Arundel Castle Gardens
April 3 2022
This garden was my first of the year in 2022. Looking back through the photos made me realise how I’d missed having the time to do this, meander through a garden enjoying the sights, sounds, smells, taking photos….September 2021 through March 2022 was an extremely busy time for me doing a college diploma in massage. Physically going to class took a relatively minor five hours a week, but the work done outside of class - case studies, research papers, and study for the anatomy and physiology exam - was much more time-consuming than I had been prepared for. In the weeks up to the exam, I studied in the mornings before work, on my lunch break, in the evenings, and listened to related podcasts on the way to and from work.
This spring I had been considering whether to go back for reflexology in the autumn, as much of the theory, research and exam did not have to be done again - but the 100 hours of case study gave me pause. Looking through these photos made me realise how much I was missing just having time to breathe.
This was the first weekend of April and still somewhat chilly. In fact on arrival in London my brother and sister-in-law were greeting with flakes of snow! Down south we didn’t get any, and enjoyed a gorgeously sunny day at the Chichester Open Air Museum, following by a very pleasant Sunday afternoon visit to Arundel Castle Gardens. We’d been to Arundel many times but never actually into the gardens - they were a somewhat surprising mixture.
My favourite section was like a little valley running alongside the castle itself, flowering cherries soft against the towering stone walls and surrounded by many varieties of narcissi. Had we had more time to spend, I’d have spent happily spent it sitting here, tucked up in some quiet spot with a view of the cherry blossom. These photos don’t really capture the immensity of this space, which climbed up to a flat area opposite the cathedral, surrounded by its own walls.
Through the walls was a surprising exuberance, plentiful pots of tulips and water features with odd wooden carvings, gilding, palm trees. I can imagine that strong sunbeams lighting the gold and splashing water would have made this portion of the garden a thing of magical whimsy. Unfortunately without the right lighting it felt slightly foolish, like a somewhat embarrassingly loud friend. Perhaps its best advantage would be shown when lit by flickering fire and hosting an evening party, filled with men and women elegantly dressed meeting friends or enemies around each new corner, delicate music playing over the trickle of water, the clink of glasses, the aroma of food. Perhaps I cannot blame this section for not displaying its best to the camera encumbered tourist crowd of which we were a part, aimlessly wandering, taking selfies, pointing, exclaiming.
I felt more unmixedly pleased with the section where strong angles of box and beech mirror the cathedral opposite. Like the valley section with its blossom softening the austere walls and towers of the castle, this weight and gravity in the edifice dominating the garden seemed appropriately balanced by the planting and its combination of colour and geometry.
