The Daleks of Kent

This morning in our garden The oasthouse Daleks of Sissinghurst Private Wisteria, I think Shadow Tower 1 Egyptian moment Beehives My shadow, but where’s my echo? Habitations Meditation Floral fireworks Blues and yellows Blue Spectrum 1 Spectrum 2 Weathervane Tower 2 Orb speaks unto orb Reflections Will plots Elaine’s shoes Overhead Hippo, when we drop Will and Carla off in Chelsea

Utterly glorious day, blue skies throughout. Will and Carla (Rosenzweig) arrive early for breakfast – and then we drive out on the M25 and M26 to Kent, and to Sissinghurst. Abominable traffic jam headed clockwise as we head anti-clockwise, with people out of their cars for miles on end, but somehow we get through unscathed.

Have only once been to Sissinghurst before, when we took cousin Hollister Sprague there perhaps 30 years ago. In many ways, better than I remembered, though fairly busy. The smell of flowers and blooms was ravishing, though Carla was suffering from a form of hay fever – and has the Chelsea Flower Show to ensure tomorrow.

Two of the highlights for me were (1) having a bottle of National Trust Viceroy Pale Ale for lunch and (2)  pausing by the beehives and watching the bees buzz in and out. Later, I rescued a bee that looked as if it was on LSD, but failed to rescue another this evening in our kitchen. Couldn’t initially work out where the frantic buzzing was coming from, then saw that a fatal drama was playing out over my head, with a large spider stabbing a bee and wrapping it in silk. A mummification that was slightly different to that in my mind when I was pondering the Egyptian head on a Sissinghurst flower pot today.