My husband and I recently spent several hours at the Humes Stroll Garden in Mill Neck near the border of Locust Valley, a very beautiful section of Long Island. We'd never been there before and were thoroughly enchanted with it. It's one of those very special places that brings you fully back to yourself.
There are very few flowers, but the stroll garden is filled with lush greenery, a waterfall, meditation areas, a tea house, a koi pond, and wonderful wooded paths that wind up and down a hillside. Every path includes stepping stones for walking meditation. I highly recommend that if you've never been to the Humes Japanese Stroll Garden please keep it in mind for the future. It's a wonderful, wonderful place to spend a few hours.
While we were there I did a bit of Haiku writing and my husband busied himself with photography. I thought I'd combine the two below.
Welcome
These stepping stones go throughout the entire grounds.
One Of Several Natural Staircases To Stroll
Haiku: Sunlit Green
Woods bursting with life
Lush green textures surround, abound.
Magic sunlit streaks
Tea ceremonies are held in this tea house, and flute players entertain in the gardens from time to time.
Pond Foliage
The Koi Pond
Fish food is supplied for your pleasure and the fish are VERY entertaining with their greedy antics.
As you can see they're also beautiful.
This big and very tame frog stayed on the log waiting for some of the fish food to soften up. Once it did baby fish would come up in the safety (from the large fish) behind the log to feed on it. As they did this crafty guy gobbled them up!
Visual
Oval, four point, five
Long, short, skinny, fat, round, growing
All leaves climbing proud.
There were many peaceful places to stop and meditate throughout the grounds.
Old Age and Meditation
Old eyes blur summer's
Edges. Ears ringing with water
Splashing onto rock.
Watch and Listen
Birdsong bird squawking
Mosquitos hovering buzzing
Ants crawling butterflies.
Haiku is a 3 line Japanese poem of 17 syllables in the order of 5-7-5 that typically evokes the natural world and gives hint to one of the four seasons. I find that writing Haiku helps me to be still and really take my surroundings in with all of my senses. But, beware, from my experience writing them can become addictive. In fact, it is said that the great haiku writer, Basho, was seen counting syllables on his fingers while in a coma as he lay on his death bed. The haiku I write is certainly not the best, so I know I need not fear the same fate. :-)
I'd like to thank my husband, Sandy, for the beautiful photos he allowed me to use here. We both hope you enjoyed this little sampling of the Hume Japanese Stroll Garden.
Thanks for looking in......
