November update - complete our escape and then its home and lockdown
I have been trying to complete my diary for ages, but life has just been too hectic. But the dark mornings, cold damp weather and incessant bombardment of bad news stories hasn’t helped. The daily Coronavirus updates with unbelievable numbers of infected around the globe adds an even darker mood to the subconscious. Especially when tv images show people in the streets of Glasgow & London, with masks hanging below their chins, groups of revellers clustering in pubs and cafes and rules around mask wearing and social distancing totally ignored.
As a journalist put it quite succinctly this cavalier behaviour is disconcerting, it has enhanced a widely shared sense that Britain — famously rule-abiding — is now operating without adult supervision. Public confidence has plummeted, with more than half of respondents in a recent survey declaring the government has botched its handling of the pandemic, up from 39 percent in May.
The only positive is the news that a vaccine is on its way with three companies reporting that it will be distributed by the end of the year. Yet at the back of my mind the realism is that the volumes required to inoculate the world and the infrastructure and management to get it into people's body it will not get to the majority until late 2021.
Nevertheless, its encouraging.
Our trip away seems years ago, but we did have a fantastic time, considering the restrictions in place. Fortunately, we were able to see relatives and friends prior to the formal lockdown.
From the Isle of White we travelled North up the M3 to visit RHS Wisley. We were amazed to find the carpark overflowing, masses of people milling around, but they soon dissipated once inside the extensive gardens.
We were so fortunate; the weather was so kind to us during our meandering around the various parts of the gardens. As soon as we headed towards Dover the heavens opened. Day became night and the roads became rivers.
We were going to see Gwen and plant a new rose around her grave. Eventually decide against the visit with being such an exposed site high on a hill, especially with conditions deteriorating.
Instead, we huddled down in the Ashford outlet shopping mall, before getting totally lost in the new road network trying to find Tesco on the old Dover road and ultimately the Premier Inn, our overnight stay.
On the way to Paula in Little Oakley in Essex and Jane in Norfolk we popped into RHS Hyde Hall, our favourite winter gardens. Superb inspiration for our water logged, gale hit garden.
Arrived for soup at Janes then a trip out and around. Fish pie and too many G&Ts before bed
Jane, knowing that we love gardens took us out for a treat. To a private garden that a couple had spent years developing. They bought East Ruston Old Vicarage in 1973. It had been empty for the previous two years and there was no garden on the site just three feet high tufted grass. As they say, it was a blank canvas. They gradually converted the grassland to a series of rooms, all different. Totally magical.
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Wiveton Hall, ramshackle yet quaint historical home of Desmond MacCarthy.
Following eccentric gentleman farmer Desmond MacCarthy as he struggles to keep his 17th century manor home afloat, while holding on to the country traditions of his childhood.
http://www.wivetonhall.co.uk/normal-for-norfolk/
From here we visited my sister in Leicester, after which we visited Harrogate and RHS Harlow Carr, but more importantly Betty’s
Back home, we got on with finishing the garden room ready for the building certificate. Unfortunately, a day before the inspector came, he phoned to cancel, poor bugger had contracted corona virus.
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