.
soon to retire he fills his calendar with seed starting charts
If you are wondering what happened to the greenhouse…here it is! With its shade net hat, as it is very hot here, reaching 93 Fahrenheit or more.
Still work to be done to the surrounding area, but the greenhouse works already. We’ve sown various seeds in eggshells and egg boxes, planted rosemary cuttings, tomato and cucumber plants…Well worth the time and effort …
.
.
Today, it was Open Garden Day in Augsburg. I visited private gardens and enjoyed seeing what others do and think about their gardens, gardening in general, the climate…Everyone I spoke to is thinking of a future of water and energy shortages and how to adapt their garden to survive with less water (no, nobody mentioned planting cacti!) and energy.
Back home, looking through the photos I took, I see mainly sheep and hens! And the City Farm Augsburg, one of the participating gardens, and the one I enjoyed the most. What a fantastic collection of plants, herbs, vegetables, weeds, animals, all growing happily together! Ildi, our guide and co-leader of the project (the other co- being Bennie, her husband) presented the garden project and their efforts to make it self-sufficient. The farm has neither water nor electricity. They collect rainwater for all their watering needs!
And the best part: for the last month, I had been looking for a comfrey plant for my garden. None of the garden centers I went to stocked it. Some didn’t even know of it, or thought of it as a weed. But here in the City Farm, it was flourishing, growing masses of flowers. When I declared my interest, Ildi dug out two plants, one flowering blue and the other purple, for me!
https://cityfarmaugsburg.wordpress.com/about/ the garden seems to have grown since the video.
What a good day it was!
mid-summer the fragrance of roses in the air .
The beautiful roses are from a friend’s garden.
(Fragrance from memory,)
empty snail shell—
swishing sound of
the garden broom
Wet-felted headband
tolerating shade
the double life of Japanese
anemones
Sun and shade in the garden.
91/100 #The100DayProject #100daysnewthings
Flush with roses this year! I wonder whether this could be due to the fact that, following a friend’s advice, I fertilised them with chopped banana peel…
60/100 #The100DayProject #100daysnewthings
Bringing the garden to the table
54/100 #The100DayProject #100daysnewthings
Peonies
45/100 #The100DayProject #100daysnewthings
lush foliage—
the unmistakable fluency
of flowers
44/100 #The100DayProject #100daysnewthings
blooming—
how each day
counts
39/100 The100DayProject #100daysnewthings
Today the association “Grow Up! Intercultural Garden Augsburg e.V.” opened its doors to the wider community. The association consists of:
About 65 families and individuals, people with secure residence status and refugees, rich and poor, healthy and sick, old and young, beginner and experienced gardeners, celebrate, talk, and laugh together there. 15 nations meet, organize, and form a community based on mutual help and tolerance.
They run allotments, a communal bee-keeping project, a communal orchard; all part of the larger Cultural Park West of Augsburg. There are spaces for artists’ workshops, theatre etc. in this area, which was originally part of a US Army base.
I visited them and marvelled at the relaxed, friendly atmosphere. I walked around the allotments, bought unusual tomato plants, ate exotic food, freshly cooked by the community members, listened to live music and felt as if I were in multicultural London.
Unfortunately, the future of the garden is not secure, as the town plans to relocate the existing Cultural Park West facilities to the nearby old Gaswerke quarter. This leaves
the community garden project open to an uncertain future. I hope the town planners and the intercultural authorities, especially since the society for the promotion of vocational and social integration initiated this project, realise the importance of this project and ensure its continuation and development.
32/100 #100daysnewthings, #the100dayproject
In the space of a few days the garden transforms itself.
25/100 #The100DayProject #100daysnewthings
quiet noon—
Earth Day like any other
day
19/100 #The100DayProject #100daysnewthings
calm evening—
colours melt into
one another
15/100 #The100DayProject #100daysnewthings
Continuing on the gardening theme for #the100DayProject. The apple trees welcome the sun with open arms. The buds are almost here.
8/100
#The100DayProject #100daysnewthings #gardening
#dailycreativity
garden vistas
the rocket salad
piled high
.
rocket: arugula
*
helianthus
enervated sun emits
a plasma flare
.
AWAD: enervate
plum blossoms
a handbag mirror
on the garden bench
.
In Frogpond, the Journal of the Haiku Society of America, 37 : 2, summer 2014
cicada shell –
a ginger cat’s
loneliness
Prompt: ginger
Florian, who lived in a garden for the first two years of his life, has found a home with us. Welcome, Florian! (From Emile, too)
mirabelle…
the tall order
of things
.
.
Tales from the garden
In the Garden of Absence
by Stella Pierides
with an Afterword by Michael Dylan Welch
Awarded the Haiku Society of America Mildred Kanterman Memorial Merit Book Awards 2013 (3rd place, for books published in 2012).
From the judges’ commentary in Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America:
“A charming collection… This intersection of the past and present is within all of us, and Pierides mines it well. A very satisfying read” (Vol. 37:1, p. 170).
In the Garden of Absence takes you on a journey echoing the author’s childhood. Yet it does so in the context of adult concerns, uncertainties, and anxieties—as well as pleasures. This book explores the existential fear of loneliness, the many facets of absence, and glimpses a path towards bearing absence and being creatively alone.From the back cover:
“Readers of any book of poetry can assume that each poem has substantial personal meaning for the writer. The poems in this collection go one step further, offering personal meaning to the reader. Stella Pierides pays attention in simple ways (and sometimes vast ways) to her surrounding world, noticing the warmth of a hen’s eggs on Mother’s Day, that only a dog makes eye contact on a crowded train, or in observing the tiny dark holes in a pin cushion as she extracts its pins.”
—Michael Dylan Welch, from the Afterword, “Presence in Absence”
Cover: from “Welsh Hill,” a painting by Maria Pierides Cover design: Maria Pierides and Rubin Eynon.
How to obtain a copy:
Print edition:
From Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de
The print edition can be ordered from your local bookshop: ISBN: 978-3-944155-00-5 (Germany) Fruit Dove Press, Paperback, 76 pages.
e-editions:
e-editions are now available from Smashwords
(Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others), PDF and kindle
Publication information: – ISBN: 9783944155012 e-book
– Published by Fruit Dove Press at Smashwords. Price: USD 5.99
Honours, Reviews, Essays:
Awarded third prize in the Haiku Society of America Mildred Kanterman Memorial Merit Book Awards 2013.
Previous praise for the Book:
— “In Pierides’s meditations, imagination takes center stage, as do imaginary gardens, real toads, and their negative space… The result is a welcome debut in which the reader will find much to admire.”
In Briefly Reviewed, Frogpond, 36-1, Spring 2013 (Click here, please scroll down).
*
— “This is an engaging collection…”
Modern Haiku 44.2, 2013 (in the “Briefly Noted” section).
*
— “A Poetic Gem… In the Garden of Absence is a lovely little book that sparkles with a quiet brilliance – every word shines.”
Debbie Strange on Amazon.co.uk
*
— “In the Garden of Absence is a stunning book. From homely to somewhat obscure, Pierides touches a chord. Her poetry is the essence of haiku and an inspiration for many of us. In the Garden of Absence A must-read book of poetry.”
Sondra Byrnes on Amazon.co.uk
*
–“… everything, from cover to cover, the cover image, the design, the graphical presentation, the empty space around the haiku, also the introduction… all very aesthetically (one more Greek word) appealing and pleasing! Thank you for taking me on this Magical Journey!”
Freddy Ben-Arroyo, Haifa, Israel*
*
–“… I really enjoy reading it, and already have some favorites…”
Annie Juhl, Svendborg, Denmark.
*
–“I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading your book this afternoon while sipping on a chai latte. A few that I particularly like are: “between my ego and yours”, “the horses neighing”, “your vacant stare”, “moment of stillness” and “shooting stars”. The whole book is really lovely… the beautiful cover, the feel of the paper and the afterword by Michael Dylan Welch. Thank you for sharing your beautiful poems with me!”
Lauren Mayhew, Boston, USA
*
–“Stella Pierides pays attention in simple ways (and sometimes vast ways) to her surrounding world, noticing the warmth of a hen’s eggs on Mother’s Day, that only a dog makes eye contact on a crowded train, or in observing the tiny dark holes in a pin cushion as she extracts its pins.”
Michael Dylan Welch, Sammamish, Washington, USA
*
–“I cannot recommend ‘In the Garden of Absence‘ by Stella Pierides highly enough. A great Afterword too by Michael Dylan Welch. … The book is entrancing.”
Sheila Windsor, Worcester, UK
*
An informative, literary, and well-written essay, “Presence in Absence” by Michael Dylan Welch, first written in October 2012 and included in In the Garden of Absence as an afterword, can be read at Graceguts, by clicking here
—–
.
nunnery garden
the snowman’s hat
askew…
.
NaHaiWriMo prompt: abbey
garden life –
a snail shell floats
in the birdbath
.
NaHaiWriMo prompt: den
luminous garden
why then is the full fish moon
wrapped in cloud?
.
NaHaiWriMo prompt: garden
My haibun “Homewards” appears in Haibun Today and can be read by clicking here
Vol.7, No. 1, March 2013
It can also be found below:
Homewards
The garden at the back of the Edwardian terrace which is my London home is small but compact. A Magnolia Grandiflora Exmouth grows in its middle, a variety that keeps its glossy, oblong leaves in winter and blossoms in summer. White, deliciously fragrant flowers grace the tree unfailingly, giving me hours of pleasure upon my return from my European excursions. But the neighbor complains about the tree shading her garden. Each year I chop off branches to keep her happy. Each year I dread hearing from her.
sunlight
a dove crosses
the border
.
For Journal publications in 2012 and earlier, please click in the drop-down menu.
.
.
a lifeline follows the quiet path moss garden
.
.
night owl
the garden gnome’s smile
lit up by the moon
.
NaHaiWriMo prompt: moon
.
cloistered garden
scent of roses drifts
over the wall
.
NaHaiWriMo prompt: rose(s)
Stella Pierides 