RE: Seeing our gardens

And here I thought my "genius" was my own... turns out a bit like Van Gough.
His work was a result of the medication he was taking. Affected the way he
saw color. I owe my  new found inspiration in color to "maturity".
	thank you, Lil...fascinating.

Gene E. Bush
Munchkin Nursery & Gardens,LLC
www.munchkinnursery.com
Garden Writer - Photographer -  Lecturer


	

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-perennials@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf
Of lil tovey
Subject: Seeing our gardens

Well Gene, seems that even the muscles that control things like how quickly
our pupils dilate etc slow down a bit.  For example, going from bright light
(sun) to dim (shade) takes that microsecond longer.  Think for example of
entering an apartment unit from a brightly lit hallway and stepping into a
dim
vestibule - difficult adjustment for eyes our age.  Especially if the rest
of
the apt., for example is usually brighter - there are windows there. We
become
so used to it we stop paying attention except for the odd expletive (or in
my
case many of them).  We unconsciously tend to to prefer sharper contrasts -
because they are easier to see. A sharp delineation is easier to see rather
than a gradual shading. Same holds true with colour saturation. Stronger
colours become clearer, soft or subtle colours tend to "grey out" for us.
Simply - we see them better! And making stronger "bones" in our gardens
gives
us stronger "frames" to enjoy - we can move from spot to spot with less
"bleeding" of the visual.



Also I think that simply being the human animal with a bit more experience
allows us to broaden our tastes and preferences - thus I refuse to ever wear
black, and I will use a red purse - so in our gardens, that neat hit of red
amoung the fine foliage can be truly pleasing. Or the different textures
amoungst all the greens can be a wow.  However for the aging eye -keep it
simple -too much confuses the eye.



On on top of that - Did you know that most of the North American population
begins to form cataracts in their 40's? Sure surprised me.  So as well as
the
aging eye, many people are seeing less clearly without noticing the changes
-
they may not realize for 20 years that they have changed vision. So now we
have slower reaction time (muscle) along with a a haze/screen (cataract) to
contend with. And thank goodness there is surgery - Now that cataract
surgery
is so easy, and can be done so much sooner, even though the muscles continue
to act their age, we can see the gardens and life so much more clearly.



Quality of light also makes a difference, but as gardeners we all are aware
of
it, even if we aren't aware of being aware. Eyes react differently according
to time of day, cloud cover, etc.



Anyway - you did ask -  And yes - life is so much clearer after surgery -
having second eye done this winter -can't wait!



Lil T.

Georgetown ON

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index