still at heathrow

sorry that last post broke off so abruptly, my expensive internet connection ran out of time. here we are again, at the same connection but after breakfast. Now, were was i? of yes, Georg took us to his company and we spent a great morning walking his trial beds, seeing how the seed is accepted at 'inwards', cleaned, weighed, germ tested, packaged, stored, and sent out again. And we saw our seed at all possible stages as well.

Monday evening Georg treated us to a fantastic meal at a local Romatik Inn - 5 star meal and service.

Tuesday 24th: we spent most of the day mooching around Georg's village. It's very pretty and we took lots of photos but it was also raining a bit so we spent time in cafes and back at the b@b playing crib. We also bought Terry a couple of new shirts as we'd had a disaster in the laundry department. Someone authorised a load of washing to be washed including a black dress that SHOULD NOT have run dye but it did. Undies for the rest of the trip will be a fashionable shade of elephant...

That evening we flew out to Gatwick and on to Guildford to spend the night at a fully organic and eco friendly hotel. The walls weren't organic but the soap was a lovely vegetable soap bar instead of the liquid soap offered at all the other hotels. Dinner at a French Restaurant - fantastic food, fantastic service and utterly fantastic prices!

Wednesday: this was the focal point of the whole trip. We arrived at Wisley, the Royal Horticultural Society Trials and Showgrounds just before opening time and experienced the joy not normally the province of mere mortals. There was a long queue waiting to enter and we simply walked passed them all, our hosts whispered in the ear of a gate attendant and we were ushered through with grace and due reverence. I hate the word awesome but this was.

Inside the grounds we met Linda, Ali and Jim who together controlled all aspects of the plant trials, and I suspect much else, at Wisley. We received a guided tour of the delphinium trials under the guidance of David and shirley Basset from the Delphinium Society. T'was a good morning and our delphiniums seemed to be performing well compared to the 'others'. The trial runs for another year at the end of which some varieties may be awarded an AGM (Award of Garden Merit). The tour was followed by a lovely lunch in the Tower Room and we very much enjoyed the company of our guides and companions. The team at Wisley did us proud.

Lunch finished at about 2.30 and the rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying the grounds and the shop - guess who did what? (Sharp eyed readers may have recognised that I started this post and Terry took over part way though... he is dictating and I am typing.)

ok, off to France this afternoon.