It's a Saturday morning, and I am eager to fly away.My husband and I will meet up with our son on the other side of the country to learn and explore together.Sitting now at the airport gate,my husband wanders away to stretch his legs.Moments later,he returns and whispers in my ear.I rise and follow him around the comer toward a large window facing the landing area.

    On the road, Marines stand straight and the plane door is open.A white hearse(灵车）is parked nearby.A man and a soldier stand on either side of a woman,supporting her and waiting for what is to come.Airport personnel stand in reverent stillness.A few people place their hands over their hearts,as I have done.We're joined in witness,sending respect to an honorable soldier whose name we'll never know.

    The woman looks heartbroken. She cries, knowing she will never hear "Mom”from her son. She'll never feel his tender embrace or enjoy his sweet peck on her cheeks.Another man's face is twisted because of the grief.His son,the tiny boy he no doubt wrestled playfully,the teen he probably taught to drive,and the son he stood so proudly by,now lives only in his memory.

    Those behind the glass stay silent, reflecting on this loss, as the family and soldiers leave.Some of us women, with sorrowful expressions, move slowly away, sharing a mother's profound grief .Soon,each of us will fly off in planes and return to an ordinary life made extraordinary by this soldier's courage，by this family's sacrifice and by this love shared by all that look out of the window.

    Welcome to Holker Hall & Gardens

    Visitor Information

    How to Get to Holker

By Car: Follow brown signs on A590 from J36, M6. Approximate travel times: Windermere—--20 minutes, Kendal—--25 minutes, Lancaster—-45 minutes, Manchester—--1 hour 30 minutes.

    By Rail: The nearest station is Cark-in-Carmel with trains to Carnforth, Lancaster and Preston for connections to major cities & airports.

    Opening Times

Sunday—Friday (closed on Saturday) 11:00am —4:00pm, 30^th March –2^nd November.

    Admission Charges

    Hall & Gardens   Gardens

    Adults:  £ 12.00    £ 8.00

    Groups  £9.00    £5.50

    Special Events

    Producers' Market 13^th April

    Join us to taste a variety of fresh local food and drinks. Meet the producers and get some excellent recipe ideas.

    Holker Garden Festival 30^th May

    The event celebrates its 22^nd anniversary with a great show of the very best of gardening, making it one of the most popular events in gardening.

    National Garden Day 28^th August

    Holker once again opens its gardens in aid of the disadvantaged. For just a small donation you can take a tour with our garden guide.

    Winter Market 8^th November

    This is an event for all the family. Wander among a variety of shops selling gifts while enjoying a live music show and nice street entertainment.

    China is a country of many resources. Among its resources are many great rivers, which provide useful transport routes. Water transport is an efficient way to carry heavy loads, such as grain. In ancient times, a waterway was needed between China's rich farmlands and the capital city. This need inspired engineers to build a canal. According to writings by the ancient thinker Confucius, work on a canal linking the Yangtze River with the city of Huai-in began about 486 B.C. For many centuries afterward, Chinese emperors worked on extending this ancient canal.

    This canal is now known as China's Grand Canal. One thousand years after the original canal was begun, it was in extreme need of repair. This was in the year 607, during the Sui Dynasty. By 610 the emperor had had the canal extended. The Grand Canal formed a northeast-southwest link between the Yellow River in the north and the Huai River in the south. The canal remained the main waterway in this part of China for the next five hundred years.

    In the thirteenth century, the Mongols had conquered China. The Yuan Dynasty established Beijing as the capital. The city's growing population needed food, so a new canal was built to extend shipping. Building this part of the Grand Canal required enormous effort and cost. Neither the first attempt nor the second one was successful, so the builders chose another route. Finally this link in the Grand Canal was finished.

    By the time of the Ming Dynasty, the Grand Canal had six sections. These were busy with goods until the nineteenth century. Then a series of severe floods struck China. Parts of the Grand Canal were badly damaged. By 1868 it had been largely abandoned as a means of northern route.

    The Grand Canal was mostly restored in the twentieth century. It was widened and deepened, and a new section was constructed. Today the canal, which is about 1,200 miles in length, has new locks(运河的水闸). It is busy with ships and barges(驳船) carrying goods to and from cities along its banks.

    Why YOUR keyless car could be gone in 23 seconds: It's a crime wave reaching high proportions and the gadgets(小装置) used to hack into your car and steal it are being sold to thieves by High Street locksmiths.

    Car thieves are using high-tech gadgets to break into and steal cars in seconds. One thief stands by a house to pick up a signal from a car key using a relay. The relay broadcasts the signal to the car, where a second thief opens the door. The scheme, which does not involve breaking windows, steals cars in seconds.

    Thousands of cars across Britain are at risk of a new form of high-tech theft which allows thieves to fool bypass the security systems in keyless cars using a relay system to boost the signal. So-called 'relay' theft occurs when two thieves work together to break into keyless cars. They use equipment to capture electro-magnetic signals emitted by key fobs. Any vehicle with keyless entry could be easily stolen. These include cars from BMW, Ford, Audi, Land Rover, Volkswagen and Mercedes.

SHARK CONSERVATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

Take a two-week trip that you will never forget as a volunteer with sharks on a beautiful stretch of South Africa's coastline. Head out to sea to witness one of the world's most powerful (and most misunderstood) creatures on this inspiring project, enjoying watching them from both above and below water.

The DAY-BY-DAY schedule

Day 1: Arrive in Cape Town on a Sunday. You will be collected from the airport and spend your first night in a guest house in the city centre.

Day 2: You will be collected bright and early from the guest house and taken down to the project. The drive takes about 90 minutes. You will receive a welcome and head out to sea to witness your first sharks!

Day 3: Most days you will be out on the boat with the sharks, depending on weather. Help out with the full range of tasks on the boats, and in conservation initiatives on land too.

Last day: On the final day of your project you will be taken back to Cape Town for your onward travel.

The price is £ 829, including the voluntary work programme with accommodations, airport transfers, one night in a guest house in Cape Town, breakfasts daily and lunches when on the boats. Your trip can be extended at a cost of £ 375 per week.

It is an amazing experience! Some volunteers planned to stay for 4 weeks, extended to 6 weeks and still didn't want to come home. If you'd like to chat about this holiday or need help, we're very happy to help.

Call us at 01273 823 700.

Email us at rosy@responsibletravel.com.

The hens look up at me from their nesting boxes. They seem slightly annoyed but unsurprised. A child runs up, pushes one of the chickens aside, and snatches two eggs. Around me, a half-dozen more children and adults collect eggs while a half-dozen others hand-feed dried mealworms to birds flocking around our ankles. I reach for an egg from an empty nest. There is something perfect about the way it fits warmly in the palm of my hand before I transfer it into a pretty wire basket provided to me by my hosts. 

The egg harvest is a brief, carefully designed agritourism experience offering an experience of the labor rather than just having a bite of food. Snatching a few eggs and uprooting a few vegetables on the farm tour donˈt constitute a full dayˈs work, but it is also a useful reminder that food doesnˈt just magically appear on restaurant plates and grocery store shelves. Of course, visitors can take those eggs home or bring them to the on-farm restaurant, Clay, where a chef will use them to prepare breakfast. 

A few centuries of industrialization, urbanization, and globalization have collected people into cities, but the attraction of the countryside has always remained. In the new urban-centered world, enterprising farmers have found plenty of opportunities to sell their rural lifestyle along with their crops. Italy promoted the modern model for combining agriculture and tourism in the wake of World War Ⅱ, when the national government encouraged rural populations to continue producing food rather than move to urban areas in search of more profitable jobs. 

Agritourism acts as an umbrella term for a wide variety of activities that take place on farms, including farmstays, where guests sleep on-site. For varying investments of time, energy, and money, anyone can engage in our farming system, giving consumers a peek behind the farm-to-table world.