"The Deserted Garden"

If I could discover one apparently lost painting (but surely it has to be on someone's wall, somewhere?) it would undoubtedly be Millais' The Deserted Garden.  But failing that, I'll just walk around my own, while I still can ...

The roses are looking decidedly spotted (I did some deadheading, nonetheless);

the nigella and poppy seedheads are suitably dessicated (I went to gather some seeds, intending to make an illegal import, but found that the poppy ones, at least, were already dispersed - I hope they come up and flourish all over the place next year - or at least in whatever corners of the garden may be left by then).

In other words, all's looking suitably desolate - if one was constructing a suitable setting for a movie, it would be like this.  Or one could call on Swinburne's "A Forsaken Garden"  "The sun burns sere and the rain dishevels / One gaunt bleak blossom of scentless breath.... And or ever the garden's last petals were shed" and so on.  Looking this up to quote it was a big mistake, of course - it's much too melancholic a read, even if it's wildly overwrought (and strangely full of negative constructions).