The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

        How to illustrate that mystical chapter The Piper at the Gates of Dawn? Reference Pink Floyd’s seminal album? No, Grantchester Meadows on Ummagumma. The convolvulus (extra) is the only bloom to be seen at the moment.


        My heart aches for the memory of riverbanks fecund with purple loosestrife where I would idle away a summer afternoon.

       “It’s like music – far away music,” said the Mole, nodding drowsily.
       “So I was thinking,” murmured the Rat, dreamful and languid. “Dance music – the lilting sort that runs on without a stop – but with words in it, too – it passes into words and out of them again – I catch them at intervals – then it is dance music once more, and then nothing but the reeds’ soft thin whispering.”
       “You hear better than I,” said the Mole sadly. “I cannot catch the words.”
       “Let me try and give you them,” said the Rat softly, his eyes still closed. “Now it is turning into words again – faint but clear – Lest the awe should dwell – And turn your frolic to fret – You shall look on my power at the helping hour – but then you shall forget! . . . . “
               The Wind in the Willows, chapter 7, Kenneth Grahame

The Little Colorado joins the Colorado (which no longer reaches the sea) near the head of the Grand Canyon. More with the colour version of this image.