Second class café

Last week to Polesden Lacey, seemingly the first visit since the attempt to collect signatures for my copy of the first volume of Osbert Sitwell's biography, with Osbert being a favoured guest of Mrs. Greville.

Plenty of fine displays of dandelions on the sides of roads on the way, not flowers which are permitted in our own garden.

The bright, mild weather had brought the people out and there were plenty of cars in the car park when we got there shortly after 1000. But it is a big place, what with house, gardens, park and farms, and it could soak us all up without strain.

Stable yard shop

The shop in the stable yard had plenty of stuff. As did the indoor shop in the crested building right. While the tent left provided overflow seating for the first class café. We thought it likely that the National Trust share wholesalers with Chessington Garden Centre. Perhaps also the fancy goods warehouse up north, noticed at reference 2.

Bed at entry

The flower bed on the right, immediately after one enters the grounds proper was looking well, with the crown imperials in good form. No idea how the bed is managed as they seem to manage a succession of displays through the year.

Elsewhere, there were still plenty of daffodils and other spring flowers, including some snake's head fritillaries which were maybe twice the height of mine.

Polesden Lacey according to Gmaps

Instead of heading into the gardens to the left of the blue flag above, we headed east, out into the grounds, with plenty of fine trees and views.

Memorial bench

And it was quite warm enough to doze for a while on one of the south facing benches. With Ann Sansom not being visible on the Internet, apart from possible sightings of relatives turned up by Google at reference 3, so this is probably her most public memorial. Both Bing and Google seemed much keener on 'Samson' than 'Sansom'.

Yew avenue

Back towards the house through the yew avenue, the walk by the long yew hedge (just visible at the bottom of the snap from Gmaps) having been closed to give the grass there a chance to recover from the previous season. And underneath the house and up into the chicken department.

New yellow flowers one

New yellow flowers two

Which turned out to be Erythnonium 'Pagoda'. At first glance, rather like the common cuckoo pint, which last, as it happens, it making a very poor show in our garden this year, at least so far. As are my celandines, which hardly came into flower at all. Perhaps they are finally being seen off by the ivy.

South lawn trees

With the handsome trees on the edge of the south lawn being snapped from an antique, semi-circular wooden bench. But probably not so antique to have been made by hand, which would have been time consuming.

More crown imperial

Beetle house

Entertained by the elaborate beetle house, which had been erected next to the equally elaborate chicken run.

We decided that the first class café did not have the sort of sandwich we were looking for, being rather more into selling meals, just in the way of most public houses, and pushed on to the second class café where I settled for a flapjack and a bowl of something which looked a bit like pea soup, rather than the lentil and potato advertised. Texture of flapjack good, not cooked to a crisp as in some places, but someone had seen fit to add coconut to the mix. Texture of the soup very thin. Tableware all disposable, so we decided to take the two plastic forks home with us against future picnics.

On the way home, we took a peek at the Milner House Care Home in Ermyn Way, a large red brick house with lots of red brick extensions. Once the home of Lord Milner? Half brother to the Lord Milner Hotel in Belgravia? See reference 4.

Next door there was a modern office complex, complete with rather elaborate security, the sort of things one associates with secret and security services. But actually the home of Premium Credit, lately of East Street. Perhaps they have a computer centre inside to process the billions of transactions a month their website claims, for which see reference 5. At the time that the StreetView crew were last there, called ExxonMobil House. Was it them who needed the elaborate security, on account of Greenpeace and suchlike people?

Primroses

Home to the humble primroses of the new daffodil bed. Along with violets and sundry young carex pendula seedlings.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/12/osberts-day.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/12/gifts.html.

Reference 3: https://www.surreycommunity.info/tatsfieldhistoryproject/assets/documents/archive. With Tatsfield maybe 20 miles east of Polesden Lacey.

Reference 4: https://www.carehome.co.uk/carehome.cfm/searchazref/20001060MILA.

Reference 5: https://www.premiumcredit.com/.