To the palace

A couple of weeks ago, back to Hampton Court Palace. Our last visit looking to have been about three  months previous, to see the tulips. See reference 1.

Cars queuing back from Chessington World of Adventure back to Chessington North when we went through. Presumably just as bad on the other side, coming off the M25. That's Saturday for you during the school summer holidays. While BH remembers the cars on their way to Dawlish and such like places queued up all the way through her village, Exminster, when she was young, before they built the by-pass. No doubt there were enterprising souls turning a few quid by selling teas and soft drinks. While I remember sitting on the Exeter by-pass for what seemed like hours, on our way to Cornwall. For some reason we never did Devon - which would have suited perfectly well and been a good bit nearer. A consideration when cars were slow, roads were narrow and there were three or four children to keep on-side.

At Hampton Court Station, BH rushed off to pay by card, still possible there, rather than let me show off my new found knowledge of RingGo.

Royal Cabbage Patch, snapped above, was up and running.

Out first sit in the sun was taken in the rose garden, where I was pleased to find that I had got used to the replanting. Perhaps they knew what they were at after all. Oddly no aeroplanes at all, this being around 11:00. Usually there is a steady procession of them heading down to Heathrow, a little to the west.

On to check up on Wellingtonia No.75 (reference 2) and I am pleased to be able to report that it was still alive and healthy. We also noticed that there were three metasequoia, not the two that I was expecting. With one of the three just visible top left.

Lots of cones on one of the Atlas (or Atlantic) cedars. Male or female or don't these cones come like that? I had at first thought white cedar, but that appears to be a much smaller plant, so Google Images to the rescue.

A striking flower. Google Images points me to the Saga website where I read that: '... Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, the Chinese rose, is only half-hardy so is tyically grown as a summer bedding flower...'.

Pit-stop at the cafeteria, from where we made our way to the back gardens.

A strange looking pear.

The rather battered looking label appears to read Cydonia oblonga. A name that Google Images agrees with while telling me that it is also a quince, which I should have known. My father used to claim that he was rather fond of quince jelly, but I don't know that we ever put him to the test.

A dahlia looking well on the East Terrace, somewhat recovered from the bad days of the plague. 

One of the showy summer beds. On so on round the privy gardens and the sunken gardens, all looking well. More sitting in the sun, still no aeroplanes.

Back across the river and back to the same café with the green shade in Bridge Street that we used on the last occasion. The same seats, the same waitress and very nearly the same order - that is to say beef sandwich for him and tuna sandwich for her. All very satisfactory. In fact, I liked the beef better, not being quite as rare as first time around. The delicate flavour of rare struggles a bit in a sandwich.

As satisfactory as the new improved appearance of gmaps, which now sports a much better use of colour, snapped above. Is this a Windows 11 thing or a new edition all round?

Across the road to Vineking where I have bought stuff before, but which appears to have become more wine bar than wine merchant, with a rather reduced stock. Plus the young lady on duty did not seem to want to earn her sale, so she did not get one.

Into the grocer next door where we bought some gouda (a change from next door Comté) and some fancy looking bread, sometimes called fougasse. A bit pricey but good. A proprietor who knew all about Neal's Yard Dairy, to the extent of selling Lincolnshire Poacher. Did he buy it from them? In any event, it was hard to see how such a small shop made a living. But hopefully it does.

PS: a short Internet break in the course of this post, something at the router end rather than the laptop end. Blogger and Windows 11 between them managed to get the session moving again without dropping anything.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/05/tulips.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/04/wellingtonia-75.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fougasse_(bread). Seemingly a generic term for a range of flattish breads.