Monday, April 7, 2014

NEW YORKER'S ESCAPE to a GARDEN (c) By Polly Guerin

In the cacophony of New York sitting in a garden or manicured park oft provides the solace to contemplate and meditate, releasing all tension and restoring one’s connection with one's imagination and nature. Such is the theme of this week’s column. Here’s the scoop!!!
HEAVEN IS A GARDEN- Designing Serene Outdoor Spaces for Inspiration and Reflection (St. Lynn’s Press) The book, Heaven is a Garden, by landscape designer and author Jan Johnsen is of interest to everyone, especially all gardeners and landscape designers, and to wit it has been chosen as an Amazon “Big Spring Book 2014. Anyone seeking peace and reverie will find it through the pictorial imagery and themes such as: The Power of Place, Creating Music for the Eye, Calling on the Trees, The Magic of Water, A Rock’s resonance, Color-Nature’s Catalyst. The book gives us pause to reflect on the health inducing qualities of a natural, beautiful setting which impacts on mind, body and spirit. Just reviewing the pages can be bliss itself, an escape the noise of the world revealing the deep connection of the natural world and its impact on serenity. Jan Johnsen illustrates how we can create an oasis that transforms our hectic lifestyle into one instilled with calm and a sense of oneness with nature. With lush color photographs throughout, her book illustrates how any garden setting, be it only a balcony or even a tiny space, her design philosophy and practical ideas inspire even the neophyte gardener. This book takes its cue from Jan’s popular garden blog, the same name as the book, and Facebook page, Serenity in the Garden blog. In her varied role as designer, gardener, teacher and writer, Jan Johnson’s insights on gardens teach us how to create a divine, unhurried landscape, a sanctuary of contemplative reverie. The book also lists Gardens and places to visit. Contact jan@johnsenlandscapes.com
THRIVE:The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well Being, Wisdom, and Power (Crown 2014) by The Huffington Post, founder Arianna Huffington says, “How we play the game of life, will be determined by what we value.” She advises that if we worship power, recognition, and fame, we will never feel that we have enough. Instead we should find our place to stand, a place of wisdom, peace and strength. Was she speaking of finding a garden of serenity to balance our lives, that even Jan Johnsen advocates? I wonder! Huffington recommends mediation which is not a new concept. The cognoscenti know that this is an ancient wisdom for centuries practiced by mystics, new age individuals and followers of the great American psychic, Edgar Cayce’s philosophies on meditation and natural healing. Ms. Johnsen’s garden or beautiful landscape can also do this for us. So here is another book worth investigating. Huffington says, “Find your place to stand and remake the world so we can ‘THRIVE’ and live our lives with more grace, more joy, more compassion, more gratitude, and yes, more love.”
GUIET NEW YORK Author Siobhan Wall introduces her book, Guiet New York in the Lecture Series at The General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen of the City of New York tonight at 6:30 pm. Profiling over 120 quiet places and covering all five boroughs the book is a guide where tired tourists can enjoy enticing small museums and peaceful gardens, and harried natives can discover places to relax and recuperate--places of sanctuary and worship, eclectic shops and cafes, libraries, galleries and waterfront parks. The evocative photographs and short description of each location (including travel, access and contact details) Guiet New York reveals the tranquil corners of the world's most stimulating city---only in New York my friends, the best of New York. Location: GSMT 20 W. 44th St.  FREE ADMISSION, advance registration call 212.840.1840 or email: karin.taylor@generalsociety.org.
A DIALOGUE WITH NATURE: Just in time with this garden/nature thee The Morgan Library and Museum collaborates with London’s Courtauld Gallery to explore the beauty and innovation of British and German Romantic Landscape drawing opens May 30 through September 7, 2014.The exhibition features the works of artists such as J.M.W. Turner, Samuel Palmer, Caspar David Friedrich, and Karl Friedrich Lessing, to name a few. These romantic artists delighted in the particular rather than the general and found pleasure in things transitory more than things permanent. They celebrated the individual imagination. Perhaps above, all, they understood and explored the inherent tension between direct observation of the visible world and that of the imagined---a tension that Caspar David Friedrich aptly summed up as a “dialogue with nature.” More on this exhibit in a May posting of pollytalk.
A GARDENS THEME: Swedish fashion designer Gudrun Sjoden, who is celebrating 51 years as a designer this year, presents her summer collection "Inspired by Gardens," Swedish design with a green soul and just in time to coordinate with today’s pollytalk garden theme. Gudrun says: “The most beautiful summer collection of the year offers lush florals, lively contrasts and loads of color--all inspired by gardens. Timeless garments and delightful home ware in nature’s own materials made for colorful garden-lovers all over the world.” The designer’s inspiration for her “Shadow” dress is a the play of light and shadow among the leaves. Location: 50 Greene Street in SoHo. Visit: www.gudrunsjoden. or call toll free 1.877.574.1486.

Ta Ta Darlings!!! Pollytalk is visiting, The New York Botanical Garden where Jan Johnsen teaches and lectures, you should, too! Fan mail welcome at pollytalk@verizon. Visit Polly’s website pollytalk and in the left hand column click on my other Blogs on fashion, visionary men and hidden treasures in New York.







PollyTalk from New York,

April 7, 2014

By Polly Guerin

NEW YORKER’S ESCAPE TO A GARDEN ©



In the cacophony of New York sitting in a garden or manicured park oft provides the solace to contemplate and meditate, releasing all tension and restoring one’s connection with nature. Such is the theme of this week’s column. Here’s the scoop!!!



HEAVEN IS A GARDEN - Designing Serene Outdoor Spaces for Inspiration and Reflection (St. Lynn’s Press) The book, Heaven is a Garden, by landscape designer and author Jan Johnsen is of interest to everyone, especially all gardeners and landscape designers, and to wit it has been chosen as an Amazon “Big Spring Book 2014. Anyone seeking peace and reverie will find it through the pictorial imagery and themes such as: The Power of Place, Creating Music for the Eye, Calling on the Trees, The Magic of Water, A Rock’s resonance, Color-Nature’s Catalyst. The book gives us pause to reflect on the health inducing qualities of a natural, beautiful setting which impacts on mind, body and spirit. Just reviewing the pages can be bliss itself, an escape the noise of the world revealing the deep connection of the natural world and its impact on serenity. Jan Johnsen illustrates how we can create an oasis that transforms our hectic lifestyle into one instilled with calm and a sense of oneness with nature. With lush color photographs throughout, her book illustrates how any garden setting, be it only a balcony or even a tiny space, her design philosophy and practical ideas inspire even the neophyte gardener. This book takes its cue from Jan’s popular garden blog, the same name as the book, and Facebook page, Serenity in the Garden blog. In her varied role as designer, gardener, teacher and writer, Jan Johnson’s insights on gardens teach us how to create a divine, unhurried landscape, a sanctuary of contemplative reverie. The book also lists Gardens and places to visit. Contact jan@johnsenlandscapes.com



THRIVE: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well Being, Wisdom, and Power (Crown 2014) by The Huffington Post, founder Arianna Huffington says, “How we play the game of life, will be determined by what we value.” She advises that if we worship power, recognition, and fame, we will never feel that we have enough. Instead we should find our place to stand, a place of wisdom, peace and strength. Was she speaking of finding a garden of serenity to balance our lives, that even Jan Johnsen advocates? I wonder! Huffington recommends mediation which is not a new concept. The cognoscenti know that this is an ancient wisdom for centuries practiced by mystics, new age individuals and followers of the great American psychic, Edgar Cayce’s philosophies on meditation and natural healing. Ms. Johnsen’s garden or beautiful landscape can also do this for us. So here is another book worth investigating. Huffington says, “Find your place to stand and remake the world so we can ‘THRIVE’ and live our lives with more grace, more joy, more compassion, more gratitude, and yes, more love.”



A DIALOGUE WITH NATURE Just in time with this garden/nature theme The Morgan Library and Museum collaborates with London’s Courtauld Gallery to explore the beauty and innovation of British and German Romantic Landscape drawing opens may 30 through September 7, 2014.The exhibition features the works of artists such as J.M.W. Turner, Samuel Palmer, Caspar David Friedrich, and Karl Friedrich Lessing, to name a few. These romantic artists delighted in the particular rather than the general and found pleasure in things transitory more than things permanent. They celebrated the individual imagination. Perhaps above, all, they understood and explored the inherent tension between direct observation of the visible world and that of the imagined---a tension that Caspar David Friedrich aptly summed up as a “dialogue with nature.” More on this exhibit in a May posting of pollytalk.



SUMMER 2014 With a GARDENS THEME: Swedish fashion designer Gudrun Sjoden, who is celebrating 51 years as a designer this year, presents her collection Inspired by Gardens, Swedish design with a green soul just in time to coordinate with today’s pollytalk garden theme. Gudrun says: “The most beautiful summer collection of the year offers lush florals, lively contrasts and loads of color. All inspired by gardens. Timeless garments and delightful home ware in nature’s own materials made for colorful garden-lovers all over the world.” The designer’s inspiration for her “Shadow” dress is a the play of light and shadow among the leaves.” Location: 50 Greene Street in SoHo. Visit: www.gudrunsjoden. or call toll free 1.877.574.1486.

Ta Ta Darlings!!! Pollytalk is visiting, The New York Botanical Garden where Jan Johnsen teaches and lectures, you should, too! Fan mail welcome at pollytalk@verizon. Visit Polly’s website pollytalk and in the left hand column click on my other Blogs on fashion, visionary men and hidden treasures in New York.







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