Garden of Cosmic Speculation

My mother read voraciously right up to a week before she died. She had a wide range of interests - everything from the latest detective stories to esoteric tomes on Victorian England and many aspects of science and technology. After her death I took home a large box of books that she had finished reading.

One of the first books I grabbed from the box was a recent novel by Louise Penny (The Long Way Home). It made reference to a location called the Garden of Cosmic Speculation. I just assumed that it was a fictional construct and read past all of the references. When my husband picked up the book he recognized that it was an actual place and asked me to Google it.

Wow wow wow. I have a history of being fascinated by large scale art projects but I had never heard of this one. There isn't a good website about it but you can learn more by reading blogs written by people who have visited. This is a good one. You can also Google images and browse through lots and lots of views of various aspects of the garden.

The garden was designed by Charles Jencks, architectural critic and historian. His website provides details on many other projects.

If you want to visit, the garden is only open for five hours, one day a year. Mark your calendar for April 30, 2017.

My husband isn't usually drawn to things like this but as a mathematician he was intrigued. He suggested that we should do something similar on our land in Berwick. I think it's a good thing that he'd rather ride his bike than work in the yard.