The Voice of Water

Where the silver wave with sweetness fed the tiny lives of grass
I was bent above, my image mirrored in the fleeting glass,
And a voice from out the water through my being seemed to pass.

These are a few lines from George William Russell’s peom The Voice of the Waters.  He’s talking about a river, but has captured a beautiful moment that we’ve all felt when near water or can hear its murmuring.

Recently I’ve been working on a water feature for a garden, where we wanted to create exactly that soft burbling of water – just enough movement and sound to magically transport, and calm.

I used a single block of Yorkstone and shaped a shallow circular dish in the top – just very simple in design, you get the feeling and weight of stone, but the overall look is rather elegant I think.  It is especially so when the water rises and flows (you can just see the gentle plume in the centre of the dish).

The garden has been designed by Lizzie Tulip Garden Design who incorporated the feature in her ideas, and approached me to make it for her clients.  I’ve got to give a big thanks to Charlie MacLauchlan at Country Gardens and his team, who set the stone in place and dealt expertly with all the practicalities that have made it work so beautifully.

I love the purple flowers and colouring in the foliage of the planting which works really well with the stone.  The garden’s owners look out on this view from their study window, hear the water and already have watched birds taking a bath and enjoying the water feature too.