16 August 2010

Nick and Graham went off quite early to Snowdonia to tackle Tryfan. Originally, I was supposed to join them but due to the Emily situation I did not feel that I could go, though she was calm enough in the end. It would have been unfair to leave her to Pam and Kate if she might create later in the day. Still, they had a great climb in ideal weather (though Graham took quite a tumble on the way down that could have been a very nasty accident, and if I had gone they would not have been able to take the BMW convertible and travel in style with the top down).

We four headed for Tatton Park. If we had checked first we would have discovered that the farm does not open on Mondays (and the land train therefore doesn't run either). However, we probably would not have had time for all of it anyway and the day turned out very pleasantly despite the closures.On arrival, Emily wandered around in the extensive playground but with her sore wrist she would not be able to use much of it and it seemed that hunger had got the better of her, so we went straight to the courtyard restaurant. Unfortunately they had a power outage and the food and drink on offer was limited so it was rather a poor lunch. At first we took a table outside (under an umbrella as it was hotting up nicely), but we were soon driven inside by a plague of persistent wasps - one of the few bad memories I shall take back with me to seemingly wasp-free Tokyo.

After eating, we went on into the gardens. Emily made a beeline for the orchard and enjoyed the espalier pears and apples before trying to pick up as many of the windfalls as she could hold. We chomped on quite a few of the many large and tasty raspberries before I spotted a solitary sign requesting visitors not to pick them. Moving on into the kitchen garden we were very taken with the quaint scarecrows, each with its own character. Emily loved the gigantic pumpkins, marrows and cabbages, some probably weighing as much as her.

After that it was the rose garden, and then we walked down the Broad Walk as far as the large pond, where Emily fed the ducks, though they were a little shy.

Next to the pool was a piece of modern 'art' (my apostrophes), one of several to be discovered around the gardens; this one was an iceberg encased in a display case powered by a bank of solar-panels. Further on we came to a sort of modern camera obscura, then we returned to the old-world charm of the Japanese garden.

Emily managed to walk all of this but then began to tire and get crotchety, so we curtailed the visit and made our way back to the courtyard via a huge wooden horse.

Having refused to countenance the carousel on first passing, Emily now expressed great desire to take a ride, so she and I hopped onto the back of one of the horses. It was very tame and not cheap, as we both had to pay though only on one horse, but she enjoyed it. After I had dismounted, I was about to walk away when I felt a pain in my finger and looked down to see that a wasp had landed on my hand and stung me, with no provocation at all. I let out a yelp, and cursed the ill fate that saw me stung twice in a fortnight. Just like last time, though, it smarted about the same as a nettle sting and made my hand ache for an hour or so, but then quickly improved. Either I have not experienced the full power of a sting or I am relatively immune to them, though I remain terrified of the horrible insects, after a lifetime's habit of running away whenever one bothers me.