I started my day at the Horloge Fleurie, the famous Flower Clock here in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Flower Clock is regularly replanted with 6,500 plants to cover the 16-square-foot surface. The configuration of the flowers and numbers regularly changes. You can see other Flower Clock configurations here. This season’s clock is planted with primroses and numbers scattered outside the typical circular bounds. Yes, the clock is accurate.
The Swiss planted the working floral clock in 1955 as yet another reminder that all visitors are required to purchase at least one watch prior to leaving Switzerland. Other reminders include the picture on your hotel room door key, all displays in all hotel lobbies, all banners on all light posts around town, names of famous watch brands atop all the tallest Geneva buildings, even clockwork innards springing out from all the animals on the local children’s carousel. Every other store sells luxurious bejeweled watches and all Geneva residents are required to wear at least one Swiss-made watch. If one cannot afford an expensive Swiss watch, there is always the Swatch watch, of which there are plenty.
Since winter is just now releasing its grip on the poor watch-making Swiss, I had to entertain myself with pursuits other than strictly horticultural ones. In other words, I went shopping.
In Geneva’s Old Town, the Vieille Ville, there are tightly packed galleries, cafes and boutiques that cater to highly specialized tastes. There is an antiques store that only sells scientific instruments. In one sparsely decorated gallery hung a couple dozen 8” to 12” animal sculptures made from raffia, twigs and other natural materials. Antique print and bookshops abound. Occasionally you’ll stumble across a more contemporary gallery, such as the one that sells some sort of robot prints. (I didn’t get it.)
I finally headed down to the main shopping district on the Right Bank, where I stumbled onto Globus, a multi-story department store. Good thing, too, since I needed a new umbrella. My Wal-Mart Totes umbrella busted on the first day of my visit, leaving me a bit soggy. But while I was there, I ambled down to the basement where the gourmet foodstuffs were displayed. Why do the big stores always put food in the basement? Have you noticed that?
Anyway, I found some very nice teas, including a beautiful hibiscus tea that will probably taste like dirt. I also found some tiny little mixed flower teas in beautiful mesh bags. If I didn’t know they were teas I would think I was supposed to plant them.Oh, and I picked up a couple of Swiss chocolate bars just in case there was a food emergency in my hotel room.
Since I had walked approximately 1,115 miles already today, I decided to sit down for a while on a boat cruise of the lake. It was a lovely 50-minute tour during which I understood not one word of the recorded narration. I didn’t care. The sun had finally come from behind the clouds, the air was warm and my feet were tired.
There is more rain ahead and the hotel concierge, Francoise, tells me I must make the most of the day tomorrow before the rains return in earnest on Monday. So I really must go and work on decoding the shower faucets now. After three days I am still using the trial and error method to regulate the water temperature. Apparently you need a Swiss engineering degree to operate Swiss plumbing. To complicate matters further, they seem to operate on the VTS (Variable Temperature System), which requires that the shower water temperature fluctuate +/- 10 degrees while you are standing under the stream.
My clients have all rushed back to the States for soccer games, baseball games and to frazzled mothers of infants. They, apparently, are at a different life-stage than I am. I can linger, but I’m all alone. My guys could not get off from work or school to play. And while I miss my guys, my little dogs and my garden, I’m not really suffering too badly. And there are always the chocolate bars I have for such emergencies.
Robin
I recall a conversation from years ago with my dear old friend Claudia.
She has just moved into a charming little cottage in the old Ortega section of Jacksonville, Florida. The house was surrounded by old trees and magnificent, mature flowering shrubs. I was completely taken with the place.
I commented to Claudia that I would garden constantly if I lived there. Her response?
“Oh, I love the idea of gardening. But I just don’t want to be outside there all by myself. It would be so lonely!”
SUNFLOWERS AT THE CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN
Although this conversation took place, oh, nearly 10 years ago, it has stuck with me, and occasionally crossed my mind, because the feeling that Claudia expressed is so foreign to my own needs and desires for being with nature.
See, while Claudia yearned for company to enjoy nature, I am more like the legendary Hollywood star.
“I want to be alone.”
When I am indoors, I continually bounce from one activity to the next, multi-tasking between home and office and getting distracted with one thing or another. My mind leaps from one idea to another…
“Need to clean the frig…haven’t heard from that client yet…what am I going to do about that programming issue…should I go to the spinning class tomorrow…oops, need to finish that project schedule…can I deliver that report early…”
The internal chatter is a lightening speed, incessant drone.
When I am working in the garden, that chatter gradually subsides. I become lost in the activity. Minutes at a time go by without my having a single thought other than about what I’m doing with my hands.
And although there is no shortage of work for which I could use an extra pair (or more) of hands, I don’t nag my husband or son to join me in the garden because I just want the company of the wind and the birds. (And little dogs, of course.) When they do join me, we usually work at a distance, all of us lost in our own internal worlds. Happily, they share my desire for quiet time.
So you see, perhaps, why I wasn’t entirely sad to be alone in my visits to some of the country’s most spectacular public gardens this past year—the Phoenix Botanical Garden, the Chicago Botanical Garden, the Denver Botanic Garden and the Dixon House and Gardens, among others. Although part of me would loved to share the experience with my husband or another friend, the selfish part of me was happy to have the gardens to myself.
As I wandered through, I could go at my very own pace, lingering over an unusual combination of primroses and cabbages, admiring the coy in the Japanese garden, sitting under the shade of a well-placed trellis.
I observed many groups of families dutifully trudging along after the more enthusiastic members of their parties. Not all the groups looked entirely happy, I must say. Most of the kids looked bored to tears. Not a few were arguing.
So I was glad not to feel I was holding someone back—or dragging them along on my personal nature adventure. There are certainly times when I enjoy the company. But those visits have a different purpose altogether, and it’s not mostly about nature.
And you? Is nature something you prefer to share?
Robin
According to the Nature Conservancy, fewer Americans are spending time in outdoor activities, which could have a serious impact on our environment.
This was one of the stories on the NBC evening news last night.
The Nature Conservancy conducted research that revealed Americans are spending more time with indoor activities, such as the Internet, electronic games and movies and less time at outdoor activities such as camping, fishing and hiking. In fact, the percentage of the American population enjoying the outdoors is at an all-time low.
Although I haven’t seen the research, my own observations of how people spend their leisure time tells me this is probably true.
The reason this is worrisome is that with fewer people spending less time at nature-based activities, nature will become unappreciated and unexplored. If we learn everything we know about nature from the television, our first-hand understanding and appreciation of the importance of clean air and healthy soil and forests and abundance wildlife is diminished.
It’s interesting, too, that participation in outdoor activities is down at the same time there are record numbers of people who are overweight and obese.
I wonder how many of us consider visiting a local nature park, hiking or going to the seashore among the weekend entertainment options of movies and eating out? I know the last time I suggested a hike to Calvert Cliffs State Park to a friend-who-shall-not-be-named I was met with the “you must be mad” expression. We went to an Indian restaurant instead.
So what do we do to reverse this trend? How can we as individuals encourage outdoor activities, particularly those that respect the environment and encourage conservation efforts?
Robin
