My favorite childhood read, and one that I read over and over, was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I must have been about ten years old when I read it for the first time and fell in love with the story of Mary Lennox, her cousin Colin, and their friend Dickon. This book inspired my passionate interest in the Yorkshire moors, although it would be many decades before I would finally see the moors myself.

The moors. Yorkshire. 2010.

I suspect that this book had something to do, too, with my admiration for England and its gardens, and with my love of gardens and gardening.

My secret garden.