A Garden to Giggle In

Whenever Wynona Lurie, whose gardens I write about in this month's Home & Garden column, leaves a message on my home voicemail, the system cuts her off.  Her voice has a perfect sing-song tone that the system interprets to be the pushing of a button on the phone.  Invariably, she gets cut off mid-sentence, just as she's saying something kind or clever as she's known to do.  I'll call her back, and we just giggle.

I giggle a lot around Wynona.  No matter that nearly four decades separate us in age, we often laugh like school girls.  That's a reflection of Wynona's unabashed youthfulness, a youthfulness she'll tell you comes from spending time in the gardens.

I even find myself giggling as I walk around her gardens.  I always feel like a kid out there.  The plots bubble over with surprises as does the lady who planted them.  Whether it's a witticism etched in a stepping stone or a quirky planter bursting over with a beautiful vine, Wynona's gardens are a living representation of her buoyant spirit.  They, too, have a sing-song tone that inevitably cuts me off...from the rest of the world...at least for a while. 

Every now and again, I'll join Wynona for lunch in the gardens.  And we just giggle.