Tatton Park, Roald Dahl and dream jars

A few  months ago  we visited RHS Harlow Carr gardens and came across the BFG  in the woods. He was moving to Tatton Park for the flower show it said on the information board. Well we didn't go to the flower show so we didn't see him again.  There was a trail for children in the woods and something about bottling dreams which intrigued me. At this point I have to say that I had never read The BFG and if you have then you will know more about it than I did at the time.

The BFG at Harlow Carr

Later on in July I had a message from my daughter who lives in the south of England (We live in the North).  They were taking their children into London to follow a dream jar trail ( all connected to Roald Dahl and the BFG). She informed me that one of the dream jars was to be found at Tatton Park. I wanted to know more, so my other daughter (up here in the north) and children decided that in the school summer holidays we would take ourselves off to Tatton Park to find this dream jar. I was quite excited, not only were we visiting a garden, which is something I love to do, but I was going to find out more about these dream things.

Tatton Park is a really big place, there is so much to see. It is set in 1,000 acres of parkland. There is a working farm with rare breed animals, the Mansion, The Old Hall, the Gardens, shops and places to eat. We couldn't see all of that in one day, so we just visited the gardens. There are 50 acres of garden divided up into different areas, so that took us quite some time to look around. In fact I don't think we managed to cover the whole of the gardens in the day.  One of the areas we did see was the Japanese garden--we weren't allowed into this but could view from the outside--it was a very peaceful  place.

Japanese garden

 We also saw the walled kitchen garden, the topiary, the rose garden. We went through the maze and for a brief moment thought we'd lost the children!

There have been lots of Roald Dahl events going on at Tatton Park  through the year to celebrate his centenary.  Around the gardens was a Roald Dahl Trail with lots of  things  relating to Roald Dahl's books. We didn't always know what they were but sometimes we could guess which book they were from.

We saw a giant chocolate bar and the 10 year old spotted an upside down house. He said he had only read one Roald Dahl book but he seemed to know a lot about the other books. The 12 year old said she didn't like Roald Dahl books. I found that hard to believe, I was getting more interested by the minute and wanted to read some of these books myself.

upside down house

We found the dream jar at the entrance to the gardens. Further on through the gardens, in the woods there was a scene from 'the Twits' with washing hanging on a line, and we came across an old pram in the woods--I'm not sure where the pram fits in to all this.

dream jar

But the best thing of all for me was the fernery. I love ferneries, and this one was especially good, with lots of green foliage, ferns of course and water dripping everywhere. The first thing we saw as we entered was a load of snozzcumbers.

snozzcumbers

At the time I didn't know what a snozzcumber was but it looked quite revolting. If you don't know what a snozzcumber is then read the BFG. Moving through the fernery we spotted lots of other things which were obviously  from Roald Dahl books. And finally there he was--the BFG, hiding in the greenery, almost as tall as the highest tree fern.

The BFG

And amongst the tall ferns high up was a tree with little dream jars hanging from it. I loved it, but what were these dream jars all about I wondered? I had yet to find out.

dream jar tree

We had great fun at Tatton Park,  the gardens are worth visiting anytime, but if you want to see any of the Roald Dahl events check out the website here http://www.tattonpark.org.uk/roald-dahl/events.aspx

The secret of the dream jars has been revealed because I bought myself a copy of The BFG in the shop before we left. If you want to know more, read the book or watch the film.

“Dreams,” he said, “Is very mysterious things. They is floating around in the air like little wispy-misty bubbles. And all the time they is searching for sleeping people.” (The BFG)