Trip to the Swiss Garden

We haven't had a particularly good couple of weeks due to the weather. Our week in the cottage in East Sussex was abandoned due to the extreme weather, as recorded in a previous post. We did, however, go to visit Carol's mum and dad last Wednesday in Southampton. We booked rail tickets on-line and drove to Oxford in order to journey down via train. It was a long day, as we left Milton Keynes around 7.30 to get to the park and ride at Water Eaton and then catch a bus into the main station in Oxford. The journey down was straightforward and took around 90 minutes. Carol's parents were on the station platform when we arrived and we spent the day wandering around the city, including having lunch in a Weatherspoons pub, always good value. We came back on the train which left at around 3.45 and got back to Oxford at about 5.15. It seems to be the most convenient way to travel down to see them, avoiding the long car journey down to Bournemouth where they live.

Today we were determined to get out somewhere as the weather had improved. As a result we decided to go to the Swiss Garden at Old Warden in Bedfordshire. We have been before, but that was a few years ago. The car park was virtually empty when we arrived, but as the morning progressed it gradually filled up. The sun shone, but it wasn't too hot. In fact, the right sort of mild weather making it ideal for walking around outside in a garden. The Shuttleworth collection is pat of the place, but we didn't visit that and may return at a later date. Perhaps when some of the planes are flying. I have seen it, but that was years ago. I seem to recall a school visit so you get some idea how long ago it was. There is a restaurant and shop as part of the complex, where you pay to enter.

The Swiss Garden is deceptive because it doesn't occupy a very large space, and the way it's laid out means you turn a corner and discover something new each time, such as a pond with a delightful wrought iron bridge over it, or a folly or other building such as the thatched  Swiss Cottage which is in the centre of the garden or the Indian Kiosk which has seats in it so you can stop and sit and enjoy the view. There is now a woodland walk which include a sculpture trail which wasn't part of things the last time we visited. It has a decent path to walk on.

When we had completed our visit we had coffee and very nice chocolate cake in the restaurant  before leaving. We drove on to Jordan's Mill which is a mile or two up the road at Broom, just off the A1. I'd heard about this and was interested to see it as you get to see the workings of a water mill which has been in operation on the same site for centuries. We didn't pay for the guided tour but walked around the adjacent garden before driving back towards Milton Keynes.

Trip to Milton Keynes Theatre

Yesterday afternoon we went to Milton Keynes Theatre to see a production of "To Kill A Mockingbird." A touring production which started life at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London. The show didn't start until 2.30 so we went in by car and parked in the multi-storey carpark directly behind the theatre. I have never parked in there before and it meant we didn't have to walk far  to the theatre. We had more than enough time before the show started so we went into the Weatherspoons pub near the theatre and had a snack and then wandered into the shopping centre for a stroll before making our way into the theatre. We had booked our tickets on-line so we had to go and pick them up at the box office.

I studied "To Kill A Mockingbird" for G.C.E. 'O' Level, so I had a good idea what the story was about, which did help, but it was a very good production. A cast of around 12 actors played all the characters, many doubling and even trebling up on parts. The children in particular were good in the central children's roles as Scout, Dill and Jem. A very simple set, and few props. It's just goes to show that you don't need elaborate sets, costumes and so on to put on a play. An over-use of stage machinery and setting seems pointless. Just think of films in the same way; C.G.I. effects and elaborate effects don't a movie make. Decent story-telling and acting is all it takes.

When we left the theatre we walked back to the car-park. One entering we had to take a ticket out of the machine at the barrier. When you are about to leave the car-park you have to go to a ticket machine, put it in and it works out how long you have been in the car-park and you pay what it says on the screen and then, when you drive out you put the ticket in the machine at the barrier to get out. There were two machines. One was out of order and the other one wouldn't take card payment. We got there just in time as there was a queue forming to use the machine. By the time we'd walked up to the 7th floor to collect our car and we'd driven down we went back past the ticket machine and the queue had lengthened considerably. We had avoided this queue by getting back to the carpark as quickly as we had, thankfully.