An afternoon at Wisley Gardens

The ProdigalD visit has come and gone. The family arrived on Wednesday in time for a meal, and driving a huge van. It wasn't much fun, apparently driving it from Herefordshire to here, and the following day, they had to take it for another trip to pick up furniture left by s-i-l's late mother, to transport it back home. They left at midday, leaving us with GD2, and after lunch, we went to the RHS gardens at Wisley.

We spent some time in the new Glasshouse and were able to visit the butterfly house within. Fortunately, most of the butterflies were up near the ceiling. I'm not too keen on anything flying near my face. GD2 & I were offered the opportunity to stroke a dead butterfly. Neither of us accepted the offer, though plenty of people around did. It was very hot and damp in there, and we didn't stay too long.

In the Glasshouse, though, we saw a magnificent range of flowers, including a cactus garden. I haven't got the names of them, I'm afraid, but just look and enjoy. Outside, the two best things were a snowdrop bed and also cylamens - I didn't get a picture of the latter. I also took some video clips - one of a moorhen trotting out of the water, and also some fish, swimming lazily round and round. The family departed on Friday morning and normal service was resumed. Back, in fact, to the VAT.