Sunday 21 April 2019

All Dressed Up,

and we were off,


 and walking to Steve and Kai's,

 where we meet them,

 Steve had kindly offered to take us on a bluebell walk he had been on last year,

 so off to Cudham we went, 

 to get to the woodlands,

 we had to walk across a few fields,

 making sure we closed all gates behind us, 

 a quick pose,

 and we were on our way past the last of this years daffodils,

 the wood in the distance, 

 this time not a gate but a style,

 we started up the path,

 and soon spotted our first bluebells,

 still not in full flower,

 but they looked so nice,

 Diana just had to stop, 

and photograph a few, 

 time for Kai to pose,

 'help me down' 

 a bad back for Steve tomorrow!

 we continued our walk,

 the flowers were everywhere, 

 the pathway meandered through the wood,

 everything looking so nice,

and here is a short video of our walk,

 back through the fields,

 and on to the road, although weeds these dandelions look so nice in the sun,

 a rider was approaching,

 I gave Cindy some polo mints, which for some reason even if they had not tried them before, all horses seem to love, chatting to the rider she lives in Catford but travels here to Cudham to tend to her horse, 

back into the fields we gave the cows a wide berth,

 as they had some new born calves with them,

 we had to walk as there is no parking near to the woods,

 whilst we were gone,

 the local cricket club took to the pitch by the village car park where we parked,

 next stop, Coolings Nursery

 if it looks familiar,

 it is because we were here,


 we both like succulents, but our window boxes are full,

 this looked neat,

one of the lipstick plants, Gesneriaceae aeschynanthus,

 a quick look at some of the orchids,

 then outside,

 as with most garden centers, 

 it is huge, a look at some of the more realistic garden ornaments,

 like this leopard,

 I have to say this peacock reminded me,

of the one on our firescreen at home,

of course not all of the ornaments,

 were life like,

 some were just fun,

 as were these oranges and lemons,

 they look good enough to eat,

 a quick pose from the girls,

 then into one of the greenhouses,

 where there were some nice petunias, 

if you happen to be looking for a red flowering climber, this is the one for you, Mandevilla diamantina, available in many other colors but this red is so strong, 

 a nice display in the sunlight,

 as was this amaryllis,

 which Diana liked,

 another garden ornament looking for a home,

 a pose by the lavender and heathers,

 a show of arum lilies, or funeral flowers, as they are sometimes known,

 ah! Easter bunny rabbits, and the box is right,

 back inside,

 a quick photograph,

 and we were of to Polhill Garden Center,

 my first stop was here,

 for a plate of whelks as usual, we bought a pint later to take home with us,

 I caught up with Steve and Kai in the restaurant, sweet potato and a jam doughnut for Kai, chicken and cheese salad for Steve,

 rainbow cake for Diana,

 we started a quick look around,

 and noticed these kumquats,

 we wandered around the center,

 and was stopped by the scent of these pinks as my grandmother called them, arriving home Steve and Kai called in for a coffee and after they left it was time for our evening meal,

 whilst picking up the pint of whelks at the garden center,

 we bought 2 dressed crabs, Diana made a spinach leaf with cucumber and celery salad to go with them, 

 keeping to fishy theme,

 baked salmon, asparagus and a baked potato,

 we rounded off the meal with some English strawberries we had also bought from the garden center with meringue and cream, delicious!

 'Cheers!', 

when we went to Peterborough on Friday, I forgot to put this short video of some of the stalls there, so here it is, back to Saturday after our meal we listened to music until the midnight hour, and then for us we were off to bed.


2 comments:

Jil Wrinkle said...

I had to google "whelks". So they are mollusks or snails? How are they prepared/served?

PattayaStan said...

Dear Jil, I guess they are both, but the term gastropod describes them best, I guess they must be a British thing, I thought that the group being so big they would have local equivalents where ever you were. For myself I was brought up on seafood, cockles winkles, whelks, crabs etc, I love them all, in fact when we go to Polhill or Bromley open market we always buy a pint to take home with us to snack on in the afternoons, and writing this has given me an idea for a post tomorrow, on, you guessed it, whelks!, as for cooking once shelled boil in salty water and add vinegar, pepper to your taste, I will post a couple of recipes tomorrow, best regards, Stan and Diana