Ducks on water

I had a rough plan for the early morning that culminated in picking Marion up at 9.30.  It worked out well in the end that I arrived at her house, with some plants from my Pa, just after 10.   We spoke later about my increased anxiety over misplacing my keys and not taking them to my Pas house, even though I knew that it was no problem at all to leave earlier. Childhood conditioning, I think. Marion has a dislike of servers with creased clothing where I don't even notice. Similar reasons.

The traffic heading to Norfolk was unsurprisingly heavy (good weather and bank holiday weekend) but we arrived at Gooderstone water gardens by lunchtime and enjoyed some online shopping, coffee and cake in the cafe before the gardens themselves.  Marion will thank we for suggesting the shorts and i applauded her decisive purchasing.  We had a chat about birds with one of the gardeners on the way in, mentioning the mallards Marion had swum with in genoa at the weekend and a short time later, when I took this picture, we were laughing about them having followed her home.  If you like a mallard, check out this blip. The gardens were peaceful and beautiful.  Sunshine, sculptures, a good variety of trees, plants, wildlife, 16 bridges and beautifully clear water; whats not to like.  The volunteer at the entry point gave us the biggest laugh of the visit by asking us if we were over 60. First time that's happened and we are not; in hindsight perhaps we should have agreed and taken the discount.

Arriving in Sculthorpe we put the plants into the ground before enjoying some forward planning with wine in the garden before a trip to the Aviator.  With new owners, the pub has been stripped of all it's aviation theme decor and has a new menu. The nachos were dull and  I was disappointed that my Greek burger was lettuce, tomato and halloumi in a bun with no meat. The company was great though and we had more wine before an early night.