First Thing We Were Out,

as it was Diana's day off, 

we decided to call into a couple of our favourite garden centres,

and as I took a lot of photographs, (no change there then!),

I will only make one post of today, but I have split it into three parts, morning, afternoon and evening,

and here we are arriving at Polhill Garden Centre,

we soon arrived and parked up, it was quite crowded as it happens,

we made our towards the entrance,

but had to stop here for our breakfast,

the agony of choice!

I decided on a pot of cockles for myself,

crayfish tails,

 for Diana,

we popped outside to eat them, it was chilly in the wind as it happens,

new for this visit, a water feature at the entrance,

in we went,

the first thing that caught our eye was some huge chestnuts, so half a kilo of them,

lots of local produce,

then Diana saw these, figs, although she had eaten dried ones Diana had never tried fresh ones, 

so in the bag a few of them went,

one thing we always look for here are almond cakes, the last few times we have been unlucky, but today there were lots of them, so three packets to go,

and as you might expect, Christmas mince pies,

lots of them!

shopping over, we started looking at flowers,

lots in for Christmas,

especially poinsettia,

in so many colours,

and some all in one plant!

we started looking at some of the Christmas decorations in the food part of the centre,

and nice they looked too,

as did the vegetables,

if you wanted jam,

or preserves this was the place to shop,

piccalilli, my fathers favourite,

we started looking at the indoor plants,

these Meadow Spike Moses, (selaginella apoda),

looking rather nice,

as did the indoor bonsai,

Diana looking at some flowers in the distance,

and this is what they were,

amaryllis,

a quick look at the succulents,

and cactus,

these Bunny Ears Cactus, (Opuntia microdasys), are easy to look after, and you can see how they earned their common name,

into the garden water feature section,

lots to choose from,

note to self, when taking a photograph of Santa's grotto do not appear in the mirror!

these looked cute,

and quite realistic as it happens,

everything was so Christmas,

I just love this time of year,

all of the decorations,

in the fun up to and of course Christmas itself,

speaking of which here are some Christmas cherries as they are called, (Solanum pseudocapsicum),

in the outside area, winter pansies,

in lots of colour varieties,

and so many to chose from,

in the next section cyclamen,

I like the bi-colour ones that are available now,

I was tempted with these, but no room on our window sills,

'Peek-a-boo! behind some miniature daffodils,

mini chrysanthemums in front of them,

in a few weeks time you will not be able to move here, the place will be packed with cut Christmas trees to take home,

but if you do not want to wait for those,

there are plenty of planted ones to choose from,

and as a bonus when Christmas is over,

you can plant it,

in your garden,

all manner of pots,

and garden ornaments,

although I think gorillas are a tad out of place in a garden in South East London!

on the other hand, every garden needs a fairylike figure!

back inside,

we looked at Christmas crackers,

and decided on these,

although we already have our tree and decorations,

it is still nice to look at what is available,

Father Christmases aplenty,

Diana has a new best friend,

a must have sign for the front door,

with a movable message,

Candy Sticks!

and cake,

below the Christmas tree,

is it a gingerbread family?

wreaths for the front door,

here a very bright display,

in metallic greens,

blues and purples,

not a obvious colour scheme,

but the display certainly stood out,

as did some of these mechanical, 

and illuminated table decorations,

difficult to see but these are garden reindeer, the shape of them in lights,

and if you like garlands of lights lots to choose from here,

if only we had a garden!

so many bulbs for the spring to choose from,

as we were making our way back to the car we spotted some ladybirds,

the gardeners friend,

and of course,

a few fairies,

shopping in hand,

back to the car and we were off to our next destination, if you would like to see the rest of our day and evening please press the 'Older Posts' button at the bottom left of the page.