Working in the garden I thought about the huge sights Joe and I had experienced on our car trip to the Pacific Ocean -and Pop! A little detail I’d mentally mislaid suddenly resurfaced, fresh and ready to marvel at.
We’d driven to California and back in April, stopping in Pasadena to visit family. After dropping Bryn off at a nice doggie daycare center in downtown Pasadena we motored to the world famous Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, about five miles away. Though admission was steep- thirty dollars each, we forked it out anyway. I’d heard about this place and wanted to poke around for a bit.
It’s vast. His former home, 207 acres of some of the most valuable land in southern California, houses a huge library that houses incredible treasures. I could go on and on about the fabulous paintings in its museums- like The Blue Boy- but it’s the American Rose Garden (one of seventeen different gardens) that had one astounding thing.
Think of a rose; it’s in there- 1400 different cultivars, one of the most comprehensive collections on the planet. Almost all were in bloom. Wow!
In fact, for me, it was just too much of a good thing. My eyes blurred as I passed hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of colorful, huge scented roses.
Soon I found myself about to move into a huge pergola, a sort of tunnel three people wide, that went on for over a hundred feet. Large trees with trunks measuring 9-15 inches rose in two perfect lines to support a very long overhead trellis so filled with climbing roses that they blocked out the sun. There were benches scattered along one side, and the mature trees, so beautiful, so healthy, were lined up in a way that made me groan with envy. 
But, as I stood there, about to enter the walk, Joe poked me. “Look: you won’t believe what that guy is doing.”
I was flabbergasted. Dumbfounded. Standing on a ladder a jeaned man was- making bark. He was. It was tree bark; in fact, the man was creating the entire trunk. And branches. All those wonderful trees were handmade with a sort of farrow cement, plus a few special things added to the mix. Even touching it I couldn’t tell that it wasn’t the real thing. I have never seen anything like this in all my life. The mix is called faux bois concrete, and the artist working his magic is Terry Eagan. Here is a video of him explaining his work - prepare to be amazed!
Go to http://www.fauxboisconcrete.info to learn more.
I would love to try it!