(Photo credit: W. Eugene White, "The Walk to Paradise Garden", 1946)
(Photo info: Gargunnock House gardens, Scotland, 2007)
(Photo info: Gargunnock House, Scotland, 2007)The first photo you've seen before. In college, didn't at least one friend of yours have that poster plastered over their beds? It was either that or Monet's "Water Lilies at Giverny," right? Anyway, I've carried that image of those two children in my head ever since. When we rented a house in Scotland last year, my son Luca and his friend Avery were playing in the kitchen garden and found a gap in the hedge. It was a bit strange because they'd played there before and not one of us had noticed it until then. I snapped the two shots above as they entered. On the other side, completely hidden from adult view, was a Lilliputian greenhouse, complete with a tiny table, chairs and a stack of antique gardening pamphlets. It immediately became their de facto clubhouse for the duration of our stay. Of course it was there the whole time...or was it? Would we have found it without them? Does childhood get any more magical?