October 7th, 2003


I've made a list of five gardens I'd like to visit while I'm here.

While I'm here. It sounds temporary. I can't think of this place as home, although I've been in Britain for nearly two months. Well, I can hardly count the first few weeks, as I was very much in sight-seer mode (when I wasn't in run-for-my-life mode). But I've officially lived here for one month now. I have a routine of sorts. I'm making friends. I'm officially on sabbatical. I've bought groceries.

And, of course, this is where Peter is.

But I'd rather not think of Peter, since I spend far too much time thinking of him as it is.

Gardens.

First and foremost I'd like to see the Westminster Abbey Gardens. When Monica and I visited Westminster Abbey, we hadn't time to see the gardens. There are two of them: the Little Infirmary, which is planted with roses, lilies and acanthus, and the Cloister, which has a large collection of herbs. Both gardens have been cultivated for over 900 years.

I'd also like to see Sissinghurst, which is one of the most famous gardens in Europe. Created by Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson in the 1930s, the garden is supposed to be a series of interconnected 'rooms.' There is a white garden, a cottage garden, a rose garden, an herb garden.

Great Maytham Hall is supposed to have inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden. She took an old walled orchard and turned it into a rose garden, before returning to the States. I think it may be some kind of retirement home now, and I believe they hold weddings there--though probably not for the retired tenants.

I would love to see Cornwall, and if I do make the trip I plan to visit Trelissick, which is described by my guidebook as 'a sheltered 25-acre valley garden with a number of exotic species of plants and trees.' I can't imagine a 25-acre garden! Bluebells carpet the dell in the spring surrounded by snowy banks of hydrangeas. I would certainly go in the spring.

Assuming I am still here in the spring.

I've seen pictures of Hidcote Manor Garden--it always reminds me of a fairytale garden. It's a series of small and large gardens separated by hedges and walls; many of the roses and plants are very old and very rare.

I didn't used to think much about gardens, but I suppose living in the middle of one has made me more aware. There were rabbits on the lawn this morning. I watched them while I had my toast and tea. It's a rather nice way to start the day, I have to admit.