LIFE AND ART

 By Caroline Clemmons

Since I’ve been an adult, I have loved Monet’s paintings, especially those done of his garden in Giverny. I wanted to travel there, walk through the gardens, and stand on the little Japanese bridge. I haven’t made it. I have a print of the water lilies in our home and my daughter always gives me a Monet calendar at Christmas. When Monet’s works are on tour and accessible at the Kimball Museum in Fort Worth, I’ve gone to admire the paintings in person.

 

One of Monet's water lily paintings

Recently, our youngest daughter drove Hero and me around Lake Weatherford, west of Fort Worth. She was eager to show me the water lilies. We drove around the lake, and reached the water lily garden at the west end of the lake (at least that’s where it seemed to me). Seeing a mass of the flowers and pads spreading over an acre or more surprised me. What surprised me even more was the sweet fragrance filling the air. Who knew they had such a lovely aroma in a mass?

Of course, I had seen water lilies in Koi and other decorative ponds. Believe me, I had never seen flowers like those at Lake Weatherford this year. They were huge, some on stems standing above the water amid their large pads.  A floating boardwalk crosses a part of the flowers, but I am not steady enough on my feet to attempt that, eveen with the rope to act as a rail. Our daughter and a friend enjoyed the walk last summer, but she said the flowers are larger this year.

Many dozens of times Hero or he and I have driven to Lake Weatherford for his fishing or for us to visit friends who live there on a different part of the lake. This trip will be a lasting memory for me. The experience proves that we don’t have to depend on paintings—although they continue to give pleasure. We don't have to travel across the world. I’ll always admire Monet’s works, but, beauty is all around us if we only look.

Thanks for stopping by.