The Secret Garden

 

One of the ‘secret’ walled gardens in lovely Calderstones park, Liverpool

“It was the lock of the door which had been closed ten years and she put her hand in her pocket, drew out the key and found that it fitted the keyhole. She put the key in and turned it. It took two hands to do it, but it did turn.
And then she took a long breath and looked behind her up the long walk to see if anyone was coming. No one was coming. No one ever did come, it seemed, and she took another long breath, because she could not help it, and she held back the sweeping curtain of ivy and pushed back the door which opened slowly – slowly.
Then she slipped through it, and shut it behind her, and stood with her back against it, looking about her and breathing quite fast with excitement, and wonder, and delight.

She was standing inside the secret garden………….”

This is an exert from one of my favourite books when I was a child, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The story of the disagreeable Mary Lennox who blossomed along with the roses after discovering a ‘secret garden’ hidden behind a wall with a door concealed by ivy for ten years.

This fired my imagination as a child and I dreamed of one day finding my own secret garden.

Nowadays, living in an apartment, my dream is just to one day have ‘a little bit of earth’ just as Mary Lennox did.

How I imagine ‘The Secret Garden’

But while waiting I have discovered my own magical place, deep in the heart of the city of Liverpool – Calderstones park. (of which I have written before in my post on ‘Jet the Rescue Dog’.)

Calderstones has a very mystical feel to it, and unlike other big parks in the city, it has, as well as wide open spaces, a series of small walled gardens (often one leading into another)
It is here that I like to disappear with a book or just wander around discovering what new plants have burst into bud or bloom, and watching the squirrels and the robins and other small birds, all busy with their business and paying no attention whatsoever to me.

My ideal place to read a book

This blog has been, like Mary’s garden, a little neglected of late, as I have been making the final arrangements for my wedding, but, although I have not had the time to prepare a recipe, as is my usual ‘house style’, it is no accident that I have chosen this subject as the poetry reading that my new husband and I chose to be read at the ceremony was also entitled ‘A Walled Garden’.
We chose this lovely little poem, by an unknown author as sit summed up perfectly how we felt about our relationship.

So perhaps I have found after all the Secret Garden that I was looking for when I was a little girl, and although no flowers will grow in it, we can grow love and respect and happiness and memories.
I hope you like it as much as us………………

A Walled garden – Anon

“ Your marriage should have within it, a
secret and protected place, open to you alone.
Imagine it to be a walled garden,
entered by a door to which only you hold the key
Within this garden you will cease to be
a mother, father, employee, homemaker
or any other of the roles which you fulfil
in daily life. Here you are yourselves –
two people who love each other.
Here you can concentrate on one another’s needs.”
So take my hand and let us go back to our garden.
The time we spend together is not wasted,
but invested. Invested in our future
and the nurture of our love.

 

Tell your secrets to the trees – you can trust them