Drifts of pansies

A visit to Al and Liz today in Waltham Abbey. For once the journey there and back was straightforward, no holdups or incidents. First time for a long time that has happened.

They were in the throes of having work done on the house, painters in and plumbers had been and a carpet fitter arrived while we were there. We could have changed the date but it would have been challenging to find another time when we were both free.

We had a good time as usual, camping out in the conservatory for lunch then visiting Capel Manor Gardens in the afternoon. An interesting place is Capel Manor, it has a range of suburban gardens as well as loads of other garden areas including a folly area. It seems that you can now buy and erect your own folly nowadays complete with authentic replica tombstones.

Part of the Gardens includes Capel Creatures where there is a small zoo where animals from around the world can be seen. The Zoo and the Gardens are part of Capel College where young people learn all sorts of horticultural and zoological skills ready for employment.

Owing to the works going on in the house we went out for our evening meal to the local Indian Resturant. Very good it was too, we didn't over order as can be the case leaving only the scrapings at the end of the meal.