Visit to Burnby Hall Garden and Museum, Pocklington

We had an enjoyable visit to Burnby Hall in Pocklington in the Yorkshire Wolds,   The gardens have been on my “to see” list for ages.  The museum houses hundreds of interesting exhibits, collected by the previous owner of Burnby Hall, Major Percy Stewart, during his travels to every continent in the early 1900s, often accompanied by his wife.

There was still plenty of colour at the end of the Summer plus other delightful touches, although I thought that some of the contemporary sculptures were rather out of place especially in the Victorian Garden.

 The Secret Garden opened out into this lovely open area with statue.

The Upper and Lower Lakes are home to a National Collection of over 100 varieties of Hardy Water Lily.

 The Hall is now used as council offices

 

 

The cafe didn’t offer much for vegetarians but I found this in the gift shop reduced from £2.95 to 50p – who else would want post-its with a Yiddish phrase!

While not my favourite garden, it is well worth seeing for the surprises which are revealed around every corner

A first for me

 

It may be no big deal to my writer friends, but this was my first appearance at a literary festival; the Headingley LitFest http://www.headingleylitfest.org.uk/


I was part of the Leeds Writers Read, represented by three local writing groups, and the theme for the festival was Survival. I had been nervous all day although I had plenty of experience of standing up in front of a whole school without batting an eyelid.  I really appreciated the support of my friends who  were in the audience.  The first writer read his excellent, emotive story about an asylum seeker beautifully and I wanted to go home.  I reasoned that, as my piece was non-fiction, it couldn't be easily compared.

My piece was entitled "The survival of the Yiddish language" and the audience seemed interested, laughed at the right places and some approached me later with positive comments.

Would I do it again?  Well, I'm a sucker for a challenge!