I was so excited to have again found the Ty Glyn Secret Garden that we accidentally stumbled upon while looking for fairy doors back in 2017.
I can still remember the amazement that I felt once I realised that I was in an actual Secret Garden. The childlike naughtiness that I felt instantly reminded me of Frances Hodgsen Burnett’s children’s book, The Secret Garden, (1911) and how Burnett’s main character, Mary Lennox, must have felt once she was able to explore her own secret garden contained within Misselthwaite Manor‘s locked walled garden.
I was desperate to share that experience with my children now that they are 4 years older.
"*AC85 B9345 911s, Houghton Library, Harvard University"
And just like Burnett’s 1911 front cover. There it was. Ty Glyn‘s walled garden, old, small, door. Burnett’s use of emotive language in his story came alive as I too, like Mary, couldn’t help but feel ‘excitement, and wonder, and delight’.
So imagine the disappointment I felt when I saw a sign saying ‘Sorry no dogs in the garden’!
Aimee too was upset to see the children trundle off in to the walled garden without us...
But off they went …
Aimee and I didn’t stand idol. I started to look around at what I wouldn’t have seen should Aimee and I have not been forbidden to enjoy the garden for ourselves.
To the right of us was what I thought to be Honey Suckle interwoven into the forbidden fruits of a berry bush. Yet Simon tells me that what I saw is a common Honeysuckle (Lonicera Periclymenum) http://urbanbutterflygarden.co.uk/common-honeysuckle-lonicera-periclymenum
Behind us was what looks like a stone chimney. But on closer inspection I realise that the tower of stone is actually a begging box that is used to attract spontaneous donations. I didn't have any money on me so I don’t donate but I do make a subconscious note to remind me to bring a token donation the next time I visit, without Aimee… (shhhh)
Then to the left of us I spot a gate… My childlike inquisitive mind wants to explore. There’s no sign to say that I can’t enter. There’s no sign to say ‘Sorry no dogs’. I push the gate and it open…
Just a few steps in and we were greeted by the free flowing river that runs along the far side of the walled garden.
I was thrilled and excited to see that there was a further path that continues to follow the walled garden. We may have been forbidden to enter the secret garden but here we we’re, just like Mary in Burnett’s story, skulking around the outside of the wall wondering what was in it, and what was happening over the wall!
I was conscious that I should really go back to where the children had left me, just incase they returned. But I felt an urge to carry on. Just a few more minutes won’t hurt! Besides, I remember there being so much to see. I was sure that the children would be busy exploring. And I just had to see what I wouldn’t have seen should Aimee and I had not been forbidden to enter the garden …
I shall be adding to this blog to walk you around the walled garden over the next few days 🤗
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