Artichoke

I went with friend H to visit the stately home Ostley yesterday. It was an indifferent day weather wise and seemed quite cold although at 8° wasnt really. We took a rather lack lustre tour of the basement looking at the servants areas and the big kitchens. The two volunteers didn't seem to have a great deal to say. The "upstairs" was closed as they dismantling an exhibition of silver- all being loaded in a huge truck and going back to Goldsmiths hall in London. We wandered around the gardens and park where l spied this clump artichoke going to seed, tall and fluffy.