Hampton Court

Last week another visit to Hampton Court, having battled our way through their online booking system. I think I caught it during the transition from slot booking to day booking with the transition not being managed quite cleverly enough for me. But I got there in the end on day two.

A bit overcast first thing but it seemed set to be warm enough so we opted for a picnic, a discrete picnic in a small shopping bag, rather than a proper picnic in our rather conspicuous insulated picnic bag. Which meant that gala pie was off and I had to settle for the safer brown bread and cheese.

Picked up a Wellingtonia, already noticed, on the way. Arrive to find a couple of crows being buzzed by a parakeet, this despite the parakeet being smaller than a crow and with a shorter beak. But does the fact that it is a crushing beak give it the advantage over a long jabbing beak? Can either bird make any use of their beaks in flight?

Rose garden rather changing its character with all the new planting - of plants that are not roses. With one result being that the antique garden statues look rather out of place - which they did not before. But it is still a good place to sit, especially on a warm, still day, which this one was.

Into the Tilt Yard café to take tea and croissant. Croissant not bad at all: fresh, with a crust just about right, interior a little under cooked. But not like the croissants which I remember from our last visit to Paris, memorialised at reference 1. But the memorial does not extend to naming the café in Place Cambronne where we took our breakfast. Busy at breakfast time, mainly with men on the way to work, taking some or all of shots of coffee, croissants, bread & jam and cognac. I don't do cognac for breakfast but everything else was very good. Possibly the place with the red shades in the opening snap, taken from Street View, but I can't be sure as the Place is ringed by cafés. Yet another place named for one of Napoleon's soldiers.

We were amused by it being the day to wash the undersides of the tables, with two waitresses going at it in a leisurely fashion between waiting, the place not being very busy at the time. BH tells me that this is something that she does to our kitchen table from time to time.

The northern end of the east side herbaceous border has run wild and I imagine it will have to be dug up and started over. A casualty, I imagine of the plaguey disruption.

A holding repair to the gates at the north end. By the look of them, the diagonal struts are far too flimsy to being doing any good to such large gates. But maybe they are doing some good. I dare say that they want to use the gates when they have events in the east gardens and have stuff to get in and out.

Once equipped with a bucket for the convenience of outdoor servants? Don't walk to shock the fine ladies strolling on the terrace. Or perhaps it was for their convenience.

The apprentice garden - or whatever it is now called - is still shut. Let's hope it is not shut for good and turned into a yard for the storage of equipment for more and more festivities.

Interesting walk along the canal. Two sorts of reed beds. Some large carp. Some geese, coots and such like. One heron. What looked like deer in the distance, in the park. While in the air there was a modest number of swallows and martins.

But not enough ducks to see off the duckweed. I assume ducks do eat the stuff.

A new garden has appeared in the Fountain Court.

Privy Garden looking well, although there some signs of stress. Some the box edging, for example, did not look very well. On which see, for example, reference 2. I wondered about the wooden steps: was the timber chosen because it had grown with a bend? Had it been bent? Or was it just sawn?

Took our picnic on a bench under a magnolia tree, between the Privy Garden and the Great Vine. The vine which some say has lost its top spot to the one noticed earlier in the year at reference 3.

Inspected a rather handsome bed of mixed dahlias, the slipped out through the interesting passage just to the side of the Orangery, now home to Mantegna rather than oranges.

A good visit. But having got rid of the talking buckets in the courtyards, it would be good if they could clear out the infestation of wicker art in the gardens.

References

Reference 1: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2007/10/.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/08/caterpillar-control-episode-1.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/05/maribor.html.

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