Cambridge University Botanic Gardens – A Day of Remembrance

I had booked a day's holiday today in order to spend time with my sisters in remembrance of our dear mother. We decided to do something very different. We knew that if we headed for the coast, we would become upset and our mother would not have wanted that. Mother loved her flowers and visiting gardens, and although she had never visited the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge, I dearly wished she had. So it was here, where we decided to spend our day.

A few days ago, I picked all the Victoria Plums I could reach from the tree in our family garden at Holme and then last night I made a plum crumble, as a surprise for my sisters today. This will be the last time we have plums from this tree, which has been in the centre of the garden by the greenhouse, since we were tiny children. Happy childhood memories of our Grandad Charlie (mother's adoptive father) knocking the plums from this tree with his walking stick for us to collect!

Lucy and I caught the train to Cambridge and Vivien joined us on the train at Ely. The gardens are only a short 5 minute walk from the station and for those of you who haven't been, they are well worth a visit. It costs £6 for adults and is free for children under 16. I have been a couple of times before, but it was many, many years ago with Lucy. When we last visited there was only a small tea shop within the gardens – now there is a very large and modern tea shop with seating inside and out and it is beautifully laid out. There is also a shop with the usual trinkets and gifts in by the main entrance. No dogs are allowed, apart from guide dogs, so it was a peaceful and beautiful day. The park was very busy, especially with families. The gardens are very children orientated with lots of features etc to keep them enthralled. There are over 8,000 species of plants in the Botanic Gardens! There are many seats too, including some hidden away in secretive little corners.

We spent our day meandering around these beautiful gardens, sitting, thinking, chatting and dozing by the beautiful lake. You can walk over some huge stepping stones across a corner of the lake, where we saw a few Mallard and a Moorhen, but there was sadly a distinct lack of common birds here. When I last visited, I saw many species here, including a Spotted Flycatcher! I didn't see any typical garden birds at all, no blackbirds or thrushes, no robins or any small birds! I needn't have brought my binoculars with me! We saw a Painted Lady, Small Tortoiseshell, Damselflies, a Migrant Hawker and Emperor Dragonfly and lots of Bees and Hover Flies.

There were so many flowers that reminded us of our mother, so many she had in her garden at Holme, both in the past and present. In the vegetable garden we found some 'Everlasting Flowers' – I had forgotten about these, memories came flooding back of a large border of these in our family garden, that my father used to pick and take to our Great Auntie Ile who lived in Hunstanton. There is a beautiful water fountain feature in the centre of the gardens surrounded by seats – an idyllic little spot to sit and ponder. The garden is a wonderful and tranquil oasis of colour. There are tropical glasshouses full of exotic cacti and all sorts of weird and wonderful plants – obviously very hot in these, so we couldn't spend as much time in here as we would have liked. There are many types of garden sections, too many to list, but I particularly like the Bog Garden, Bee Borders, Dry Garden, Dry Meadow, Fen Display, Glasshouse Range, The Stream Garden and the Scented Garden.

It was in these gardens that the Met Office confirmed 38.7 degree C recording, taken in the garden on 25th July 2019. It is the highest ever temperature officially recorded in the UK.

You can easily spend all day here and we did! We found a charismatic, but sad looking ginger tabby cat, snoozing on one of the many picnic tables in the garden, but it was very unkempt, so presumably wild. It was in this little spot that we sat and ate my home-made Plum Crumble with Alpro soya cream, which Lucy and Vivien both enjoyed. The only mistake we made today, was catching the 5.38pm train home – it was rush hour and we had to stand with many other people, all the way to Downham Market. Vivien left us to get off at Ely station and we continued our journey back to King's Lynn. Lucy and I then walked back to where I had left my car and we all returned to our homes. A very peaceful and therapeutic day and quality time spent with my sisters.