spring on February 1st, now known as St. Brigit’s Day. In the cycle of life, it is the garden of youth where children can play and enjoy the basketwork swings and a wildflower meadow.

Image taken from Signpost Tours

Here’s one of my photos of the Spring Garden (below) with wild flowers in full bloom.

May day heralds the festival of Bealtaine which is celebrated in the Summer Garden. This is a time of young adulthood, sexual awakenings and marriage. The garden tells the story of Diarmuid and Grainne, the fleeing lovers in Irish mythology. Their bed is a grassy hollow facing the sun and a path of standing stones leads to a throne where the lovers unite and sit together, masters of their own destinies.

The Autumn garden marks the festival of Lughnasa which begins in August. It is a time of harvest and celebration. Spiral beds contain herbs for cooking as well as healing (below).

Two circular lawns interlink and are circled by columns of stone to allow space for dancing. There is a long table for feasting and celebration. Three yew trees mark the exit of the Lughnasa Garden which signifies the end of the cycle and the possibility of renewal which lies ahead.

Image taken from Stone Art Blog

There is much more to see and enjoy here as well as the four symbolic gardens. There’s a giant sun dial, a woodland walk, a living willow play area for children and a place to hang wishes (photo below).

This is a view of one of the wildflower meadows from the woodland walk (below).

I spotted this owl in a tree (below) which I hadn’t noticed on previous visits. The unexpected is part of the magic of this place..

You can round off your visit as we did in the cafe which offers delicious home baked cakes! I’ll be going along again soon and I’d recommend it to anyone, especially at this time of year when the wildflowers are in full bloom.