10 February 2025

 

A few months ago on CBC Radio’s excellent program Ideas, I listened to a program that was dedicated to St. Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo. A few reading this might now that both St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, besides being seen as saints were also known(and to this day) as philosophers of first order.

The program delved into a wonderful idea that St. Augustine had about music (he had no concept of atonal music). He stated that when listening to music you heard a note in the past, then, one in the present and then you could predict the next in the future.

As I walked in my garden today and I noticed the lovely Helleborus ‘Honey Hill Joy’ (one of Rosemary’s favourites) I could not but also notice the Rosa ‘Queen of Sweden’ that tried to bloom a few months back. Also in the photographs is Sorbaria sorbifolia and a hosta for which I have lost the identification.

In this scan I see a garden past, a garden present and with the Sorbaria, right next to the rose, a future when it will come all to its own.

I can reverse the idea that my garden, that reminds me of my Rosemary’s garden (and mine) from the past, is her garden (and mine) now and the future garden will bring me memories of Rosemary and her garden in the past.