Random thoughts and photos of my journey through life…
To celebrate the millennium, the Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe commissioned the construction of an ornamental parterre on the Queen’s lawn by Floors Castle.
I found it a little disappointing that provisions haven’t been made to view the whole design of the garden from a higher viewpoint.
16 Comments CherryPie on Jul 30th 2011
14 Comments CherryPie on Jul 30th 2011
There is nothing better then a nice cup of tea to quench your thirst and refresh the soul.
This cuppa was taken in taken in a building adjoining the walled garden that featured in my previous posts. There were many tempting delights from fresh sandwiches and light lunches to cakes… I was just content with my cup of tea.
Within the cafe there is also a deli counter with pies, quiches and fresh ham and beef off the bone which I am sure the locals enjoy taking home.
14 Comments CherryPie on Jul 29th 2011
20 Comments CherryPie on Jul 28th 2011
The walled garden at Floors castle was an unexpected treat and it was free to visit:
Here, Queen Victoria took tea during her visit in 1867. Today’s visitors can enjoy the splendid food and refreshments on sale at The Terrace restaurant. home bakes, cakes and shortbread, traditional game pies, pates, preserves and jams are all made in the kitchens of Floors Castle. All served in the small restaurant or outside in the terrace that looks onto these delightful gardens.
Many of the great gardening traditions can be seen here – espalier fruit trees, topiary and traditional Scottish garden favourites. Ornamental borders also co-exist alongside soft fruit and vegetable beds, surrounding the peach glass house. The most remarkable feature of the garden are the original Victorian iron poles, dripping with huge swags of crimson American pillar rambling roses and purple clematis.
10 Comments CherryPie on Jul 27th 2011
The Flodden battle site is very close to where I stay when I visit Northumberland. My previous visits have always been in September and I was curious to see how the land looked in a different season.
I have a series of posts about the battle which can be found here along with some of my previous photographs.
12 Comments CherryPie on Jul 26th 2011
I went to see the final instalment of Harry Potter at the cinema on Saturday. The film did the book justice and there was some powerful acting that brought the scenes to life. It was well worth the wait.
Before the film I spent a busy day in Birmingham. I had a good old browse around the books in Waterstones but was only tempted to buy one. It’s unexpected appearance in the store made me smile because it was connected to conversations with a friend. Then I went to Jessops to check out a macro lens option for my camera.
The assistant who initially helped me with my query, passed me on to another assistant who also owns the Lumix G2. He got the lens out and there were a lot of problems with battery and memory card. The G2 would not give a demo. The lens had to be tried out on a closely related camera instead…. The macro shots were amazing!! It is a Leica lens which is the equivalent of 85mm in DSLR terms. Sorry I am getting a little bit techie there :-/
Whilst I was exploring the camera with the assistant another couple came and stood close by and were interested in the demonstrations. It turned out that they had come in specifically to check out that very same lens!! They had the G2 as well. I joked that we were obviously having some sort of a G2 convention. The assistant then joked that we could set up a club. The other couple left after the demo and I arranged for lens ordered in to the shop because they only had the display lens available. The assistant was a little unsettled by the co-incidence of two lots of interest in the lens at the same time when there hasn’t been much interest at all in the lens before…
I think it was meant to be, it was part of the patterns of the day and the price of the lens had come down considerably since I checked it out in a local store last week.
That was followed by an amazingly brief visit to a gentlemen’s outfitters. Don’t ask 
Before leaving the city for a meal and the film I had a quick visit round Birmingham Museum taking in the Staffordshire Horde, the Acropolis model (amazing) and the and near and far east exhibitions had something to interest me (so what is new there) .
PS: The lens should arrive on Wednesday hopefully 
16 Comments CherryPie on Jul 25th 2011
