In his early days as a painter, Claude Monet wrote of his art:  "Every day I discover more and more beautiful things.  It’s enough to drive one mad.  I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it."

And so we discovered one afternoon at Giverny more and more beautiful things that, over 40 years, Claude Monet carefully nurtured and painted, once lamenting that "colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment."

Our senses were overwhelmed with colour, texture, light and shadow, earth and water, trees, shrubs and flowers, scents, and the twitters of birds and the croakings of frogs.  The visual music dancing in our eyes woke the quiet in our hearts to a sensual joy!

We had drizzle for most of the afternoon which kept the numbers of visitors low so that we could take many photographs with little human interruption.  The gardens glistened with lushness.  Colours were vibrant.  The spring air was comfortably cool. 

We have a couple of names for this image:  "Petals of Love" and "Bridal Bouquet" because of the overhanging shrub with white flowers.  We create our own cards for special occasions and have used this image to congratulate newlyweds.

Bridal Bouquet Monet's garden at Giverny, France (2010)