eBook Monastic Gardens download

Poor-quality images.There is no one full garden photo.(Only macro photos of grass, walls and fruits.)Visually, it's not a very interesting book.
The only good photo is on the book cover.

Visually, it's not a very interesting book. The photography (subject matter and photo quality) is below the standards of most gardening books and magazines. I chose this book as a gift, but after seeing it, decided not to give it to the intended recipient.

I find one problem with this book: I would like more photographs about the gardens and less photographs of plants or fruits in close up.

Excellent color photography depicting historically interesting gardens amid marvelous architectural backdrops. A refreshing and useful book which I recommend highly.

Hales is pleasant to read. A nice surprise in addition to the photography.

Monastic Gardens has beautiful photographs. I had hoped for more pictures of each monastery with a complete idea of its layout. These photos are meant to evoke a mood and are very successful in doing so. I am still glad I bought the book and have found it useful for bringing life to the rather dry layout drawings of some of the other books available. In fact, I would buy this book for no other reason then to excite other people's interest in monastic gardens who had no previous interest in the subject.

Very interesting, very beautiful book illustrated by photographs of present day monastic gardens in Europe and the UK.

Books on the origins of English words, generally agree the word 'garden' comes from the old German for an enclosed safe space where living things including vegetables, flowers and children can be safely grown. Modern dictionaries expand the meaning a bit, but for the most part gardens remain places of safety, nurturing, repose, and reflection. The huge fields containing monocrops grown by large commercial interests, where nothing survives except the cash crop of interest, are the antithesis of the garden, which is literally and figuratively the source of life.
According to the Christian Bible (and the Jewish Torah), the original garden (Eden) contained the tree of life. MONASTIC GARDENS, by Mick Hales, is about the importance of gardens for the well being of bodies, minds, emotions, and eternal souls. The places he visited and photographed in the U.S. and Europe reflect the lost paradise and the paradise to come. Many of the gardens contain a tree as a focal point in remembrance of the Garden of Eden.
In addition to setting an example of the life well lived, providing a place of refuge for the weary soul, and working for their own sustanance, the most important good deed the monks and nuns who tend the living spaces in monastic gardens do is to contribute to the preservation of the diversity of life humankind at times seems bent on obliterating in it's mad quest for "perfection". Around the world other spiritual/religious groups are similarly engaged in this very important work. One can think of the Amish who live in the mid-Atlantic areas of the U.S. as like-minded souls who understand the modern obsession with "perfectionism" is a deadly illusion if not downright sinful.
Hale's photographs and text encourage meditation. Cloister walks and clipped box mazes reflect the paradox of life as a journey of the soul toward the infinite. An orchard where a fallen Quince stained with a bit of decay lies in the sunlit grass reminds one of her own mortality. All these photographs reflect the work of the creator who is the divine spark that sets the monks and nuns on their daily rounds.
MONASTIC GARDENS is a beautiful book of prayer and meditation. Forget for a moment the strife and hatred of those who do not know love, and focus on the words Hildegard Bingen who said, "greening love hastens to the aid of all.." This is not a book about the life of priviledge. This is a book that points the way for all.