A Broader View Donnie Darko

Today did not go at all to plan but actually ended up being, rather delightfully, an entirely different experience.
We had intended on taking a short trip over to Tunbridge Wells but as we got nearer the town the traffic got heavier and much slower. We eventually reached a car park near the town centre only to find it was completely full. We thought we would then head further out of town to find somewhere to park only to encounter roadworks. After 45 minutes sitting in traffic we'd had enough and decided we'd make the journey to nearby Tonbridge to see if we could finally get to walk around its castle, and maybe capture some images, but frustratingly as soon as we arrived we could see it was still fenced off following a recent Christmas Fayre, exactly as it had been on our two other recent visits. Our day was not going well!
By this point we were getting rather fractious and pretty disgruntled so when we saw a sign for a pub called The Rose Revived on the outskirts of the village of Hadlow on our route home we decided to stop for some lunch and a pint. As soon as we stepped inside the door we saw, and felt the warmth from, a glorious open fire, so ordered our food and drink and ensconced ourselves right next to it.
Suitably fed, watered, warmed through and with our equilibriums and spirits restored we were ready to continue our journey home until we remembered that the nearby Hadlow College (a rural and land based college where students can take courses including in agricultural engineering, horticulture and animal management) has its own gardens, Broadview Gardens, in the grounds which are open to the public. We didn't think it would open on such a bitingly cold day in November but it was and, rather remarkably, its eight acres are completely free to enter.
The gardens are designed and maintained by the students as part of their courses with the support of a small team of gardeners and some volunteers. The gardens lie on stony silt soil above clay and are exposed to the prevailing South-West and cold East winds - which we could certainly feel today even being wrapped up in several layers, coats and scarves. The gardens are formed around long double mixed borders, backed with clipped yew hedges and columnar oak trees and from which run two grass avenues lined with further clipped hedges. Nestled within this framework are a variety of themed areas including Italian and Japanese style gardens, a hedge maze, a fernery and stumpery, a meadow, a small lake and a wildlife walk dotted with artworks and sculptures.
At this time of year most of the planting is in horticultural hibernation but it was still wonderful to able to walk around these glorious gardens despite it being such a cold day and we had them almost entirely to ourselves. What a treat!
My image is one of the sculptures just as you enter the gardens - a rather scary looking rabbit. It immediately made me think of Frank, a mysterious figure in a rabbit costume, who informs the main character in the film Donnie Darko (who inadvertently escaper a bizarre accident when sleepwalking) that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds!
So all in all quite a frustrating but, in the end, unexpected, slightly strange and thoroughly enjoyable day!