A Referendum, a Wedding and a Garden!

Xenophobic graffiti post-Brexit
[I remember the marvellous Polish airmen who fought for Britain in WW2]

A rather splendid few days in many ways threaded through with absolute despair at the result of the Brexit referendum. In spite of a beauteous garden and a low key wedding to visit at the weekend, the overwhelming sense of doom and bereavement have persisted. Disbelief, early Friday morning, with the helpless sensation of a veritable house of cards about to tumble down with no power to stop it or

mitigate against its worst effects. The awful realisation of the huge divide in the UK; the less educated, poorer, low paid, obsessed with EU 'regulation'  and UK supposed loss of sovereignty, plus huge fears over immigration, all confirmed to them by the right wing media and the Leave leaders' right wing ideology. This enormous part of the population feels dispossessed, ignored, overlooked and angry. Opposing views from Remainers came from Scotland, London [the financial powerhouse of the nation] and more affluent, educated pockets. As usual in the UK it is a class thing involving inevitably, income, education and culture. But perhaps more noticeably than usual, the old were ranged against the young in the saddest aspect of the whole exercise.

It is only Tuesday June 28, but already the UK has lost an A rating meaning more expensive Government borrowing, leading to more cuts in benefits, or more taxes or both, value of sterling has dropped; large international firms are talking of moving out; three banks have lost over a third of their value; punitive signs come from the remaining 27 EU countries who won't, and can't, make an exception to cushion the UK departure; the two main political parties are in meltdown with little governing being done and Labour in a particularly self-destructive frenzy. Fingers are crossed against recession which would mean more unemployment, more austerity. Added to which, there have been alarming, unpleasant and downright menacing xenophobic behaviours released with unashamed vigour. Suddenly this doesn't feel like Britain any more. Referenda don't exercise real democracy; the UK has the ancient Parliamentary democracy; referenda over-simplify and release pent-up tensions and dark hatreds, leaving division and incipient chaos.
 

14th century City Hall
 

Les Amoureuses

But to other distractions! The daughter of an American friend who was living in Brugge for seven months last year, got married the afternoon of the EU Referendum result. What a story! Jen came over to visit her Mom from Arkansas where she worked and after they had explored some of Europe, she stayed for three or four days in Brugge. They went out for a beer, sat at the bar, and a young man came in and sat next to the daughter. This was last October and on Friday last, they got married in the magnificent fourteenth century City Hall. She had given up her job and home, came over in early Spring, a brave, brave step for an American girl, and then experienced huge problems with the necessary paperwork from two different U.S. States. In fact, an American can only stay in Europe for 90 consecutive days and her paperwork permissions arrived almost at the wire; the wedding, hastily arranged, was two days before her 90 days were up! It was a joyous occasion indeed. The setting was superb, the sun shone [after two days' heavy rain], the bride and groom and guests, enjoyed the part Dutch; part English ceremony and afterwards we all drank champagne sitting in the sun, in the Burg near the statue of Les Amoureuses. Altogether a delightful afternoon following, for me, the dark beginning of the day!

 More pleasure was in store; on Sunday to the Kasteel van Oostkerke, a handsome building set in wondrous gardens, not far from Brugge. There remain some remnants of the Kasteel still from the fourteenth century, the moat is early too with the handsome round brick  towers also from the fourteenth century. Over the centuries there came warfare, looting, occupation and arson and in the 

Second World War, the Germans removed ancient beams from the Kasteel to use as fortifications against the advancing Allies thus desecrating the building. Immediately after the war dreadful flooding in the area completely destroyed the gardens too but in 1946 Baron van der Elst, the owner, commissioned the notable landscape designer, Mien Ruys, to redesign the ruined gardens.

Since then the gardens have been loved and tended by successive van der Elst owners and have come to be considered perhaps the most beautiful in West Flanders. There are several separate garden areas, [at times, reminiscent of Sissinghurst] a courtyard, and the long, wide rose garden, planted amusingly when we were there, with several metres of healthy-looking leeks among the luscious roses. There is also a marvellous vista looking down an avenue of tall trees, all arched to the right as if before the wind, to the focal point, the body of an old stone windmill. As a mellow, historic background stands the lovely old house garlanded at various points with climbing roses against the mature brick as if created by Nature not planted by hand. There is a feeling of plenitude, of abundant beauty and a sense of peace as the eye takes in the gardens, while the Polders beyond seamlessly extend the panorama.