History and natural history at SIzergh Castle

Painted lady with coiled proboscis about to nectar on verbena bonariensis

The moment the sun breaks free of cloud painted ladies come to nectar  on verbena flowers in the herbaceous border. In close encounters I'm intent on photography.  Two young women walk along the terrace toward the castle tower and I overhear their fantasy.
'My castle would be in Scotland,' she tells her friend. 
A lad I knew from infant school bought a ruined castle in Ireland.  He grew to look the part, a Celtic clan chief with a long ragged beard and enveloping  hair.  The cult of medieval Irish.  
The actor Jeremy Irons owns Kilcoe Castle, a 15th century tower house in West Cork.  In Shakespeare's history play he was Henry IV, with Tom Hiddleston as his son Prince Hal.
Strolling kitchen gardens and orchards at Sizergh there's always the backdrop of the castle to conjure the romance of medieval England.  Life in a medieval castle must have been remote from the scene today with families and young children at leisure in a fun  escape from reality.

The kitchen garden is a  marvel of design and a riot of colour, with a striking range of fruit, flowers and vegetables. Tall fennel mingles with verbena bonariensis favoured of butterflies.  To hope to recreate all this at home may be a fantasy too far. Sizergh does it best.
Up on the terrace, dahlias recurve their petals to present anthers laden with pollen. Bees are the most efficient pollinators, their hairy legs in deep.  Painted ladies cling to petals with tarsal claws at the tip of slender legs as they  sip nectar from tube-like flowers with their long proboscis. 

The castle is always a presence wherever we may wander about Sizergh gardens.  Wildlife highlights are set against the back-drop of the castle. Frogs mating in the lake, house martins and swallows nesting about the tower, mustering in early autumn, butterflies nectaring on flowers in the herbaceous border then feeding on fermenting fruit in the orchard -  always against this magical stage set. 
On the lawn below the terrace an information board tells of games the family played here in Victorian times, and invites visitors to play. Small helmeted children ride small bikes and micro-cars.
An Englishman's home is his castle- it's worth reflecting on what this metaphor might mean in 2026.  What if a castle were our home? The National Trust realises we may succumb to the fantasy of living in a castle for a brief interlude.  Dr Helen Castor claims that Shakespeare's plays power our vision of medieval England and there's none better than 'Henry V' to summon patriotism.  By Victorian times castles had long since lost their original purpose as  stronghold and  fortification.
After long months of summer drought, 4th August brings the first audible rain to Cumbria. True rain gurgling in pipes about the house, filling water butts, running in gutters, revitalising refreshing rain.