Blog 13 Jul 2010

Seduction & Abduction - Europa arrives in The World Garden!

Bloggers I was in a heavy deep sleep this morning – until at 5am fractured droplets of drizzle wafted through the gatehouse windows onto my bed linen finally landing on my bristly warm face – what a feeling, what a relief. We desperately need the moisture! Over 20 hours of watering in The World Garden last week – the most hours in a week since we started the garden in 2005. Aside from the excitements of the rainfall – last Sunday saw the official golden ribbon opening by my Dad of Lullingstone’s own weather station.

This entails a copper rain gauge, a small Anemometer (to measure wind speed), and max/min thermometer enclosed in a pukka Stevenson’s box. All of these instruments enclosed in a twee 6ft square white picket fence with a latch twanging cottage garden gate to boot! Iris & Alan – who are a major part of the World Garden Team – worked tirelessly for 4 straight days to make the weather station from scratch. Now we can record exactly the temperatures at Lullingstone within the walled area and observe how plants in the World Garden react to the extremes of heat and cold.

But the excitement didn’t stop there! The latest World Garden Sculpture was also unveiled. And in front of a substantial gathering of ever supportive World Garden visitors, Europa was revealed. Its creators were at the ready to unveil their unusual creation which consisted of a metal blue crested wonderfully curved wave made by the legendary Will Jordan who also made the metal Baobab and Glass Pineapple in The World Garden. Whilst mounted on top of the wave’s crest a glazed pottery based Zeus the bull and on top of Zeus an intricately moulded abducted Europa the Greek Goddess, with wonderfully flowing hair.

Local artist extraordinaire Marie Prett who created Zeus and Europa – has created a sculpture that gobsmacked me and everyone there last Sunday – it’s simply AWESOME!!! Europa (where Europe derives its name) was placed in the Mediterranean Sea in The World Garden and not in the European bed coz we wanted it to stand and not be overgrown with flowers, stems and foliage.

For those of you not familiar with the story of Europa’s seduction and abduction, it apparently goes something like this:

‘Mythologists say that Zeus was enamoured of Europa and decided to seduce her & ravish her. Zeus transformed himself into a tame white bull and mixed in with her father’s herds. Whilst Europa and her female attendants were gathering flowers, she saw the bull, caressed his flanks and eventually got onto his back. Zeus took that opportunity and ran to the sea and swam, with her on his back, to the island of Crete. He then revealed his true identity and Europa became the 1stqueen of Crete. Zeus gave her many gifts including a glistening precious necklace endowed with flowers. Zeus later re-created the shape of the white bull in the stars, which is now known as the constellation Taurus’.

Great Fun Readers – and something else for all you supportive visitors to see at Lullingstone.

Every continent at Lullingstone now has a sculpture: wooden Totems Poles in North America, the Glass Pineapple in South America, the Metal Baobab in Africa, Ayer’s Rock (Uluru) in Australia and Colin the Cobra in Asia – India to be specific. Good fun especially for the youngsters!

What is gonna happen next at Lullingstone!?!

Happy Horticultural Hugs,

Tom xxx