The big one

My friend Tim and I drove over to Edinburgh this afternoon en route to the Professional Gardeners' Guild AGM tomorrow in Galashiels. I was to stay with Daughter Two and Tim had booked a bed in a hostel near Princes Street.

We spent an hour and a half at Edinburgh Botanic Gardens before they closed at 6pm. It's at times like this that I wish that I still worked, or at least had the opportunity of working with such an amazing plant collection. Among the many wonderful trees we saw was this UK champion Betula pendula 'Tristis', a weeping form of our native birch. It was a very big tree indeed - and I've planted one quite near to my house! Whoops!

A quick pub meal and I drove over to our daughter's flat. Tomorrow morning I shall pick Tim up and we'll be off to Galashiels. After the AGM and lunch we'll be given a tour around the garden of Abbotsford, Sir Walter Scott's house near Melrose. It will be good to meet a lot of old colleagues again!