We’ve finally had a couple of cooler days, making cruising more enjoyable and having dinner one night with Penny and Mark outside the New Inn

Today I enjoyed a visit to RHS Wisley, where I worked part time, as a student and full time member of staff running the Orchid Glasshouses. Nothing remains of them from my time, but the new glasshouses are magnificent.

You can’t keep him out of an Orchid house
Naturalistic settings
Oncidium hybrid
Dutchman’s pipe
Hibiscus hybrid
Jade vine
Stove House
Dancing or boxing bunnies?
Hill made of lavender
Spiral path around it…
Lavender covered with bumblebees

We wandered across to Battlestone Hill, where I first started as a summer vocational worker, and a place I always feel at home…especially amongst the Eucalyptus trees that I planted some 50 years ago. The fairy dell is still magical, though I didn’t see any badgers like I used to do in the late afternoons.

“My tree”
Fairy Dell
Hydrangeas
Even found a Rhododendron flowering

We wondered around the exotic, walled and rose gardens….perfection everywhere.

Woolomi Pines
Looking back up the Broadwalk
The Long Water

It was gradually getting hotter, time for lunch or an ice cream…..

A magical day at a magical place, I hope to return one day….