Catching up with old friends

I caught the bus into Princes Street at 8.15 this morning, then changed for the Botanic Gardens where the Scottish Rhododendron Society was holding a day of talks on plant travels. I was a bit early, but the room soon filled up until there must have been forty or so there. 

We had four talks over the course of the day, all about travel to the East in search of plants, not to collect, but to see and record. Two of the speakers were the first and second recipients of the Scottish Rhododendron Society's Education & Exploration Grant Fund, another was a gardener who used to work with me at Arduaine and finally a lady, maybe in her sixties, who visited seven different areas of the Far East between 2006 and 2017, in the hunt for primula species. I was surprised to find that I hadn't even heard of at least a quarter of them! Wonderful photographs and presentations.

I met many old friends and made several new ones. I had a wander out into the gardens during the lunch break and took a few pictures. The day finished soon after 4pm and I caught the bus back to the flat. My Blip today was taken in Princes Street, a view of the Castle and nearby statue probably photographed by hundreds of tourists already today!

Quote of the Day: 'I love everything that's old, - old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.' Oliver Goldsmith.