GARDEN PLATES:

1997 & we are back in Scotland. During a week at a Timeshare in Ballater, (first week of August) we read Balmoral Castle was open to the public for a short period, so we high tailed it down the road to Crathie - along with several hundred ! The ballroom was the only room open to the public, but it was the gardens that were a magnet to me. I have to say Balmoral is one of the most enchanting places I've been; nestled in the hills beside the river Dee, surrounded by immaculate garden & grounds, it was like going to Heaven without dying. Truly, this day will live for ever in my memory. At the front of the castle there was a huge bed of a single pink rose; it was unknown to me, but seeing 3 men dead heading sweet peas in the vegetable garden, we walked over to enquire the name of the rose ? And we spent the rest of the day in the vegetable garden, talking with the gardeners ! We were told it was "Betty Prior". I said it was a surprise to see a rose planted in such vast numbers (there must have been 500) that didn't have a perfume. "Och Dearie" said the man, "it flowers continually through Summer & Autumn, is dependable, hardy & long lived" ........just like the Queen, I replied.
The vegetable garden covered two & a half acres & grew every vegetable you could think of, planted so everything was ready for picking when the Royal family arrived in August. We were told it was the Duke of Edinburghs idea. There were strawberries, raspberries & all the smaller berries. The line of sweet peas was akin to a cricket pitch & I commented the Queen must surely love them ? "Och Dearie" said my lovely man, whose accent I could have listened to all day, "when the Queen comes, she brings a florist with her, & asks that there be a bowl of sweet peas in every room.
Celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, I bought this plate in the gift shop at Balmoral, & as we were leaving, the gardener with the lovely accent, came running over & thrust a huge bouquet of sweet peas into my hand. Aghast, I said I couldn't take them - the general public would think I'd picked them, "Och Dearie, forget thems, you're my Queen". Stuffing them down my blouse, I went out the gate, over the bridge & up to Crathie church looking nine months pregnant. Oh happy day, that I wasn't !