Can I be the only National Trust visitor who imagines “If I lived here……” as we wander around the larger than life houses and gardens? So when Andy, the Head Gardener at Uppark House, invited us for a “Behind the Scenes” look in the weeks leading up to the house opening to the rest of the general public we jumped at the opportunity. Especially keen gardener, allotment holder and enthusiastic pruner TDO (our family blog shorthand for The Daddy One) who had yet to visit Uppark. We have home educators National Trust Membership which is valid week days in term-time only and TDO often has Fridays off work; Uppark is currently closed on a Friday so consequently we simply hadn’t made it happen.
We have collaborated with Andy before on this post “Home Educators at Uppark” in which Orin, who is 4 now, remembered about the amazing water at Uppark and in the Autumn when Sapphire and Etienne, now 9 and 7, road tested the Halloween trail.
TDO, Etienne and Orin were really impressed with Andy’s super-tidy, well organised tool shed and also his giant solar panel. We have a small solar panel at our allotment which powers a small pump that feeds our irrigation system and a greenhouse heater. Similar principal, different scale so it was great for the Trio to see a more ambitious project in action.
Sapphire was keen to show TDO the grids covering the underground service tunnels and I talked to Andy about how, during a recent Aliens exhibition featuring War of the Worlds at the Lightbox in Woking, we had remembered the H G Wells / Uppark connection and how, as home educators, not following a subject/pigeon-hole curriculum gives us the opportunities to make such connections.
As we rounded the corner Etienne remembered the fun we had playing cricket last summer both with his grandparents, who are also big fans of the delicious crystal clear water at Uppark, and some of our home ed friends and so headed straight for the green box containing the bats and stumps and, for the first time since last year, in the lifting mist, we played outside.
Andy asked the trio if they could guess how the grass had been kept short during winter and eventually Sapphire guessed it was sheep who had munched away at it.
Before we left this morning I did ponder whether to go with wellies or regular boots but incredibly, almost certainly thanks to the free draining chalk soil, Uppark is amazingly unmuddy in comparison to other places we have visited recently. Some of our local nature walks are still under water.
Andy left us to enjoy our lunch then, from the wind break of the Gothic temple, we started doing some sketching, something that regular viewers of our family blog will know we have been doing more of recently. Whilst looking for some pheasants Sapphire saw her first butterfly of the year. TDO enjoyed the way the garden had been shaped to frame the beautiful vistas.
In the sunshine today felt full of growth and promise. We were afforded the rare chance to see the snowdrops which will probably be past their prime when the house reopens on March 16th.
Very special memories.
Uppark Garden 