“Nice and treesy does it / Does it, does it, does it every time”

Here is the post that was promised by that lovely cedar of Lebanon earlier in the week. No, not a post about the conflict in Lebanon, this time, despite what might have been thought; one about trees and things, kind of, instead.

Last Sunday, Wife and I went out to visit some friends who live down Winchester way. It takes a couple of hours to get there, but we go there a couple or three times a year, and they come here a couple or three times a year. At the end of the day, you've got to see your friends. And if you're prepared to put forth a little effort to see them, it makes it all the more special.

Anyway, they had a little day out planned for us, but they wouldn't reveal where we were going until we got there.

When we arrived we were greeted in glorious fashion by their two wonderful Weimaraners. They're great dogs, and one of them really does smile when he sees you! It's amazing. After a sit-down and a glass of juice and a chat, we went out to lunch. I ordered a steak, and then followed that with the ice cream fudge sundae that you see here. It was a struggle, but I managed! The girl half of our friends revealed that she eats up to three homemade versions of these each week! I was gobsmacked, to say the least.

So, after lunch we had to walk some of those extra pounds off, and they took us to an amazing place called the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens. There's not much to say except that it has the most amazing collection of trees, flowers, and shrubs -- "some 42,000 plants (12,000 different types), which now thrive in an area of 180 acres", according to the website.

Anyway, here's a few of the pictures we took while there.


If you enlarge this one, you can see all the bees and butterflies on the flowers. Wicked!


I loved the texture of the flaky, almost paper-thin bark on this tree.


This is one of hundreds of pieces of artwork scattered around the grounds, many of which are for sale (at a price).


And how's this for a big leaf?!