Catching up with Scotland

Hi everyone and sorry for the gap in posting....I have been too busy!! Friday was a trip down to Peebles and Dawyck gardens , Saturday was shopping ( great fun!) and organising photos, Sunday was a visit to Mums partners house to see the photos on his blu-ray machine and then I caught up with a couple of school friends at our old High school ( a surprise for me there!). Monday has been a bus trip up to Dundee via St Andrews using my flash bus pass which I just wave at the driver and it was lovely to see the improvements to Dundee as it was a dirty , grey place when we lived there.

Just realised that I haven't downloaded the most recent photos so the surprise will have to wait!

This is Guildford....I really liked it
This is Hamish and Winston...I really liked them too :)
This is a handkerchief tree at Petworth. The whole place is huge and the house is stuffed full of paintings by Turner , Van Dyck etc. and other art from way back (can't remember dates!) I got a crick in my neck looking up at them for so long.
....and this is Heather and Bill since I finally made it to Scotland and some cooler weather...
.....and this is where I am staying for a while :)

I hear there is snow forecast in Dunedin so I hope all you New Zealanders are staying warm :)

Wisely , Avebury, Stourhead and Kew

Gregor took this one of the alliums at Wisley since my camera battery had run out…..they are very popular over here!
This is the handkerchief tree also at Wisley.
A couple of the bigger standing stones at Avebury….mind-boggling place!
Stourhead was beautiful….very calm and lots of rhododendrons.
This is one of the huge glasshouses at Kew….fantastic!!

Today Gregor took me down to Wisley via Guildford which is a very charming city with great wee shops and coffee bars.The girls at work will be pleased to hear I had a delicious almond croissant there :)

Then it was a short drive to Wisley where we were told to go up the hill as the handkerchief tree was in flower. It's a huge place and there were a lot of other people there but not so many as to get in your way or anything! Anyway, on the way to find the tree i noticed that I could hear a train but it must have been a very long one since it wasn't going past. Turns out that it was the noise generated by the two nearby motorways!!!

It was another beautiful day and very hot….hopefully it will be cooler tomorrow :)

A green and pleasant land

Finally got around to downloading some photos but there are too many to choose from.......
Gregor , Carol and Colin....ages add up to 145!! This is the first day in Hampshire and very hot sunny weather drove us inside to do this on the computer! Lovely lunch at The Blue Bell and a good walk with the dogs and I saw my first fox!
Well we found this signpost and I was a bit confused......as usual!
This is the alpine house at Kew on the first day of exploring Kew. The greenhouse on the right is absolutely huge and full of amazing plants , fish and lizards!! I had to get out after three quarters of an hour as I was too hot :)

I'm Here!

Just a quick post before heading off to Stourhead with my brother. Hopefully I can put photos of Kew on tonight as the two days spent there recovering from the horrendously long flight. The weather is lovely and warm and it is strange to be back in early summer from early winter. Hope it is not too cold over there yet!

What I am leaving behind #3

Well , this is the last post before takeoff and I must thank everyone for their kind wishes and pleas to have a great holiday!! :) I will try my very best to do exactly that and to post as often as is possible to prove it too.
This last week was hectic but enjoyable ; the plant sale went well and I made a new friend! The open garden was fantastic despite a hiccup over the correct address and bottom photo is from there. The club meeting was a great success all round and I went to bed thinking that everyone should belong to a club since it is great fun :)
I had a lovely lunch at Orokonui with Dennis on his 70th birthday and we were impressed with the place although the mist crept in (top photo). Then on Wednesday night it was the free movie "The hedgehog" which I recommend as a quirky little number..... although I had had a large glass of delicious wine beforehand which may have had some influence ;)
And for the last two evenings I have been packing my case and day pack and finishing "The girl who played with fire"....very exciting and bloody ending! The third book is waiting for me at Mums and hopefully we can watch the dvd somehow...it doesn't seem to be on the open market yet :(
Anyway , all that is left to do is have a bath and get to bed since it all starts tomorrow.....Yay!

What I am leaving behind #2

Having waited 13 years to get a new kitchen it now feels very comfortable and easy to work in and when I do cook there is enough room for other people to come in and get what they want without getting in the way! Strangely enough it still gets dirty and messy but is much more satisfying to clean up :)

What I am leaving behind #1

Well at just over a week until departure date I am wondering when the panic is going to set in!
The truth is that for about the last month I have been going about my business in Dunedin thinking to myself "I really like it here!". So, I am looking forward to coming home before I have even gone and this must be a good thing as that volcano could do anything at any time and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it!!
I was watching "Julie and Julia" yesterday and felt very guilty for not posting anything for ages so that is why I am blogging now...great movie too and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. I wonder what movies will be on during the flights?
Today I was meant to take my camera with me to take some photos of the big construction site just down from my work but I forgot the camera.....I have been forgetting a lot lately so maybe that is a form of panic? I made a stupid mistake at work today too so I hope that real panic/excitement will kick in soon to avoid any more disasters;)
I am going to be really busy doing plant related stuff ; a talk on edible perennials and companion planting tomorrow , a plant sale on Saturday (helping),an open garden on Sunday and a club meeting on Monday. So I am off to organise the club library books and add some new ones now!