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Holker Hall Gardens

30/7/2020

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 An outing to Holker Hall Garde3ns!  A scenic drive through landscapes I've known this millenium, but  out of reach this spring and summer, until today.  A first visit to these lovely gardens, and so  memorable. 
Herbacerous borders are fragrant and drenched with raindrops.  Fragrances of exotic and unfamiliar flowers. Then the morning brightens and the sun appears, bringing forth butterflies that flutter over the border of delicate flowers about the lawns.  


From the formal gardens we stroll beyond, into the hay meadows whose flora is familiar to me. There is abundant yellow rattle whose presence ensures a diverse flora.  Flowers of yellow rattle and the seed pods for which it is named.
The intense blues and purples of the flower bed are delightful and their nectar attracts bees and butterflies: tortoiseshell, small white, meadow brown and red admiral.  
We explore  a woodland way with exotic trees and ferns I do not know, and native butterflies I'm familiar with.
Holker Hall Gardens is a lovely day out. Comfortable to observe social-distancing easily.   It is welcoming and  well- prepared for the constraints of summer 2020.  We had booked to come today, a timed entrance. And  such extensive gardens are perfect.   As a garden visit it felt the same, and not the same.  A measure of the success of management to make everything feel safe and comfortable.  
BBC is currently showing Jane Austen's Emma, starring Romola Garai and Jonny lee Miller.  An excellent production.  ' I don't want to travel, Highbury has all I need,' says Emma.   Looking from Miss Bates' window, the life of the community is revealed in all its lively detail.   Family and community is at the heart of this novel and the care and  mutual support we all give each other.  A novel for our times.  
Austen wrote her novel Emma at Chawton, Hampshire in the early 19th century.  The naturalist Gilbert White wrote The Natural History of Selborne in the late 18th century.  He spent his life in Selborne and wrote and in-depth study of its natural history. Insight,  in-depth study and detailed knowledge makes A History of Selborne remarkable. 
Earlier this week, the naturalist John Aitcheson broadcast from his home on the west coast of Scotland. He observed that spring and summer, (with lock-down and travel-restrictions) has given him the unique opportunity to follow in detail the day to day changes that the seasons bring. 
I've had a similar experience, being focused on Scout Scar.   It has been, it is, a unique opportunity to engage with the wildlife of the place and the people to whom it is precious. 
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    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books)

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