I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier. In partnership with

Wilderness England, my sister Elizabeth and I went on a wonderful hiking trip in

England. One day, as part of the trip, our group visited the famous Poison Garden at Anac Castle, place that I've wanted to see four years.

Anac Castle is the traditional seat of the Duke of Northumberland and the garden was

established by the current Duchess of Northumberland when she and her husband took up residence there.

The walled and gated garden is terrific. I was fascinated to learn about all these

dangerous plants and how their poisons work and also to hear some famous

examples of how people use these poisons in various crimes.

Some of the plants are so dangerous that they're kept in cages,

and one is even kept in a closed container because merely touching it causes such severe agony.

For our tour, we had a terrific guide who was full of information and also very funny.

At one point he was explaining how a particular plant could be used as a deadly poison

and was also an important ingredient in life saving medicine.

I was reminded of one of my secrets of adulthood.

Every medicine can become poison.

During his discussion, as an aside,

our guide made a casual remark that I keep thinking about. He said,

oh, that just doesn't want me talking about medicine. She wants me to stick to poison.

And I thought, how interesting.

I think that's true.

People are interested in a poison garden, not a medicine garden.

Sure, some people would be interested,

...