Cardiff, Flowers and the Unstoppable Queen
Last week-end we went to Cardiff, guests of our dear friend David. Richard was also there and he had got us all tickets for the RHS Flower Show in the castle's grounds.
We travelled to Cardiff by coach as the train was horrifically expensive. It took us 3hr 30min to get to our destination as there was quite a long queue at the tollgate after the bridge over the Bristol channel.
On the way to the show on the Saturday morning:
Some tulips in the park:
Inside one of the tents:
With a Welsh dragon (no, not Adrian, he's only 1/4 Welsh!)
The castle:
We made a few purchases but not too many.
Richard was a bit disappointed as some of the exhibitors he was interested in weren't there, but both Adrian and I enjoyed it. We were all glad that we went as soon as it opened since it got very busy later on!
After lunch back at David's, they took us out to the coast to the resort of Penarth where we had a stroll on the restored Victorian pier followed by an ice-cream. (I really wanted bubble gum flavour but it was fluorescent blue and I'm not a 5 year old anymore!)
It was a very enjoyable week-end and it was lovely to catch up with David and Richard. Although I fear that it wasn't quite as enjoyable for poor David, as he cooked for us every meal!
We caught the 12 pm coach back to London. We didn't experience any traffic hold-ups and we were back home by 4 pm.
Actually we had a short hold-up at Chiswick.
The police had stopped all traffic in every direction apart from the lane next to us.
Within a couple of minutes the reason became apparent. It was the Queen (no, she wasn't driving).
I guess that traffic lights are just for commoners!
Going back to flowers and gardening we are both very pleased with our spring bulbs this year.
They have attracted lots of compliments by neighbours and passers-by too.
This is what the pots in the drive looked like on March 8th: only the crocuses/croci are out
and this was yesterday:
What a transformation in just a few weeks!
We travelled to Cardiff by coach as the train was horrifically expensive. It took us 3hr 30min to get to our destination as there was quite a long queue at the tollgate after the bridge over the Bristol channel.
On the way to the show on the Saturday morning:
Some tulips in the park:
Inside one of the tents:
With a Welsh dragon (no, not Adrian, he's only 1/4 Welsh!)
The castle:
We made a few purchases but not too many.
Richard was a bit disappointed as some of the exhibitors he was interested in weren't there, but both Adrian and I enjoyed it. We were all glad that we went as soon as it opened since it got very busy later on!
After lunch back at David's, they took us out to the coast to the resort of Penarth where we had a stroll on the restored Victorian pier followed by an ice-cream. (I really wanted bubble gum flavour but it was fluorescent blue and I'm not a 5 year old anymore!)
It was a very enjoyable week-end and it was lovely to catch up with David and Richard. Although I fear that it wasn't quite as enjoyable for poor David, as he cooked for us every meal!
We caught the 12 pm coach back to London. We didn't experience any traffic hold-ups and we were back home by 4 pm.
Actually we had a short hold-up at Chiswick.
The police had stopped all traffic in every direction apart from the lane next to us.
Within a couple of minutes the reason became apparent. It was the Queen (no, she wasn't driving).
I guess that traffic lights are just for commoners!
Going back to flowers and gardening we are both very pleased with our spring bulbs this year.
They have attracted lots of compliments by neighbours and passers-by too.
This is what the pots in the drive looked like on March 8th: only the crocuses/croci are out
and this was yesterday:
What a transformation in just a few weeks!