Arboretum – That is where you go to see ducks isn’t it?
It has been a long standing joke in our family that until I was quite old I didn’t realise that Arboretums are where you go to look at trees, I always thought it was where you go to looks at ducks! There is some reasoning behind all of this in that the arboretum on the Isle of Man at St Johns is where me and a lot of others go to feed the ducks. This is what I have done since I was quite little. We never used to look at any of the trees and in fact I would say there are more ducks than trees anyway.
Alan did think it was just me being a bit stupid and was teasing me in front of a few other Manxies, most of which agreed with me and thought the arboretum was for ducks as well.
You can imagine how disappointed I was when we went to Westonbirt Arboretum only to find no ducks!
The next generation of duck loving Manxies are being brought up in the same way I notice. An old friend of mine from the Isle of Man is keeping up with tradition and teaching her son the true purpose of Arboretums as well
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I didn’t realise that either!! I thought Arboretums were Duck ponds too. Who says living on an Island is a sheltered existence!!
Tch tch tch… Look in the dictionary, surely everyone knows that arboreal refers to trees! It still makes me chuckle though everytime Anna reminds me of this and it does indeed seem to be a a gap in the knowledge of many people from the Isle of Man!!! 😉
Al.