Late summer is construction season. Construction is in progress all of the time, somewhere. This is the nature of things since our ancestors learned that farming was better than hunting and gathering. We began living in villages. That was not so long ago if you use the time scale of the universe. The Neolithic age was only 11,000 years ago.

T. S. Eliot described it thusly:

In my beginning is my end. In succession
Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,
Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place
Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.
Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,
Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth
Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,
Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.
Houses live and die: there is a time for building
And a time for living and for generation
And a time for the wind to break the loosened pane
And to shake the wainscot where the field-mouse trots
And to shake the tattered arras woven with a silent motto.

East Coker by T. S. Eliot, 1st Stanza

Midweek, and I am well along in a “Secret Garden” construction. The project was initiated at the request of my grand daughter. She is 6 & 3/4 years old as she proudly states her age when asked…

(Our grand daughter has a expansive imagination. She is articulate, she processes as a six year old might – current events. I mean those adult conversations which she overhears about the current administration in power, the red states supporting ICE atrocities visited upon peaceable families.)

I have made up my mind that she shall have a corner of the yard, sheltered by pines. This somewhat secluded spot will be hers to experiment with growing plants, to play with found objects, to read, and to imagine possible realities.

Her garden will feature a substantial gate, secured from the inside. Adjacent to the gate a wood lattice fencing will be mounted to afford privacy to the garden. A solar water feature is ready for installation. As the sun shines a note of falling water will suffuse the area. A 36 inch diameter planting bed is positioned to receive the maximum sunlight. Then there is to be a work bench/table and chairs on order for the garden.

Building well, living well – is never a solitary project. Humans are not meant for disconnected, atomized and abstracted lives. We need and we thrive with nature, with others. There is no doubt that our grand daughter will invite many to be with her in this Secret Garden.

A pine tree displays a Cicada’s remains. Not too far above, pine branches support a squirrel nest. I plan to offer a photo tour of the Secret Garden soon, when my part of the composition is finished.

Is anything ever finished?