CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. REPEAT IF REQUIRED. THE PAIR ACCESS A GALLERY THAT CAN BE VIEWED FULL SIZE.
Today we are travelling to Leatherhead for the annual Gilbert and Sullivan production of the Godalming Operatic Society directed by Jackie’s cousin Pat O’Connell.
We intend to make our leisurely way there; join Helen, Bill, Shelly and Ron at the Travelodge hotel where we will be staying the night; watch the second half of the Six Nations rugby match; dine at an Italian restaurant with Pat, Christine, and their daughter Olivia; watch Iolanthe; repair to the bar; go to bed; get up in the morning; all breakfast in the same café; then go home. I might expand this tomorrow. If I can remember.
Before leaving I had a look at the front garden.
Outside there is a SLOW sign. Like many another traffic sign it has been left in the hedgerow after roadworks have been finished. The normal limit is 40 m.p.h. Which is largely ignored. So is the SLOW sign. Even when there are works around the bend up ahead.
Although the arch has been partially demolished by Doris Day,
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MnUrhptPSo&w=560&h=315]
the tubs on Jackie’s makeshift platform have survived.
Tete-a-tetes, snowdrops, and hellebores share the beds.
The bergenias are beginning to show signs of age.
Behind this hellebore lies a profusion of trachystemon orientalis.
Meanwhile, alongside the Dragon Bed which did not exist when we arrived, towers a pastel pink camellia. It was only when we cleared the bramble jungle that covered it that we discovered that the plant was there. This is the first year it has born a profusion of blooms.