Preface

 The Enigma of what we don’t understand can be discomforting, but it is equally reassuring, as it proposes, by default, that there is still more to know. It’s not what you see but 'what you don’t see' that enriches our imagination.’ Reisch

‘Jackson was deeply moved by what he saw on the ground before him. He felt the coolness of the breeze standing in the shadow of the tree, with its shafts of broken light flecking a large part of this shadow across the lawn. He was compelled to respond, to engage or contribute somehow, to the profound depth of what he was imagining on the lawn before him. 

He gathered together as many white pebbles that he could find and placed them on the spots where the sun shone through. For a sizable area of ground, there were hundreds of these small spots of light and as they were being filled with small handfuls of white pebbles, they took on a presence of their own. The pebbles’ white smooth surfaces reflected the sunlight and stood out in sharp contrast against the textured grass that was in shadow. Having distributed as many pebbles as he could, Jackson stepped back, now with just a few pebbles left in his hand. He ceremoniously placed the last of these on the small fleck of light near him. One here, one there, careful not to dislodge the small mounds. He was mesmerized by the sheer light that was reflected on them and as he stepped back further, one step at a time, there emerged before him, between these clusters of pebbles, the image of a tree. It was a darkly textured tree that emerged out of the shadow on the grass, with its sinewy entangled limbs and leaves, silhouetted against the small mounds of shiny white pebbles that glistened like beacons.' 

extract ; 'Health and safety in landscape gardening'