Big-city dwellers — Oh, what you are missing:
The garden is the place I go to for refuge and shelter, not the house. In the house are duties and annoyances, servants to exhort and admonish, furniture, and meals; but out there blessings crowd around me at every step — it is there that I am sorry for the unkindness in me, for those selfish thoughts that are so much worse than they feel; it is there that all my sins and silliness are forgiven, there that I feel protected and at home, and every flower and weed is a friend and every tree a lover. When I have been vexed I run out to them for comfort, and when I have been angry without just cause, it is there I find absolution. Did ever a woman have so many friends?
(Quoted from page 32 of Elizabeth and Her German Garden, by Elizabeth von Arnim. The Henneberry Company, 1901.)
For a brief biography of Elizabeth von Arnim, click here. For images of or relating to Elizabeth von Arnim, click here.
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