Old times

It's been raining down here today - not what I came all this way for!

My brother and have been tootling about in Surrey, trying to find one particular shrub in one particular private garden in Old Woking - I'd been given a cutting of it more than 30 years ago and wanted to find it again. It's a rare double-flowered form of the Strawberry Tree, Arbutus unedo.  Needless to say we didn't find it and I can't imagine how I will - it may well have disappeared, of course.

We had a stroll along the River Wey navigation near Pyrford, and I was amazed to find out that this was first constructed in 1653, according to the sign - now that's a while ago. This sign is my first extra. What was even more surprising was to look across to the inaccessible ruins of Newark Priory (it's on private land, though I remember as a teenager, when I probably didn't take as much notice of such things, walking across a cultivated field to reach it) which was built between 1189-1199 and then 'dis-established' in 1538! How has it survived all this time - it's pretty mind-boggling!

I also met up with Jane, a new Blipfriend. One of the very good things about Blipfoto is the opportunity to 'meet' like-minded people. We had a lovely blether over coffee. Jane appears as my second extra picture.