the garden of good and even better

Some places are iconic. At least to yourself.

Like a garden, not tiny but not large either. A normal, suburban garden surrounding a normal, boxy little house of the Scandinavian seventies style. When you're a child and this is your whole world, it's a universe of little nations bordered by flower beds, set to the soothing sound of the wind in the tall pine trees. Adventures waiting to happen when you crawl underneath shrubs and invent paths that wind around rocks. Raspberries to be picked, and strawberries if you avoid the horrible slugs. Apple trees, for a while even a cherry tree until it perishes one cold winter. A patch where peas and potatoes and tiny carrots are doing their best to grow. "Little Forest" where anything can happen - robbers and dragons hide there. And flowers of every description, from the flashy rhododendron that your mother loves and desperately tries to save from freezing over the winter by packing them into impressive cocoons, to the lovely lilies-of-the-valley that you yourself prefer.

The joy when the neighbours' cats come over for a visit, although your mother always chases them away, sometimes by making hissing noises through the open window. Mother likes other animals though, and birds who knock themselves out by flying into windows are taken in to recover in the unheated sauna room, safe from the prowling cats.

There are a couple of swings, a sandbox, even a playhouse that your father built. There are other children to play with. But the invisible features are the best. Even a tiny little slant in the lawn is a steep hill, even a towering mountain, when your legs are short. A couple of boulders make up a medieval castle, or an obstacle course for your imaginary Arabian thoroughbreds. There are imaginary dogs too, a whole pack of them in fact; never mind your actual, real poodle who is just annoying and disobedient. Pretend dogs are always clever and beautiful and don't require a leash.

The garden is paradise in the summer. But in the winter, you can build real castles in the snow and the landscape is alien like a foreign planet. You stay out and play until your clothes are soaked through and dinner is on the table.