The gently pastel-streaked dawn photographed by Jackie didn’t really live up to promise;
neither did the brief sunshine tipping the trees on Beckley Common road remain long enough to provide a hoped for visible sunset
when, on a forest drive, we splashed around lanes like Gorley Road making us feel grateful that we had not received the severe flooding experienced elsewhere in the UK.
Later, I read more of Elizabeth Goudge’s ‘Gentian Hill’, after which we dined on roast duck breasts, tender inside yet with crispy skins and Yorkshire pudding; boiled new potatoes; crunchy carrots; firm Brussels sprouts and cauliflower with its leaves simulating cabbage, and tasty gravy, accompanied, in my case, by South African Coastal Region Pinotage 2022.
On a day of sunshine and showers we each took our cameras into the garden during brief sunny spells.
Madame Alfred Carriere seems to think it is spring, despite sharing the Rose Garden entrance with hips from Summer Wine. Everlasting sweet peas are equally confused. These wear raindrop pearls
which glisten over the Gazebo Path and bejewel leaves of iris and New Zealand flax; seeds of agapanthus; fuchsia Garden News; and pansies topping the iron urn.
Another fuchsia which continues to thrive is Hawkshead; skeletal honesty plants display their seeds; Penny Lane still soars over the Gothic arch; Puerto Rico dahlia proliferates; and Amistad salvia continues to delight.
The mauve dahlia alongside the Dead End Path is even more prolific but has collapsed beneath the storm although it should recover.
This lime green Japanese maple does not usually produce such a range of autumn hues.
Jackie’s contribution to the garden photographs was her cobaea scandens hanging beside the greenhouse.
This afternoon we set off for the north of the forest and remained beside the
swollen Lin Brook which had burst its banks across the ford at the bottom of Hightown Lane and its junction with Gorley Road.
Vehicles had no option but to traverse the flood. From the road I photographed both a white van and a blue car in the process, while Jackie pictured the car from the window of hers.
The Assistant Photographer added her perspective on the water lapping the road; a splendid oak; a woman striding along the field in which I had photographed the horses; and a bonfire in a garden on the dry side of the road.
We passed landscapes with varying overhead skies, then Jackie
parked the Modus on the verge of Hightown Lane while I wandered over banks
of golden brown bracken, mossy roots and colourful autumn leaves streaked by the late afternoon sun.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s potent pork paprika; creamy mashed potatoes; and carrots and green beans al dente, followed by her splendidly aromatic apple pie and cream, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank Mendoza Malbec 2019.
