Love

Julia's love for her family and her land are an overriding theme found throughout the book. As a child, Julia knows every inch of the estate and can feel the heartbeat of the land and the seasons. She knows when each flower will begin to bloom and where to plant flowers in her own flower garden. She instinctively knows when it's time to plant and where, even though she's had no formal training on those subjects. It's simply that Julia is connected to the land - simple to say but difficult for some to accept and understand. Julia isn't the first to love the land in this way. Her biological mother, Beatrice, also had that love for Wideacre, and the estate flourished under her care. Though it's not thoroughly explained in this book, Beatrice's greed overcame her love of the land and led to the destruction of Wideacre...