near Monet's garden

(hfh photos)

Monet’s gardens at Giverny are not natural. They were created according to the designs of man. The plants within, and the ecosystems copied, could perhaps be described as natural, at least when originally installed. Today, however, it could be argued, as Bill McKibben does in his book The End of Nature, that any natural state of the earth has been now been contaminated to a measurable extent by the activities of man. So not only are the gardens at Giverny not natural, absolutely nothing is.

I remember grass and buttercups in our lawn. A big event was making our chins glow yellow by holding the buttercup underneath. My dad ate onion grass, and I tried to eat it too, but it was really strong. We had plants in borders, and big birch trees at the back. I used to walk around on all fours and pretend I was a lion. The King Of The Jungle didn’t have to worry; he could pee anywhere, so I did.