Viewing post #1798671 by hampartsum

Charlie, I'm most grateful to share on your thread what I'm doing at this other end of the world. I do believe in the value of exchanging information. I sometimes post short messages, other times I write more extensively. I strongly support the conservation of diversity. I worked at the Argentine National Parks administration where I was twice the leading conservation officer at its headquarters in Buenos Aires. My present gardening approach has the same stimulus and style. Gardening combines art and science. I learnt the former from my wife, who was a professional painter. We used to have fascinating discussions about colour, form, textures, contrast, and many more details that she had learnt in the Beaux Arts school in Buenos Aires. I led her into gardening providing the technical basis of plant growth. However we soon discovered how quickly a given combination fades away and how difficult it is to maintain changing beauty in an ever changing environment. We both reached to a similar conclusion: if anything a beautiful garden is closer to an art installation, though it pretends permanence and recurrence. Both very difficult. I miss those private chats...but I know she's helping me from above.
Once, one has learnt how to use a language properly, that skill can be expanded to many other languages. I would find difficult to choose which is my mother language. In my family( including extended) all members spoke three from the start ( Armenian, English, Spanish). A fourth language is music. A fifth is now gardening. Apart from a place, a garden can become the expression of the highest emotions and feelings. It can also convey the very best of the spirit. The ancient Romans spoke about the "genius loci" the spirit of the place; this is what you evoke when speaking about Merlin's Hollow which I would love to visit ( at least visually). This invisible spirit is always helping in achieving that desired beauty. Languages also are a way for the spirit. Searching for appropriate quality in writing is what provides for a good command of language...any language...even if it is just only one.
Thank you Charlie again for listening.
Arturo