shallow, narrow, low-walled — almost a basin, almost a bowl. sunk in 1908 not for the household, which has the kitchen-yard well a minute's walk away, but for the garden: cuttings, seedlings, the bouquet brought in from the border and cut down to a vase-length.
the water is plain and sweet. the gardener draws a jug each morning for the long bench in the potting shed and another at noon for the arrangements. cut roses last a day longer in it than in tap water. nobody knows whether this is the water or the gardener.
it is said: flowers placed into water from this well will hold a promise for the duration of their bloom. one promise, made to oneself, repeated once into the jug. no flower keeps it longer than its petals.
field-note · the rim is faintly stained green about three inches below the lip. it is where the gardener's left hand rests, every morning, for the same thirty seconds.
apple-yard · the eel · a bouquet · the garden · a garden draught