Monday 28 July 2008

Botanic Gardens, Dundee University

It's a beautiful sunny day and around 25 degrees.  Too nice to stay indoors, now my work is finished, so I'm going to have a trip to the wonderful Botanic Gardens at Dundee University.  The gardens are just a 20 minute drive from here on a pleasant road.

These gardens are exceptional and so much of the work is done by volunteers.  Unfortunately, owing to the restrictions of the bed and breakfast business, I'm unable to be a reliable volunteer but I can enjoy the results of their toils.

The photograph is of a beautiful climbing, highly scented rose on the front wall of the house here.  It was just coming into flower.  I was told a few years ago it was a very old rose, possibly having been planted not long after the house was built in the 1840s.  So today, I'm taking a stem complete with a flower, in the hope that one of the experts at the Botanic Gardens can identify the rose or at least give some idea of it's heritage.  Doubt if I will get the results back for a while but they should be interesting.

Here in Scotland, there are few opportunities to really use air conditioning in the car, but today is one of them.   It's not so long ago it was thought air conditioning would never be used in a place like Scotland but I have used it for the past few months quite often.  Perhaps we don't get enough days like today but our climate isn't as bad as it is pictured at times.  England often gets far worse weather than Perthshire!



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