Missing

The neighbors ask about you. Mazie's family, the Mutters, Jan and Karen.

I tell them about the end,


about how I waited too long because sometimes you had good days,

about the travel and how much you would have missed me at the kennel, if you remembered me at all,

about how the vet came to our house so you wouldn't be scared.

The neighbors look closely at me, then down at the street.

My eyes follow theirs down to the pavement, where your brown back would be if it weren't underground. Where your head would be, erect and quiet. And your tail, drooping sadly in your final weeks.

I can stand on the street forever, with no one pulling at a leash. When I finally walk down the street again, my thumb rubs the bittings of the house key.

The hostas on your gravesite are still in bloom, but most are beyond their prime. On the stalks, the white trumpets are changing to green cylindars of seed. Last week, the spicebush fell over in a thunderstorm and broke the leaves off the sickly one. It is too late in the season to grow them anew, although next year remains a possibility.

Rodin jardin

The last garden I visited in Paris was the sculpture garden at the Musee Rodin. I made a strategic mistake in visiting the indoor museum first and then the special exhibition, so by the time I saw the sculpture garden, I had already viewed work by Rodin for 4 hours.


I had saved the best for last, but by that time, I was no longer at my best.

The museum and garden are near the dome of Les Invalides, where Napolean is buried.

The museum is housed in an old mansion that Rodin had used as his studio. At the time, the house was run down and the garden was a wild mixture of brambles and apple trees and rabbits. The house became a museum in 1911 and garden was refurbished in 1993.


The central part of the garden is arranged formally, with a long parterre of grass, centered on the Rodin museum, and with a shallow pool of water. This arrangement is similar to other formal gardens in Paris.


In the center of the pool is a work by Rodin named Ugolino. It looks like a man wrestling, but the legend of Count Ugolino is more sinister. His enemies locked him in a tower with his sons, and starved them to death. In this sculpture, "Count Cannibal" sets upon his children.

Two small ducks sleeping together on the base of this sculpture are unaware of the legend.

To the sides of the formal garden are generous shrub borders. The blue-flowerd Ceanothus was in full bloom, which I had previously only seen in photographs. Commonly known as the California lilac, this plant is native to the U.S.





The oak leaf hydrangea is native to North Carolina, where the foliage is a deep rich green.





There are many famous bronze sculptures in the garden. The Thinker has been at the museum since 1922.


He could be thinking, "Why do they trim the trees so tightly? They would be more beautiful in their natural shape."

Balzac, famous man of letters, stands in a grassy clearing in dappled sunlight. Victor Hugo stands in another part of the garden. Both pieces were rejected by the art establishment at the time and both are considered masterpieces today.

Other famous sculptures in the garden include the Burghers of Calais and the Gates of Hell. The Kiss is located in the museum building.

Cluny

My favorite garden in Paris is near the Cluny Museum, a circular garden of herbs set into a small square of urban property. Surrounding the herb garden is a circular stone path with benches here and there for resting. Along the perimeter are trees for shade and a few sculptures. This small circle-in-a-square garden is named for a mathematician.

In this small garden, herbs grow freely, tumbling over one another. Bees forage the blue flowers of the comfrey, and birds flit from tree to tree, chirping and cheering.


The garden is enclosed by a neighborhood in the Latin Quarter with elegant white buildings, and people from the neighborhood sit on benches as they talk and read.

The Cluny Museum itself has a garden in back, created in 2000, a contemporary garden in the medieval style, as the Musee de Cluny is also the National Museum of the Middle Ages.





In this garden a series of rectangular raised beds highlight the types of gardens in the middle ages. One garden is devoted to food plants commonly grown in medieval times, including cabbage, chard, peas, beans and onions.

Another garden is given to medicinal herbs from the middle ages, such as sage, hyssop, rue and chamomile.


The love garden is planted with scented carnations, roses and other sensual plants.

The celestial garden focuses on devotion to the Virgin Mary. Plants associated with the Virgin are lily, iris, columbine, roses, violets and daisies.

On my visit, the afternoon sun grew hot and I sat on a bench beside the celestial garden. Behind my head, a bird darted out from the vine growing thick and green on a trellis. Perhaps it was the medicinal herbs or the spiritual plants, but I felt at peace there.