Author Archives: Claire Murray

Cruising in Europe

Last September we took a cruise on the Danube and the Rhine Rivers. We started off in Budapest, Hungary and finished in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The trip lasted two weeks and was lovely.

Living, eating, drinking and floating along was very relaxing. The boat stopped every day in a different city. Most of us got off and went with local guides to see the sights.

The excursions were very interesting. In the larger cities, the guides would first take us on a bus for an overview of the entire area. Then we would get off in the older parts of town and walk around. In the smaller towns, we were able to skip the bus part and walk right into town.

The guides were very well educated, spoke several languages and knew a lot of local history. They could easily talk about what life was like four or five hundred years for the people living there. They always shared lots of interesting details and usually a few jokes.

I started to wonder, as I had more and more of these experiences, why would such educated people be so happy and willing to work as guides? I don’t think they were paid very much. They were always very happy with the tips we gave them in Euros.

I kept turning this question over in my mind trying to think of a polite way to ask. Finally I found a solution. In the next town, as we were walking around, and I was looking down at the cobblestones so I wouldn’t trip, I started working my way up toward the front of the group.

I had to wait for the guide to stop talking. She knew so much and was so concerned that we learn every detail that she very rarely paused, even for a breath. She didn’t ever seem to be silent, even when we were making a difficult climb up a steep road to the castle at the top.

But, finally she did stop talking for a second. I sensed this was my big chance. So, before she could start in again, I started talking. I told her I enjoyed the tour, was learning so much, and was so impressed with how comfortable she was in English. Then I asked my question: Of all the jobs available, what was it about being a guide that made her choose this?

“Oh,” she confided, “there are no jobs…” Apparently most of these towns had no business or industry, other than that related to tourism. If they wanted to live there, they had to find work. Being a guide or working in the tourism industry were the only opportunities available.

In a few other towns, I asked the guides there the same question. They all said the same thing. Yes, the towns were beautiful, historic and they liked living there. But no, there were no other opportunities to use their language skills and university training.

Do you find this surprising?

Do You Agree?

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Customs and traditions are funny. What’s expected in one culture may not even be appropriate in another. I was wondering the other day, what are the consequences for someone who does what’s expected and feels cheated or breaks with tradition and goes their own way?

In the 1950s United States, if you were a girl, you were expected to grow up, marry and move out. It didn’t matter if you were the first-born or last or somewhere in between.

I recently read Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Toibin. Several weeks later I saw the movie. The story in both is about Eilis, 18 years old and living in a small town in Ireland. Her three brothers are away working in England, her father has died and her older sister, Rose, has a good job as a bookkeeper. Rose and Eilis live with their mother.

Normally in Ireland, since her father has died, Eilis, being the youngest, would be expected to live at home and take care of her mother or, if she married, she and her husband would either live with her mother or take her mother with them. Her fate was sealed the day she was born the youngest girl in the family.

Rose, being older, would be expected to marry and leave. But, in Brooklyn, she doesn’t. Not only doesn’t Rose move out, but when Father Flood, an Irish priest living in Brooklyn, comes back for a visit, she arranges with him for Eilis to go to America. He finds Eilis a place to stay and a job in a fashionable department store. Normally, it would be Rose who went to America.

Being part Irish, I know the traditions so I was surprised by this turn of events. I kept looking for a reason. Rose had a responsible job. She was earning a good salary as a bookkeeper and she would definitively do well in America. Why didn’t she arrange for herself to go?

Once Eilis arrives in America, she does well. She’s a success at the department store, is taking bookkeeping classes at night and has an Italian boyfriend who wants to marry her.

Rose dies one night in her sleep. It seemed somewhat mysterious until her doctor explains that she’d been seeing him for the last several years for a heart condition she had and she knew she didn’t have long to live.

When Eilis hears that Rose has died, she is filled with grief. She can’t make it back to Ireland in time for the funeral but tells her boyfriend she wants to go back for a visit. He is terrified that she won’t return and insists that they marry before a Justice of the Peace before she sails. They do and she leaves the next day.

Once back in Ireland, tradition kicks in. Her mother makes it clear that she expects Eilis to stay and take care of her. To help make this happen, her mother lets the owner of the company Rose worked for know that Eilis also knows bookkeeping and needs a job. He offers to hire her temporarily to try her out. Then her mother contacts Nancy, Eilis’ friend from before she left Ireland. Nancy’s fiancé has a friend, Jim Farrell, who quickly becomes romantically interested in Eilis.

When the three of them (mother, Eilis and Jim) attend Nancy’s wedding, Eilis’ mother is pleased with the way she’d been able to turn events in her favor and remarks to Eilis, “We’ve done well.”

Eilis is not so sure. She doesn’t have a close or warm relationship with her mother. In fact, her mother doesn’t seem particularly interested in Eilis and talks mostly about Rose.

Eilis has Tony back in America. She sees what her life would be like in Ireland and is not happy at the prospect.

This becomes a crisis. Eilis tells her mother she’s already married, he’s Italian and she’s returning to America. She doesn’t ask her mother to come with her, thus breaking the tradition.

Do you agree with her choice?

Tales From the Garden’ Part 3

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I drove out to the Chicago Botanic Garden early one sunny morning in June for my third summer. Where would they ask me to volunteer this time?

Mary, who ran the Volunteer Office at that time, thought I might enjoy being a docent in the English Walled Garden. It was a good choice. I always enjoyed that garden when I went there on my own. The English Walled Garden is a very calm, peaceful and beautiful place. I would go there frequently, sit on one of the benches, and soak in the atmosphere.

Entering the English Walled Garden, from the Chicago Botanic Garden

Going to the English Walled Garden is like stepping back into the past when life was slower and people had more time for things like gardening. It’s like walking through a small rural village in England and peeking into everyone’s front yard to see what colorful plants they have growing. It could be 2004 or 1904.

John Brookes, an English landscape architect, designed the English Walled Garden in 1971 and he comes back periodically to consult with the staff and update it. It’s composed of six garden “rooms” open to the sky: The Checkerboard Garden, Cottage Garden, Daisy Garden, Formal Garden, Pergola Garden and the Vista Garden. Each room is different but all make you feel like you’re in England.

The Checkerboard Garden, from the Chicago Botanic Garden

That summer, lots of visitors came to the English Walled Garden. I enjoyed meeting them and showing them around. We had some interesting conversations. Frequently they would tell me that they were growing, or had tried to grow, this or that plant and how much nicer it looked here. They wanted to know what we did so they could try our techniques when they returned home.

Many visitors said the English Walled Garden gave them new ideas for what plants to plant in their own gardens when they got home. A number came from other countries. They had heard about the English Walled Garden from friends of theirs who had traveled to Chicago. Some were repeat visitors. They said that they came to the Chicago Botanical Garden, and the English Walled Garden in particular, whenever they came to Chicago.

Talking with all the visitors and hearing these comments made this one of my happiest summers volunteering.

Tales From the Garden – Part 2

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I had such a good time volunteering at the Chicago Botanic Garden my first summer that I decided to go back the next year. This time I volunteered in the Fruit & Vegetable Garden. It was an entirely different experience.

All the Fruit & Vegetable volunteers, usually about four of us, would arrive early in the morning, before the garden officially opened, and meet in the Fruit & Vegetable Garden Office. The staff would tell us all about the plant we would be giving away that day. They would also prep us so we could answer basic questions about its care, use and how to cook it.

Then we’d go into the garden to the carts. One cart was parked just at the entrance to the Fruit & Vegetable Garden. The other was somewhere in the middle. One volunteer would staff each cart and the other two volunteers would walk through the garden greeting people and answering their questions. We’d change jobs every hour.

From the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Website www.chicagobotanic.org

The carts were made of wood and painted brown. There was plenty of room on the inside to keep all the plants we would be giving away that day. On the shelf at the top we would display a few plants to create interest. We’d also put our information sheets there. On one side, the sheet would tell all about the plant, its history and how to take care of it. On the other side, the sheet would have one or two recipes telling how to cook it.

I always tried to get the cart at the entrance. I met more people that way. I’d approach them as they entered the garden, saying, “Good morning! How are you?” Usually they’d respond back.

I’d continue, “Would you like a plant to take home today? They’re free and it’s a lot of fun growing them once they start producing peppers (tomatoes, basil, etc.). We also have a sheet that tells how to grow it and there are some recipes on the back.”

From the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Website
www.chicagobotanic.org

Most people said yes. Usually each person in the group wanted their own plant, especially the children. Sometimes people would stop and talk. They’d share how their gardens were coming along at home or how the last plant they’d gotten from us had done.

I always saw lots of smiles. Everyone likes to get something for free, especially when it’s something they can take home, grow for themselves and then actually eat.

The summer passed before I knew it and I had to go back to work. Next time I’ll tell you what I did my third summer at the Garden!

Tales from the Garden – Part 1

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I love gardening. I took it up many years ago when I had a high stress job and was looking for a way to relax. Several of my friends suggested Yoga. I took a class but never seemed to be able to really get into it. Fortunately I had summers off. One summer, I decided to volunteer at the Chicago Botanic Garden. That’s when I realized I’d found something wonderful.

From the Chicago Botanic Garden

I looked forward to driving out there one day a week and either working in the garden or showing people around.

The first year I worked as part of a team in the rose garden. I learned a lot about roses that summer. The Heirloom or Old Garden Roses were all introduced before 1867 and have a wonderful fragrance. But, usually they only bloom once a season. The Modern Roses, which came after, usually bloom continually from summer to the first frost, but they have no fragrance.

When the flowers die, you don’t just cut the dead ones off. You have to cut in just the right place so the plant will grow more buds and continue to have flowers.

It’s important to clean up the dead flowers that have fallen to the ground and other debris. Roses can get infected with various diseases. It’s important to keep them healthy.

It’s also necessary to choose the correct rose for the climate you’re living in. In Illinois and Michigan, we need roses that are winter hardy. That means they can survive the cold and ice and snow and return in the spring ready to bloom again.

Roses need sun and lots of it. So it’s essential to find a place that gets six hours of direct sun a day. It’s even better if it’s morning sun.

From the Chicago Botanic Garden

I learned many other things about roses that summer. But, most important, every time I started driving out to the Chicago Botanic Garden, I felt myself start to relax. I felt all my tension and stress start to dissolve and float away and realized I was smiling.

Next time I’ll tell you what happened the second summer I volunteered.

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