Japanese Garden Treasures

We sketched in the Japanese Garden last week. The summer garden's layers of green create a quiet, peaceful place.
A few hostas and hydrangeas bloomed adding a little contrast and color. I overheard one visitor say the verdant greens and mosses do not exist where he lives. I often take this beauty for granted.
In 2012, the Garden celebrates The Year of the Healing Garden. The leaflet had this wonderful quote by Hoichi Kurisu, Portland Japanese Garden Director, 1968- 1973-

"Strolling through a pine forest, viewing rock formations, and cascading waterfalls, pausing to ponder the quiet surface of the lake and shoreline- little by little we are encouraged to lay aside the chaos of a troubled world and gently nurture the capacity within to hear a more harmonious, universal rhythm. We exchange burden, boredom and despair for renewal, inspiration and hope. Or from the joy we already feel, we discover an even greater capacity for good. This is the tremendous power of the Japanese garden."

Japanese Garden Spring Blossoms

listen, water falls, red camellias fade on branch, hollow bamboo, beat

spring blossoms unfold, Japanese Garden quiet, meditative bliss

sketching camellias, one garden fills all senses, restoring my soul










Writing haiku poetry is another creative outlet for me.
The two formats that intrigue me are the-
one word, two words, sentence, two words, one word
and the more traditional five-seven-five syllables.
I wrote the three haiku poems after spending a morning in the Japanese Garden.

The water feature above creates a hollow bamboo beat every two minutes. The larger bamboo tube on the left, fills with water, empties into the bowl and hits the rock behind it when empty to make a hollow thumping sound or beat.

Portland's Japanese Garden is a feast for all senses and is especially beautiful in springtime.