A BIT OFF

I seem to have played bridge almost every day this week.  Has made it difficult to get out into the garden and do some work (I haven't been very upset about not getting out there though and I don't think the jobs will go away, so I can do them later).

Yesterday though we also went to a talk about Japanese gardens.  It was a little disappointing.  He hadn't been to many interesting gardens (he didn't even cover the main gardens of Japan) and didn't have anything much to say about them anyway. 

The trouble with visiting places like Japan is that you end end up being side-tracked and fascinated by irrelevant things.  So we had a 10 minute explanation about the bullet train (with pics) and how lovely it was to travel on it, followed by another 10 min section about the ferry to Miyajima, with pics of that too!  Then some pics of meals and shop windows, several pics of Mount Fuji, umpteen pics of a temple gate ('this is a very famous gate and I expect you've all seen pics of it before'.  'Yes!!  So why are you showing us more??').  He even gave us a guided tour of the temples at Nikko.

One lady complained that the talk was all statistics.  Actually it sounded a bit like a Japan Travel Bureau guided tour for foreigners (they don't like you to leave without seeing all the 'sights' whatever you're supposed to be there for, and they always tell you about areas and heights, etc, so maybe that's what he was given and that's where he got his speech from).  So I don't know any more about the whys and wherefores of Japanese gardens.  But I can tell you that they are nice.

Tomorrow we are off to Teignmouth again for the annual Jazz Festival.  I'll no doubt have some pics and videos for you when I return.  Til then, be good.

FETE ACCOMPLI

Yesterday was the last day of the Petersfield festival.  It has been 3 days of stalls, eating/drinking and music on the Square.  But the weather has of course been perfect.

Here is the Square in the morning.

You can just see The George  on the left, which was where I was going.

There was a display of military vehicles yesterday for some reason.  Here's a Land Rover such as you haven't seen before.

The pub in the corner of the Square has now gone, sadly, but it has become a pretty little corner.

 

This was the Square later in the day, still enjoying the music and the sun .

 

IT WAS JUST FETE

One other event that kept me busy in the last week or so was the Haslemere Festival.  They're always having festivals, so not sure what this was for, but we much enjoyed it.

Several gardens opened up to the public at the weekend.  They were all lovely or course, but not (IMHO) remarkable.  Big, yes, but remarkable, not really.  I just took one photograph:

 

See what I mean?  Well, I'm sure it took a lot of hard work to achieve this effect.  And I know there are at least 3 gardeners working there.  But, I don't know, a big hedge, a couple of saplings, some beds and a couple of pots . . .  Still, the tea and cake was delicious!

More importantly, in the evening there was a concert on the Green.  Sadly, you can see from the garden pic above what the weather was like, so, although there were a few hardy (and totally bonkers) people on picnic blankets, it was a more of a pop in and out type of concert than a pop event.  I popped in for the disco which I enjoyed for some reason.

 

As my house overlooks the Green, I'm afraid I then listened to the rest of the concert from my armchair with the window open and watched the fireworks from there too.

FOR BITTER AND FOR WURST

We went up to London yesterday to see the lights:



Oh, OK.  Here's a pic of Harrods.



Eventually we got to Hyde Park.  There is a German Christmas market there at the moment which is breathtaking in its scale. Of course we weren't the only ones to visit.



But I still found it incredible that all this stuff had been brought over from Germany for our Christmas. 



And not just equipment, but German staff and food and drink too.



And so, naturally enough, we went straight here.




Then we went to see all the rides - things which went up and down to and from vast heights and round and round at great speed and potentially did terrible things to our bratwursts.  Here's my view of the rides.



In fact, I think this was my favourite ride.



The evening was finished off with Amarula lattes.  A rather good time had by all.  I'm beginning to enjoy Christmas.  Three parties to squeeze in tomorrow though; wish me luck.