Wimbledon Colours

The swathes of cranesbill in my garden are an absolute picture at the moment. The deep purple of the flowers against the dark green foliage invariable coincides with the tennis at Wimbledon.

Somehow my camera doesn't 'see' the same colour or intensity, so this isn't quite as I'd hoped.

I didn't manage to watch any of the thrills and spills of the tennis today, but it sounds as if there were some exciting matches.
Bad luck Laura, come on Andy.

As a teenager, a school friend and I used to rush out of school in North London, and travel on the underground to Wimbledon, back in the day there was no formal system for return tickets and invariably people leaving would hand over their tickets and we'd be able to watch for the evening.

A couple of years we queued up over night, sleeping on the pavement, to get in for the finals. We'd done a recce previously to check out the best route, because back then, you bought a ticket for general admittance and when the gates were opened you had to sprint to centre court where standing space was on a first come basis. If you needed to go out to the loo you lost your place and had to join the back of the queue.

I don't remember taking drink or food with us, or sun glasses or sun block or a hat. I do remember it being very hot and sunny and feeling faint. I'm sure we were dehydrated, hungry and very tired having already stood from 10 am until play started at 2 pm.

We would rush home afterwards to watch match of the day - (on the black & white TV) not to enjoy the tennis, but to look for ourselves 'on telly' !!

TV can never compare to being at a great sporting event.