Sunday, April 15, 2007

Keukenhof I

A visit to Holland in the springtime means a visit to Keukenhof. The weather has been glorious and so we hurried to see the world's largest spring garden lest it bloom and fade before we make it. Photographs scarcely do the gardens justice, and the camera battery ran out, which we might construe as an admission of defeat before the combined splendour of nature's exuberance and human care.








We walked the perfect, manicured lawns and the ordered profusion of flower beds, marveling not just at nature, but at how beautifully the Dutch have honed these gifts to a perfection all of us can revel and take pride in. Every part of earth is beautiful but we do not always spend the time and effort it requires to showcase that beauty--not just for commerce but also for the pleasure that we might take in it. Voltaire wrote at the end of Candide, "Il faut cultiver son jardin."And how beautifully it is done here!

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