WPC: To Nate or not to Nate

Sometimes a word comes up with which I as a non-native speaker have a little problem. What could it mean? And why don’t I know it yet?

I do know ornament, so it can’t be too far off. And even if it’s not a sort of synonym of decorate, I was glad to see it as this week’s WP challenge because I knew I’d be going to the Garden again. Together with quite many people this time around.

Its name is Il giardino dei tarocchi, or the Tarot Garden, and it was home and child to Niki de Saint Phalle. The way she decorated it is not something that can be reproduced, never mind the fact that Tuscany requires no decoration. I try to visit it every first Saturday in the months of November through April seeing that it’s free then.

I first encountered her in Paris in 1991 when I – never a sketching kind – found myself copying her fountains in front of the Pompidou into my notebook. When I moved to southern Tuscany two and a half years ago, amore was talking about a Tarot Garden, which I found funny seeing that my card game is tarok and it has the same origin as tarot cards. I saw it as a sign. Of what? Of life going on, probably.

But nothing could prepare me for this. Neither my mother, my father, my sister and all my friends who have visited it. (Only my uncle is on strike.) Even bestia seems happy.

What it is, mostly, it’s full of love. And olives.

I just know I’ll never stop going there. Ornate or not.

Photo: MM

I have published quite a few photos from there already. If you wish to see more, follow the tag Il giardino dei tarocchi.

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Ornate.”