Pleased that we were still spared the tawdry ice skating set-up sprawled all over the front lawn and pleased with the state of the royal cabbage patch, with the fennel looking well, see left. No idea why it has turned out so pallid, but all half dozen attempts were the same in that regard.. At least I think that is what it is - never grew the stuff myself. The chard, noticed last time, still looking good.
As were the dahlias in the big herbaceous border running down to the river. A little past their best perhaps, but still pretty good. Said by some to be a bit showy, but I like them.
While the two sunken gardens had been stripped, presumably ready for the planting of something or other. Bulbs or some kind of winter bedding plants? Both?
The fish in the round pond in the privy garden, gregariously clustered together, were demonstrating the clockwise tendency noticed at reference 3, albeit a bit weakly. There were some defaulters.
Such aeroplanes as there were to be seen this Saturday morning were flying in the wrong direction. Score zero.
In between the chard and the dahlias, we took in the Cumberland gallery, to inspect the strange Holbein resurrection, 'Noli me tangere', first noticed at reference 2, the unusual Gainborough, and the Canalettos. These last, a series of 12 of scenes along the grand canal at Venice, rather growing on me. They make one see some point in being rich enough to have been able to buy such things! Also rather struck by a Ruisdael windmill - rather like, but not I think the same picture, a very small reproduction which used to hang in my bedroom as a child. And by a very intricate painting of a very expensive dress by someone who was not very good at painting people. I forget to note the name of the painter and google, for once, does not oblige, so I shall have to remember to do that next time.
Somewhere nearby we visited a striking brown gallery, presumably used for taking exercise when it was raining. Dark brown, fancy paneling to the walls, light brown, pine planking to the floors. Very wide planking, much wider than modern tongue & groove planking, with some cheating going on in the sense that some of the planks appeared to have been assembled, very neatly, from two or more narrower planks. I can only suppose that it is too wasteful to insist on wider planks only; tree trunks just can't hack it. While heritage & aesthetic considerations did dictate wider.
Lunch in what used, I think, to be part of the royal kitchen suite, taking its now usual form of chicken pies and mushy peas. Just the ticket for a not very warm day. Only let down by the absence of King Henry's favourite cake, the maid of honour. See reference 4 - or google, who knows all about them.
Out onto the bridge to be greeted by a young lady who was in a lather about a forthcoming cull of the deer in the park. She clearly did not understand that animals like deer, when kept in a confined space without the benefit of predators, even a large confined space, will soon outgrow it, but we made no attempt to show her the error of her ways.
Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/chard.html.
Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/royal-cabbage-patch.html.
Reference 3: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/the-art-of-fielding-two.html.
Reference 4: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/folding-2.html. Pies not so good on this occasion.
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