Hare raising

From a dull grey start the day turned out to be rather beautiful.

Wisley was very quiet; as quiet as I have ever seen it. My friend as myself wandered around the grounds for a short while, then spent longer than usual in the glasshouse, grateful for the warmth. There was much to enjoy including a wonderful display of anthuriums. As well as the usual red there were white ones, some that were a delicate pink and others a deep mauve. We spent some time studying the cacti , some of which we have at home but not at such large sizes!

We walked through the vegetable garden admiring the large sprout plants and then lunched at the Hilltop cafe. The cafe now serves only plant based food, which is fine by me, but an interesting sign of the times all the same. The only non-plant based item I consumed was milk in my tea.

After lunch we went to the free 2pm talk. The subject was how to identify disease in trees. It was truly fascinating and the lady giving the talk so passionate about her subject matter. She is part of a team at Wisley that monitor tree disease and try to prevent new diseases from spreading. We both really enjoyed.

We then made our way slowly to the exit. I stopped to photograph the dancing hares sculpture and whilst I was there the fountains and lights and flares were switched on ready for the evening's Glow performance (see extra). It was a beautiful sight but difficult to catch as everything is only on for a few seconds.

I had a quick look around the shop and couldn't resist a pale pink poinsettia - my one concession to Christmas.

But there was one more treat in store. As I came onto  the southwest carriage of the A3 towards Guildford I noticed the setting sun. It was a massive orange ball dipping below the horizon. The sky then went through a kaleidoscope of pinks and purples as I drove home. Sadly at 70 mph a photograph was out of the question.

Back home I met up with the creative writers who seemed to enjoy the latest episode of my thriller and then fell sound asleep on the sofa. Now all I have to do is dream up another episode...

Not a bad day at all.