Garden outing

A warm sunny day, and time for a summer excursion with a picnic to Dyffryn House and gardens. There were many cars parked outside, and lots of families walking about enjoying the place, though the place is so spacious that it doesn't feel crowded. Each season we return, the variety and the colours of garden sections change as layouts are varied or new sections restored to use. It's one gigantic labour of love for all the enthusiastic National Trust volunteers who work there in so many ways to support full time staff and raise necessary funds. 

Last weekend, at our Golden wedding celebration, my cousin Ros presented us with a plant voucher to spend at Caerphilly Garden centre, plus another voucher for Afternoon High Tea for two, so after a few hours in the sun at Dyffryn, we drove to Caerphilly, and were treated to an enormous tea, with scones, cake and sandwiches. Had we known it would be quite so splendid we wouldn't have bothered with the picnic lunch as well! We came away with an Everlasting Sweet Pea, which can grow up the edge of the trellis in Clare's very varied and colourful flowerbed.

There wasn't much of interest to watch on TV apart from Olympic sport. Whilst I'm delighted that all those hard working British athletes are doing so well, the broadcasts sap more attention and energy than a bi-lingual crime drama with subtitles to watch, pumped along as they are by hysterically excited commentators working so hard to earn their crust. I better liked the days of my youth when broadcast sport commentaries (with the exception of horse racing) were delivered for the most part with far less emotion and wasted words.