To look with one’s heart

I do not know the words to describe what it feels like to come home to Towerwater. Perhaps everything does not need to have words. Sometimes it is enough just to feel.

Walking down the steps from the parking area to below the roses that are in their first flush of spring, one is filled with a sense of peace and serenity.

With the roses planted on a raised stone terrace, higher than the gardens that surround the house, it is as if one steps into a secret garden. The phrase sub-rosa comes to mind. It is quite a luxury to spend a weekend sub-rosa, a position from which one always looks up at beauty.

Looking at the first flush of spring, the rosarium does not fail to surprise and delight with each successive year. With beauty comes sadness. Rosebushes do not last forever. Every year there will be losses that will need to be replaced the following winter.

During the day the roses go through different stages, from the intense closed rosebud in the morning, to the perfectly formed rose at midday and the fully opened bloom in the evening.

The three stages of the rose can be observed each day in the rosarium. Each stage has its own beauty. It demands at least three daily walks through the rosarium. This is best undertaken in the morning, at midday and in the afternoon.

At Towerwater we observe with the heart. The beauty and sense of place is more than the visual. It is a happiness within you that defies explanation but which comes with a sense of belonging.