Some weeks ago, one of my sisters sent me a bunch of beautiful pictures such as this one:
I wanted to use them for this blog post, so I wrote to the person who had forwarded the pictures to her, a friend of my sister, who I had met at my niece’s wedding in March 2005. Well, HE didn’t take them either.
The posting was listed as Montreal Gardens. But they did not look like they were from the Montreal Botanical Gardens, which has items that look more like this:
As it turned out, others had the very same question:
Recently saw a short video (via email) of a fabulous topiary garden in Montreal with all kinds of animal/bird topiaries. It just says “Montreal gardens” but no location or any other information. I have searched Montreal attractions but no clue. Even the Botanical Garden page doesn’t mention it. – thought it might be there. Anyone know where in Montreal area it is? Thank you.
Someone answered: that it was from Mosaicultures Internationales de Montreal (www.mosaiculture.ca). It’s in the Vieux-Port, not the BG.
Unfortunately, it’s only a temporary exhibition, not presented every year. I don’t know when the next one is expected.
You can find a slideshow of a couple dozen International Mosaiculture of Montreal pictures here.
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Meanwhile, the concept of the garden also reminded me of a couple other things. One was Adam and Eve, and the Garden of Eden.
Albrecht Dürer. The Fall of Man (Adam and Eve). Engraving, 1504
A comparison between Rembrandt’s etched Adam and Eve and Dürer’s engraved version of the same subject can be seen here.
In that vein, there is a great song, The Garden. It was written and performed by Bobby McFerrin on the 1990 Medicine Music album, and can be heard here. Interestingly, after I watched him perform a couple cuts from the album on NBC-TV’s Today show, McFerrin declared to host Bryant Gumbel that he would never again perform his biggest hit from a couple years before, Don’t Worry, Be Happy. Here’s a cover version of The Garden by Vocal Line.
Finally, lyrics to the song Woodstock by Joni Mitchell:
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Joni’s version; ironically, she never performed at Woodstock 40 years ago; she was booked to appear on late-night, ABC-TV program The Dick Cavett Show, and her manager feared that she won’t make it back from Bethel, NY (where the concert was held) to New York City (where Cavett’s show originated) in time; a legitimate concern, as it turned out.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s cover of Woodstock from the 1970 Album Deja Vu. They DID perform at Woodstock, BTW.
ROG