Hampton Court (not)

Last week, it being a fine sunny day with nothing much else doing, we thought we would take ourselves off to Hampton Court and see how their herbaceous border was getting on.

Entertained on the way by a white mini, with the white paint including some cunning treatment which made it shimmer in a multi-coloured way, not to say a psychedelic way, when the sun caught it right. Rather striking. But how much did such paint cost? How long did it last?

Arrived at the railway station there to find the car park only two thirds full, this being a late weekday morning. I had thought there would be more.

Started off across the bridge to remember about rowing boats, and peering over we found that they were indeed there. Down to the hut to find the man in charge just getting into gear, and about five minutes later we were afloat. A still, sunny day, ideal for boating. Better still, no-one much else seemed to have had the same idea, so we had the river more or less to ourselves. Good for us, not so good for the man in charge, as I don't think he had had any further customers when we returned about an hour later.

We had had more multi-colour in the form of the heads and necks of some grebes which we had passed, somewhere along the way. I had forgotten that grebes did this, not being a sort of water bird that we seem to see very often these days. Also a large clutch of goslings on the bank, not far from the arrival of the Mole at the Thames. Bouche de Mole as the French might say.

The only catch was that I could not get the foot rest in the right place for me to be comfortable. I needed it two or three inches further away from me than it allowed. Odd that I had not noticed this before; we could only think that they vary slightly and that we had been lucky in the past.

Having got out, we decided that we had done quite enough for one day, canned Hampton Court and went for lunch in Bridge Road. Passed on Zizzi's, rather too large and too empty for our taste. Also an irritating line in musak. So off to Henry's instead where we were able to sit just inside the open shutters, these last looking to be a very expensive bit of shop fitting. Very pleasant, with very pleasant staff, which I fear, after a week or so, I have conflated with the similarly pleasant staff at Rossopomodoro in John Lewis at Cavendish Square, noticed a few days ago.

Despite the international flavour of the menu, a slightly grander version of what we might otherwise have had at Wetherspoon's, we settled for cottage pies, which came in arty little tureens, deceptively large. Not bad at all, with the cottage pie topped off with melted cheese. With the catch that, by the time you got to the bottom of the tureen, you had had enough of the cheese and were feeling rather full. So might have been better without. But all very pleasant - and having a Bridge Road within walking distance would be well worth paying a bit more for one's house for. But well out of our range, I dare say. And we have a better train service from Epsom.

Out to inspect the wine shop where, having expended all the long wine words I could think of (which is not very many), we fell for rather an expensive bottle of 2016 Italian Sylvaner, a member of the Praepositus family, yet to be consumed. As always, we wondered how such a wine shop can survive the onslaughts of the likes of Waitrose, and checking this morning I find that it as least the third wine shop on the premises. So maybe they can't. But it is nice to use a wine shop where the staff put on a good show for you. See references 4 and 5.

And so home. Hampton Court will have to wait a bit longer.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/05/entertainments.html. It seems to be just about two years since we last went rowing. Perhaps we will manage one of the large swans in the boating lake at Ryde this year, last pedalled to celebrate a wedding anniversary some years ago. BH thinks 2011, but I can find no trace in the archive.

Reference 2: http://www.henrykitchen.co.uk/.

Reference 3: http://www.thevineking.com/shops/east-molesey.

Reference 4: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/02/royal-cabbage-patch.html.

Reference 5: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/search?q=lancelot.

Reference 6: https://www.kloster-neustift.it/en/. 'Across our wine-growing areas, rare and especially good locations have emerged at different elevations, where “everything works out well” – from the temperature distribution to the age of the vines to the soil characteristics. The Praepositus selection of cru wines is made from the very small quantities we harvest here. Their quality is exceptional in every regard; they can easily be aged for ten years or longer'. The place appears to be a working  monastery, so it appears that we have bought ourselves a fancy version of Buckfast Tonic Wine.

Reference 7: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/praepositus. So ecclesiastical Latin for boss man, literally the one in front, from the days when generals led their armies from the front.