Saturday 6 June 2015

Saturday.


Earlier this week we had a request from our friend Hilary, to help her at 'the Secret Gardens of Highdale Open Day' ,which took place today. The above photo shows the front door of Hilary's House. Her garden is at the back of the house, a tiny, enclosed,  south facing, suntrap of a garden, and the only entrance is the front door shown in the photograph. This meant, of course that everyone who wanted to be shown Hilary's garden had to come in through the front door, and be shown through the house, through the conservatory, and out of the back door into the garden. The house dates from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, and all the joins have steps to the next period.
 

This was taken from the middle of Hilary's garden, and shows the back of her house. Herbs and flowers are grown in the centre of the garden,  and on the three brick walls facing West, South and East are fan trained peach, apricot, quince, fig, and apple trees; all very productive. My job was to welcome people in, then show them through the house and towards the garden. Then later to reverse this process. The one danger spot in the house is a place where two shallow (but well concealed) steps lurk. All went well for most of the day, but early this afternoon, when conducting a small (thank The Lord) middle aged lady towards the front door. I went first, and again warned her of the danger of the two steps. She thanked me kindly, then slipped off the top step, tripped on the lower step, and fell.............. and............... I CAUGHT her!!!
"Oh, well held, Sir " cried her husband, who was following. I rather agreed with him.
"Thank you", says Michael, "I think, if I can still catch like that, I'd better take up cricket again."
                                                         ________________________________

Warm regards to all my readers, and -
P.s. - between eleven a.m. and five p.m. two hundred and forty six people had viewed Hilary's Secret Garden!
                                                                  ______________________

2 comments:

Crowbard said...

Well held indeed, Mike ~ Howzatt?
I do hope she didn't enjoy your whiskers too boldly ~
Sounds like a lovely day, you silly Suffolk folk certainly know how to socialise.
(That's 'silly' in the sacred sense for your more distant readers.)

Unknown said...

Hello Crowbard. Yes, we thoroughly enjoyed it thank you. It was surprisingly tiring, though, welcoming, and guiding people from 11a.m. to 5 p.m.