It Appears That Yet Another Letter To Me Failed To Arrive,

a couple of weeks ago Jack Levy sent a reminder for my truck insurance, it was a 'no show', Jack called me to ask if I wanted to renew as I had not been in, so we popped over to pay the premium, but with Songkran upon us in the truck!

Jack's office is on Pattaya Tai almost opposite the turning for the Vietnamese restaurant,

as we were in the truck we decided to have a look at the plant market, the one just past the Bangkok Pattaya hospital on Sumkivitt but on the other side of the road,

I should have remembered with it being Songkran most vendors had gone to their home province for the festivities, where I am now standing taking this picture should be packed with stalls,

but I did notice this miniature garden with some bonsai trees on it,

it had a small 'river' in it complete with a fisherman,

basically it was made in a concrete dish with rocks cemented into place the trees then planted, it looked really nice, Diana wanted one just like it!

also there were these frangipanis, they looked so nice,

the flowers or petals

almost looked like they had been painted and made of wax,

this was the only aisle here today, not many stalls at all,

but the good news was that the lady selling moss and miniature gardens was,

we bought a couple more boxes of moss, there were still some bald patches on Diana's miniature garden that needed filling,

on a whim we decided to head out to Silverlake, it is a vineyard next to the Buddha mountain, opposite is a restaurant, but we have not eaten there,

the view from the car park at Silverlake looking towards the Buddha mountain,

but first things first, some food for Diana,

and a ice coffee for me, now here is a strange thing, who would have thought a carton out here would feature the tower of St. Stephens that houses the bell Big Ben?

and on the reverse a picture of tower bridge and the caption Hello UK!

open buses were laid on for a drive round the facility, 70 baht each, so we bought two tickets,

for the more adventurous you can hire these ATV's,

smile for the camera then we were off,

the vineyard is deceptively large, we made our way towards some of the features built for us tourists like this windmill,

but first we stopped in the shade of some vines,

and so easy to reach!

there is also a plant nursery here,

to keep the many flower beds stocked with flowers in bloom,

then down to the water crossing, not to be chanced on foot!

luckily the water was not even a foot deep,

then another stop for a photo shoot,

by the windmill,

whose a little sunflower?

ours never did get quite this big,

the following bus crosses the ford,

real sunflowers this time,

next stop some of the planted flower beds,

the garden a riot of colour,

a loving seat,

compleate with parrots,

also there was an example of angelic lovers depicted in a statue,

the gardens were immaculate,

a small bridge crosses the stream,

Diana decided to water the flowers,

marigolds, lots of flowers to have your picture taken by here, but it was a tad crowded, but then it is a 5 day holiday over here,

of course I had to get in on the act, Songkran shirt on!

back to the vines, these are in tunnels I guess to bring on the young plants,

all around there are signs,

and features for having your picture taken with,

Diana tried her hand at painting, this was one she did earlier, but I did notice one was painted by a local policeman - it was signed Constable!

I have often seen these palm trees, bit never one this size,

or bearing friut

I guess this is the welcome sign, we had a nice few hours at Silverlake, there is not enough here for a day trip, but combined with a trip to the temples and Buddha mountain it is a nice add on,

on the way back we called in to see Booie, Mr. Tony is still in the UK but he should be home soon,

we took the back roads retuning to Pattaya via Soi Khao Talo, but as we neared the railway crossing we stopped off at a plant nursery, greeted by a pair of raucous parrots,

from the road it only had a small frontage,

but once inside it was huge,

compleate with a fish pond,

Brian called round a bit later for a beer and a chat,

after he left we had our evening meal, then it was a couple from the Hammer box, first One Million Years B.C. a story of every day country folk set against a background of volcanoes and dinosaurs, I watched this at the cinema when it was first released in 1966, strange to think that the star, Raquel Welch is now 71 years old,

with a bit of a nod towards The Wicker Man, the next out of the box was The Witches, an English school teacher outposted in Africa has a run in with the local witch doctor and suffers a nervous breakdown, after recovering back in England she takes a job teaching in a small country town hoping to make a new start for herself, then one of her female pupils goes missing,

then from the History Channel, Amityville: The Haunting, this is a documetary about firstly the facts of the grusome killings there, then an interview by the next puchasers of the house - and why they left after living there only one month, chilling stuff, whilst watching Diana certainly moved a lot closer to me on the sofa, 'Scary Darey!'

last for this evening is it or isn't it there? another one in the History Channel series, the Loch Ness monster of course, I will not get into the debate of is it there or not, but by now it was time for us to go off to bed.