Parked in the station car-park which was quieter than expected on this fine sunny morning and which is a lot cheaper than parking in the Palace proper. With the added bonus that we noticed a rowing boat on the river and thought to go rowing ourselves. As it turned out the hire boats were blue fibre glass replicas of the brown wooden skiffs of yesteryear, while the brown skiff which we had seen hailed from the Ditton skiff and punting club, a hundred yards or so downstream of the bridge, Surrey side. Brown skiffs so wooden that they have elaborate wooden thole pins rather than the usual steel swivels. And this morning I was rather surprised to read at reference 1 that people really do punt in this part of the Thames - which I would have thought was a bit deep. Maybe it is wise to hug the bank.
Hands getting soft these days, but just about got away with an hour's rowing. One paddle steamer with propeller assistance. One large barge with outsize anchors under the bows, painted a bright yellow. The anchors looked big enough to hold a full sized ship, but a crewman claimed that they really were needed when one wanted to stop two or three hundred tons of barge in a hurry. Not convinced at all, particularly since there was a matching propeller mounted on the poop.
Next stop the Royal Cabbage Patch, where I was pleased to see a decent size broad bean patch, successively planted, as is proper. A touch of broad bean nostalgia, it getting on for ten years now since I packed them in. See reference 2.
After which we made it to the fairly newly open Magic Garden, fairly full with happy young families this warm & sunny Sunday morning. A Magic Garden which turned out to be very tasteful; the finest children's playground that money could buy; the sort if thing, I imagine, that the likes of the Beckhams are apt to have put up at the back of their country houses. Perhaps not Abromovitch who, as far as I am aware, does not go in for family life. I suspect a fair amount of maintenance work will be needed to keep the place up to the mark, so it will be interesting to see how well it wears. I dare say that it will prove a useful addition to the take at the Hampton Court Experience, but I remain a bit uneasy, being more comfortable with a good wide strip of blue water between Merlin Entertainments and Historic Royal Palaces.
Lunched at the café in what had been the kitchen area of the palace in Tudor times. Pie and pease pudding followed by a slice of something called Elizabeth cake, this last with a yellow fruit jelly in the middle rather than the raspberry jam more usual these days. All very good.
Lots of blossom in the wilderness: chestnut, lilac and ornamental fruit trees.
Laburnum arch (illustrated) not as good as it had been on previous years because a fair bit of it had been replanted in the course of the last couple of years. Few more years to go before they are full on again.
Spectacular tulips in the beds along the semicircular path between the east front and the long water. New avenue along the long water coming along well. Pudding trees looking well in the bright sun. Privy garden with all its greens touched up with red and yellow. All in all a splendid day for such a place.
Aeroplanes slightly puzzling in that there was lots of take off but no landing. It is not as if they have just the one runway at Heathrow and have to take it in turns.
Reference 1: http://dittons.org.uk/.
Reference 2: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=broad+bean+campaign.
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