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Discussion » Questions » Home and Garden » What's in your Secret Garden?

What's in your Secret Garden?

Posted - July 24, 2017

Responses


  • 7939
    Well, poop. The only thing that came to mind was the lyrics to this song, and then I got here and you already had the song. I'm posting them anyway. :p

    ... a secret garden
    Where everything you want
    Where everything you need
    Will always stay
    A million miles away
      July 24, 2017 8:20 PM MDT
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  • 7126
    That's okay. I love the song.
      July 24, 2017 8:21 PM MDT
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  • 46117
    Did you read that book as a kid?  It was one of my very favorite stories.

    I loved the descriptions of the garden.   I loved the whole story.

      July 24, 2017 8:23 PM MDT
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  • 7126
    Duh, dopey me didn't even think of it when I asked the question. But yes, it was a wonderful book!  
      July 24, 2017 8:24 PM MDT
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  • 46117
    You didn't let me finish the answer. That's okay, now you have more.

    The Secret Garden is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published as a book in 1911, after a version was published as an American magazine serial beginning in 1910. Set in England, it is one of Burnett's most popular novels and is considered a classic of English children's literature. Several stage and film adaptations have been made.

    The American edition was published by Stokes with illustrations by Maria Louise Kirk (signed as M. L. Kirk) and the British edition by Heinemann with illustrations by Charles Heath Robinson.[1][3]


    Plot summary

    At the turn of the 20th century, Mary Lennox is a sickly and unloved 10-year-old girl, born in India to wealthy British parents who never wanted her. She is cared for by servants, who allow her to become a spoiled, aggressive and selfish child.

    After a cholera epidemic kills her parents and the servants, Mary is discovered alive but alone in the empty house. She briefly lives with an English clergyman and his family before she is sent to Yorkshire, in England, to live with Archibald Craven, an uncle whom she has never met, at his isolated house, Misselthwaite Manor.

    At first, Mary is as rude and sour as ever. She dislikes her new home, the people living in it, and most of all, the bleak moor on which it sits. However, a good-natured maid named Martha Sowerby tells Mary about the late Mrs Craven, who would spend hours in a private walled garden growing roses. Mrs Craven died after an accident in the garden, and the devastated Mr Craven locked the garden and buried the key. Mary becomes interested in finding the secret garden herself, and her ill manners begin to soften as a result. Soon she comes to enjoy the company of Martha, the gardener Ben Weatherstaff, and a friendly robin redbreast. Her health and attitude improve, and she grows stronger as she explores the moor and plays with a skipping rope that Mrs Sowerby buys for her. Mary wonders about both the secret garden and the mysterious cries that echo through the house at night.

    As Mary explores the gardens, her robin draws her attention to an area of disturbed soil. Here Mary finds the key to the locked garden and eventually the door to the garden itself. She asks Martha for garden tools, which Martha sends with Dickon, her 12-year-old brother. Mary and Dickon take a liking to each other, as Dickon has a kind way with animals and a good nature. Eager to absorb his gardening knowledge, Mary tells him about the secret garden.

    One night, Mary hears the cries once more and decides to follow them through the house. She finds a boy named Colin living in a hidden bedroom. She soon discovers that they are cousins, Colin being the son of Mr and Mrs Craven, and that he suffers from an unspecified spinal problem. Mary visits him every day that week, distracting him from his troubles with stories of the moor, Dickon and his animals, and the secret garden. Mary finally confides that she has access to the secret garden, and Colin asks to see it. Colin is put into his wheelchair and brought outside into the secret garden. It is the first time he has been outdoors for years.

    While in the garden, the children are surprised to see Ben Weatherstaff looking over the wall on a ladder. Startled and angry to find the children in the secret garden, he admits that he believed Colin to be a cripple. Colin stands up from his chair and finds that his legs are fine, though weak from long disuse. Colin soon spends every day in the garden, sometimes with Dickon as company. The children conspire to keep Colin's recovering health a secret, so as to surprise his father, who is travelling abroad. As Colin's health improves, his father sees a coinciding increase in spirits, culminating in a dream where his late wife calls to him from inside the garden. When he receives a letter from Mrs Sowerby, he takes the opportunity finally to return home. He walks the outer garden wall in his wife's memory, but hears voices inside, finds the door unlocked, and is shocked to see the garden in full bloom, and his son healthy. The servants watch, stunned, as Mr Craven and Colin walk back to the manor together.
      July 24, 2017 8:25 PM MDT
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  • 7126
    Lol.... thanks. Is this what Harry means by overposting?   ;-)
      July 24, 2017 9:10 PM MDT
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  • 46117
    No.  It was just a bunch of hot men pictures.  I guess Harry was hoping for canines.  I can do some hot canines.

    But the thing I sent you?   I didn't even read that.  I mean it is just for a quick scan.  I'm not nuts enough to seriously think anyone would read half of these.   But they are like quick footnotes.
      July 24, 2017 9:11 PM MDT
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  • 7126
    They're great. I'm just f-ing with ya.   ;-)
      July 24, 2017 9:40 PM MDT
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  • 6124
    There was a whole bunch of yammering in between all those pictures.  Oh, and yeah, Wilford Brimley is hot. *insert sarcastic face here*  Sheesh.  Girl you need to get out more.


      July 24, 2017 9:42 PM MDT
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  • 7126
      July 24, 2017 9:44 PM MDT
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  • 6124
    I have two words for you and they ain't Merry Christmas.
      July 24, 2017 9:46 PM MDT
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  • 46117
    SO, Just Asking said you wanted the next question?  Please say yes.  It is painless.

      July 24, 2017 9:48 PM MDT
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  • 7126
    I know! I know! EP! EP!  


    Do I win?
      July 24, 2017 9:48 PM MDT
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  • 6124
    I don't know why I decided to show up tonight.  *sigh*
      July 24, 2017 9:50 PM MDT
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  • 7126
      July 24, 2017 9:54 PM MDT
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  • 6124
    Remind me why I like you so much.  I can't f*cking remember.  
      July 24, 2017 9:55 PM MDT
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  • 46117
    Now you are getting my dander up.   That was a funny pastiche and the Wilford Brumley guy was a total joke.   I get out.  I am out.  I really am out there.

      July 24, 2017 9:46 PM MDT
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  • 6124
    Yes dear.  You are out there.
      July 24, 2017 9:47 PM MDT
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  • 22891
    dont have one
      July 25, 2017 2:44 PM MDT
    0