Sprachreisen Cornwall. Erkunden Sie die Landschaft Cornwalls.
For those of you who have already studied with us, you might have remembered my interest (and obsession) with Philip Larkin. If you remember, then it’s likely that we studied his poem ‘The Trees’. With each coming spring the poem is on my mind. I watch the hedgerows hopefully for the first new buds of hawthorn and blackthorn. Soon these trees will produce an incredible display of blossom, and will light the hedgerows around Wheal Kitty, and the St Agnes environs in general.
Larkin loved trees, if that poem is anything to go by. Although often considered a miserable man by many, he had an abiding and deep love for the natural world, and for gardens in particular. For instance, he loved the ‘The Secret Garden’ a children’s novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. His long time partner, Monica Jones, recommended it to him, and on finishing it he wrote to Monica:
“Well I thought it astonishingly good. I can’t imagine how I’ve never come across it before… If it has any message, it’s surely that – well, I can’t put it into in a sentence, but it’s that life is strong and joyful enough to push up & overturn the strongest and heaviest morbid fancies and fears: it calls on everyone to put aside distrusts and shrinking-back, and live to the utmost while life is for the having.”
Secret gardens are very much the topic of this post, and especially their potential to help us ‘put aside distrusts…and live to the utmost while life is for the having.’
Although no secret, Cornwall is home to many gardens: private, public, subtropical, formal, Elizabethan, futuristic, and often – just plain magical. Mild Cornish summers and the warm Gulf Stream form the Atlantic make some of these gardens quite unexpected in their plant and tree populations. This unexpected quality is my interest here too. It is my absolute pleasure to guide my clients around the host of gardens in Cornwall.
In January, we were visited by Sabina from Italy. On an unusually dry Wednesday in January, we travelled to Trebah Gardens on the south coast. We were both in need of some proper Vitamin D as it had been the wettest January in living memory. This trip, and our discovery of Trebah – this Cornish secret garden, was entirely enchanting.
Trebah gardens follows a similar trajectory as many other gardens on the south coast of Cornwall, such as the Lost Gardens of Heligan, Glendurgan or Trelissick. The manor house sits at the top of the hill, and the gardens project downwards and are seemingly pulled towards the river estuary or the sea.
Whilst we waited for the morning sun to climb, Sabina and I drank coffee in the coffee shop, and we talked about the intelligence of plants and trees. Sabina explained that since trees and plants are bound to their contexts – literally rooted – they must always adapt to their conditions. I felt so lucky to be in Sabina’s company – as a landscape architect and horticulturalist – she knew her stuff, and she’s such a fantastic teacher too.
Since we welcome clients from all over Europe, and from a such a wide field of experience and careers, our teaching team is constantly learning too. I think that actually this is the secret to shared language and cultural experience. Learning is a two process. Certainly it’s our job to facilitate more confidence and improved English language ability in our clients, but we learn so much from them. Our conversations range from art, culture, economics, sustainability, films, literature, often music, sometimes even politics makes an appearance, and almost always we talk about the beauty of the natural world: the landscape, the flora, the fauna, and the wildlife. We are always stimulated by each other’s ideas.
The gunnera (giant rhubarb) is particularly widespread in Cornwall, but at Trebah – that is taken to a whole new level. Of course in January, only the root is alive and the leaves have all but died away, creating a kind of prehistoric landscape. The tree ferns of Trebah are also incredible – shipped over on fast Falmouth cutters form the Americas some 300 years before, they tower above other trees. For a fleeting moment, you would be forgiven for thinking you are on the film set of yet another Jurassic Park sequel. Beyond the gunneras there is a lake and a little bridge (the like of which you would find in any number of Monet’s paintings). And beyond that Yankee Beach – the last land some of the US soldiers saw when they embarked for the Normandy beaches in 1944.
As we walked around the garden, Sabina and I stopped here and then to talk about a plant or a tree and above us the array of birds native to that part of Cornwall whistled and called – there were heron, woodpecker, nuthatch, wren and of course the faithful robin – they were all the soundtrack to our afternoon escape.
At Skool, we count ourselves very privileged to be in the position to offer our courses, whether it is an English with Walking course, or an English with Arts and Culture course. We find ourselves often in the position of being changed by the experience of walking and talking, particularly when we are accompanying likeminded and positive individuals, who, as Larkin put it: “put aside distrusts and shrinking-back, and live to the utmost while life is for the having.”
If joining us on our secret garden adventures sounds like something you would be interested in, then do get in touch. Our English with Arts and Culture course might be just the thing. Contact us on [email protected], and we’ll do everything we can to make that happen.
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