What drew me to Elba over 16 years ago was the artist retreat at Santa Caterina and the adjunct Orto Dei Semplici Elbano, a small botanical garden. In keeping with its medieval roots the hermitage and garden are both walled. I have written several articles and blog posts, even gave some slide show presentations about the public garden.

But rarely, if ever, do I talk about the private garden, the hortus conclusus of the hermitage. I have written untold pages about my experiences briefly living there, but few have read those writings. During this last visit I was not only consulting with the new gardener Roberto Ballini in the public garden, but I was also working on turning some of my experiences and thoughts of my time in the private garden into publishable pieces.

There have been many artists and writers that have work in this beautiful tranquil place. It is truly inspiring. But it is also private.

I hang my laundry there.

I feel safe there. Is it the walls against the world?

The rustic orderliness?

Or the intimacy of the landscape?

Even now, at this great distance I am hard pressed to share the ideas and feelings that often come with overwhelming rapidity there.

 As inexpressible as the silence of this place.