Birds, music, flowers and food

August weekends at Wisley have been busy and we decided to go down and join the fun this Sunday. It all began with a flying demonstration by the wonderful birds of Xtreme Falconry. They come up from Kent (soon to be Dorset) for a few weekends of displays at Wisley each year. It all began with a beautiful barn owl and then a European eagle owl, a Mexican striped owl and a Griffon vulture. To round off the performance they flew a Bateleur Eagle from Africa, with her impressive red beak and chocolatey plumage. The families loved it and the children had plenty of questions for the main handler. When the birds were back on their perches, we went across to the marquee and took a closer look at these amazing birds. As we were looking at the birds, a band struck up and soon their up beat tunes were wafting across the grass. This was the Panama Cafe Orchestra playing on the terrace outside the cafe - very appropriate! As the weather did look a little 'iffy' they found a corner under the glass roof, and cheerfully played away to the delight of the crowd. We decided to pop into the cafe for a coffee and listen, before going on our walk around the Garden.

From the cafe we turned left to walk round the side of the lake, where plenty of people were watching the ducks, geese and coots paddling in the shallows. There are also some large carp that swim in the shallows gaping their large mouths at the visitors. We came to the Glasshouse where there is a great display of Wisley fuchsias, as well as some smaller displays of the various local fuchsia societies in the Glasshouse Gallery. Up the ramp behind the waterfall is a plant/tree that was featured on the Wisley facebook page, Ensete glaucum or snow banana. It grows fairly high up in Yunnan, China. In the tropical area there were several plants flowering including a small version of the creeper, Dutchman's Pipe (Aristolochia), which is winding it's way along the balcony with lots of flowers. 

Snow Banana

Dutchman's Pipe, Aristolochia

Leaving by the back door, we strolled through the lovely prairie planting and on up the rockery to the Alpine Houses where Sunny, the cat, hangs out lying on the warm gravel between the plants.

 

Time for more coffee before descending through the Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden and into the Jubilee Rose Garden, the AGM borders (where all the plants have Awards of Garden Merit from the RHS). The Country Garden is just beyond these, and from there we walked down what was left of the Mixed borders, looking up to see the newly refurbished and replaced Henry Moore Arch at the top of Battleston Hill. 

Time to leave as we had an early dinner date as well as wanting to see some of the cricket before we left for the restaurant. England in command in the last test, so that's good. We met up with friends who had been in Sakhalin with us at the Good Earth in Esher. Great food, but abysmal service (again) even though we had a Chinese person with us, doing the ordering! But it was great to catch up with people we had largely not seen for ten years or so!


 Xtreme Falconry
Snow Banana 
RHS Garden Wisley
Panama Cafe Orchestra
The Good Earth
Sakhalin