An antidote

To the bloody ludicrous carry on in Boston and the attendant collective denial of the American people-see my acidulous comment on the Boston bombing.

So as an antidote we fled to Canada yesterday to see a spring garden. Nothing like a garden to calm the nerves and reduce the apoplectic blood pressure!

This is Dart’s Hill, about 15 miles North of us, but always seems a bit warmer than home.

A very handsome traditional magnolia

And a very rare yellow magnolia. There is a whole collection of the very rarest species magnolias here, the lady who owned the garden collected them from China, she was a big mate of the precommunist regime.

All the early rhododendrons were out in force.

A rather handsome unusual shade of orange.

The garden belongs to the local city of Surrey but is run by volunteers, all the beds were beautifully dressed with new compost, I wish they would come round my place next!

One of my personal favourite spring bulbs, fritillaria meleagris, the snakeshead fritillary, so very delicate and so beautifully modelled.

I always reckon this garden is about 10 days ahead of mine so it is always a juggling act which weekends to go to see specific plants. We had a girls day out and a very pleasant lunch and it even failed to rain until we got South of the border!

All in all, a nice break from the news down here.