Museum of Miniature Found Objects

Here's an image from Hayling Island, taken last autumn. English front gardens are interesting places: there's a vast range of self-expression contained in them. Near where I live, there's a large topiary cat that's been watching the emergence of a (smaller) topiary elephant in the hedge of the house opposite over the past two years. Then there are the semi-wild gardens, with lots of alium and wild grasses — the winds of the steppe should be howling through them, rather than a light breeze in Queen Elizabeth's Walk. There's also the intriguing front garden of an elderly couple nearby that is stuffed full of small china ornaments — doe-eyed Disney deer, windmills, teddy bears, tiny houses . . . Alongside that, there's the depressing sight of the front garden that's been covered in concrete and turned into a parking lot for the residents of the house, which is like a sort of absence. So the kind of gardener who produces the exhilaration in the photograph here is a joy for me. Sadly I don't possess any kind of garden in London, but I like to think that if I did, I'd be aiming for that sort of exuberance in my gardening.