averilburystedmunds: A Little World Apart

Recent arrival; cosmos

The arrival of Spring has brightened my terrace beyond imagining. For a season much-anticipated, Spring still manages to surprise. My roof-top garden is treasured both for its aesthetic value but also because it gives me, in a small second floor apartment, an ‘outside’ where blackbirds and pigeons occasionally visit, where fresh air feeds the lungs; where I can sit or work or linger to savour the views, perhaps the part of the cathedral tower which is visible or a peep at the next-door terrace to check on their display! It is, in fact, the very heaven to settle in a not-too-comfortable chair, embalmed by cushions, to enjoy my evening Duvel while I read or think. There is always a calm beauty about the terrace but at this time of year, there is extra delight in the increasingly rampant foliage which seems to have doubled in size and variety on certain plants while unremembered little blooms shyly decorate emerging shrubs. Somehow, to wander my tiny ‘estate’ provides both a daily reunion with the plants and the views, and a simultaneous celebration of their beauty. And the world beyond seems refreshingly further away; somehow, below me!

My sister and I playing Mah Jong on
the Bruges terrace in 2018.
She is very appropriately attired.

When I lived in Kent, my small courtyard garden which contained both a small proper garden and a brick courtyard filled with pots of shrubs and young trees, was much loved. I said Goodbye, I thought, to all things earthy when I left, but then I found a wonderful rented flat in Bruges where I moved to live. It was large, central, with great views and, amazingly, had a large terrace which overlooked the nearby convent garden as well as the mediaeval square in front of the building. There began my education in terrace gardening which is similar, though slightly different, from proper gardening!! When eventually garlanded with flowers and foliage, it became a favourite space to entertain visiting friends and family as well as a perfect bower for solitary pursuits. Even doing my Dutch homework was almost tolerable out there!

It did not occur to me that I could find a small apartment with a terrace, in Bury St Edmunds, when increasing age made it sensible to leave Beloved Brugge. But thanks to family living locally, I had no need to look far and I speedily ‘discovered’ my present home with the long roof-top terrace described above AND the tiny terrace off the kitchen accessed via the small glass folding wall.