Autumn Lacey

That is to say, our autumn visit to Polesden Lacey, partly to get us into the right spirit for the Christmas visit to come. Seemingly the first visit since the birthday outing noticed back in April at reference 1.

A cloudy, mild day and the rain had stopped by 09:00, so we were off. To find lots of mums with small children, husbands mainly absent, plenty of grandparents and plenty of pensioners like ourselves. We also had what I took to be a recently retired Surrey type, recently taken to volunteering, in a rather flashy sport jacket.

The tree snapped above from what was the stable yard was notable for the shimmering of its leaves in the light breeze, but I think it might have been a lime rather than an aspen. About which last see reference 2.

I dare say if I was a Photoshop person I would know how to remove the pole and lights from the snap. Perhaps the recently retired Surrey type was rushing around trying to find out how to turn the lights off in these energy conscious times.

Polseden Lacey continues to leverage its space, large car park and proximity to the suburbs of London by running family friendly events. So there was lots of evidence of some people called Ignite (of reference 2) who appear to specialise in early evening light trails laid out in ornamental parks and gardens. Lots of expensive looking electrical fittings and cables spread out all over the place. Not to mention all the outdoor art, just waiting to be illuminated. Some of it in the form of coloured wicker sculpture, which made me wonder how long it would take Hampton Court Palace to climb on the bandwagon. Some of electricals can be seen in the snap above - along with the handsome Japanese anemones which are catching up for lost time. For myself, I wish they would leave this sort of thing to Chessington Garden Centre and Chessington World of Adventures - while they would no doubt argue that they need the money and that they serve the population at large, not just some snooty fraction of it.

A rather fine fungus on a stump in the avenue leading from the stable yard to the house.

One of several echiums strayed from the Isle of Wight.

Lots of autumn colour in the trees. Quite a lot of flowers still holding out.

More preparations for Ignite. I was quite startled by the amount of money that all this equipment must represent. How much use do they get out of it?

And more.

Rather a fine rustic shelter, flagged up in orange. at the western extremity of what might once have been an orchard, now replanted. Not many people ventured this far, so very quiet and peaceful. And quite sheltered enough to sit in comfort, even if the sun did not make it inside. I might say that the trees there did not seem as big on the spot as they do in this aerial view.

The view from the shelter.

A view of the shelter. Most of the makings of which are clearly into at least their second incarnation. Note patch over a spot of rot. One of several.

Facilities for puffers, legal and illegal? To help them get through the festivities? Would this count as aiding and abetting an illegal activity? Although as I recall, the offence is possession, not consumption.

By way of a luncheon snack, we took pasties at the shop marked very top right on the aerial view above. Not bad, but fell between two stools in that one was not quite enough and two would have been too much. I managed to stick on one.

And so to Mr Fowler, the fishmonger of Bookham, which we pass on the way home, and where we took a couple of lemon soles, one of which is snapped above. Trimmed just right, with the tail and fins neatly trimmed, but head left on. I thought maybe they we named for their similarity to an undyed lemon. While BH was game for cooking them. Plus a few crabs' legs to make up the weight, although as it turned out, we thought we had enough sole and took the crab the following day. When they were fine, but one would not wanted to have let them go another day.

She grilled them, with the end product snapped above. Excellent. Also substantial - although one between two would not have been enough. No point in pushing the boat out if you don't get it afloat.

And the Chablis went down well with it. A wine I find a bit unreliable at our price range, but this one was fine. Fairly sure we have had it before and checking today turns up reference 5. Perhaps I bought two of them on that occasion - but I don't think so. More than a year ago is too long.

Closing the proceedings with various odds and ends of a dessert variety, including the recently discovered oatmeal biscuits and Lincolnshire Poacher. Which BH usually finds a bit strong.

PS 1: having been talking about the absence of YouGov from my inbox this morning, they popped up this afternoon with a survey about our insurance, with particular emphasis on pet insurance. Not of great interest as we have no pets and not much insurance. But, to be fair to them, I had forgotten about funeral plans until they prodded me.

PS 2: we have just received notice of £500 worth of winter fuel payment. While I can see that making this a more or less universal payment for older people, I hope they gave serious thought to restricting such payments to those who really need them, say to those on universal credit - a big part of the justification for which was simplification of the targeting of benefits such as these. I am reminded that when I last looked, the government does not provide an online collection box into which you can just drop money that you don't think you should have, although you can send a cheque to the Debt Management Office in the City. For those interested in the minutiae of search, as I am, the search trail to reference 4 leads from debt management, through gmail, where the email address of debt management got me to the date, and so to psmv4. Blog search failed for lack of effective but guessable search terms in the post in question.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/04/a-birthday-outing.html.

Reference 2: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2011/05/elementary-my-dear-watson.html.

Reference 3: https://ignitetrails.co.uk/.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/11/charity.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/09/iberico.html.