Composition 9

“In my opinion, the most ordinary things, the most common and familiar, if we could see them in their true light, would turn out to be the grandest miracles of nature.”
Michel de Montaigne

The Wunderkammer, the gabinetto, the vitrine, the cabinet of curiosities, of objects from nature, from science, from mankind. Where those objects, everyday and extraordinary can tell their stories.

What revelations there are to be found in the nine cubbyholes of this one, this gardener’s Wunderkammer, this baroque potting-shed of luminous yellows and spring greens?

Primulas, pansies, primroses
Bulbs, sprouting and sprouted, signs of new birth.
A tiny yellow finch perched between yellow pansies, a symbol of the soul and a reminder of Fabritius’s fitch, the most famous Dutch bird of all

The coin of Prince Albert, a patch of fancy lace,
Golden ribbons, a golden lyre
Hint that worldly goods can fade, whilst Nature’s cycle is constant.

A trusty pair of secateurs.

Outside the cabinet, on the potting shed shelf, lemon scented geranium and a ripening lemon, the most joyous of fruit
Parchments, full of knowledge.

A sentinel woodpecker, keeping guard
A pediment of acanthus, tulip and heritage tomato
Brown dried oak leaves and a snuffed-out candle, to show the winter that is past

The bud, the bulb, buttery yellow win out
Spring is again in the ascendent