Making Mary Lennox Smile

All you need is the key.

"If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

 One of my favorite books as a child (and probably of all time) is The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. At the entrance to The Regent’s Park today, I was greeted by an iron gate with an old-looking lock, and I couldn’t help but think back on the story. The gardens were beautiful with an explosion of color and texture and an array of flowers. The park seemed to stretch on forever with several fountains guiding the way. There was a variety of wildlife in the gardens as well. The pigeons that seem to be everywhere in London also take up residence in the park, as well as some very social squirrels. I knelt down to take a picture of one and to my surprise, he scampered right up to me. Lauren broke out a granola bar and we took turns feeding him. I’m sure it was a perfectly safe thing to do.

See? Perfectly Safe. I love his little paws grabbing my fingers.

Flowers through the water.















My favorite part of the park is definitely Queen Mary’s Gardens. All of the times I’ve thought about the quintessential “English Garden” (and I’ve thought about it a lot, don’t judge me), this is the image I’ve always had in my head. Roses! Oh the roses! Queen Mary’s Garden has 85 single variety beds on display with approximately 12,000 roses. Surrounding the rose beds were wooden benches under trellises. These trellises were all connected by ropes that had long grown with moss and climbing flowers. Did I mention it smelled amazing? Roses are my favorite flower, and I love the way they smell. I’ve smelled a lot of “rose scented” items, but nothing, I mean NOTHING compares to walking through these gardens and smelling the real thing.

ROSES!!!

Who WOULDN'T want to read here!?

Walking through these gardens felt like stepping inside the pages of The Secret Garden. It really was a nostalgic experience. I knew I loved that book, even though it’s been ages since I read it. I wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction, but that’s what a good book does to you, it sticks with you even when you don’t realize it. Being in the gardens today, all I want to do is find the nearest bookstore, buy a new copy, and take it to the park to read on one of those wooden benches. I may try to do that if I can squeeze it in. I think Mary, Dickon and Colin would approve.