When it came to a day or two before the day, I looked on their website to check my facts and could find nothing. I phoned Wisley, and was told that there wasn't an expert coming. I then found the info on the RHS website, and emailed them to let them know about the confusion.
They emailed me back on the actual morning to say it was going ahead. I hopped in my car with my pear samples, and drove there. When I got there, it turned out that I had to pay to go into tthe garden if I wanted to see the expert. I don't mind paying to go and visit the garden, but I didn't have time to look around. IN the end, I signed up to a year's membership, figuring that DH ad I could visit again in the year and that would pay for it.
I was then misdirected several times to where the expert was located. By this time it was pouring with rain, and I was dressed for summer, so I wasn't the happiest of bunnies. It all turned out well though, the Expert was great, he identified my pear, and I came home
Fast forward nearly 6 months.
We still hadn't visited Wisley. Then I got an email telling me about their butterfly house. DH and I decided we'd go. Tickets had to be booked in advance, but they were free. We had other commitments, and the butterfly house was only open on certain days, it finishes this weekend, and it ended up that we booked tickets for today.
We left in plenty of time. I had my membership card, I checked that it would admit DH for free as well, I checked I had the butterfly tickets. I remembered my camera. I even remembered my macro lens.
A straight run to the A3, and then suddenly the traffic was solid. We queued, and we discussed whether it was a traffic problem, or whether everyone was going to Wisley. We tried going round and coming back the other way, it was worse.
I wasn't too worried about missing our slot - Wisley would understand that there had been a traffic problem, everyone would be missing their slots.
We noticed that all the cars had couples in. I had a sinking feeling that all these people were heading to Wisley. I looked online for information about the jam, and in the end searched on Twitter.
All the traffic was for Wisley!
Today Wisley was opening for free. How could I have missed this?! I would never have arranged to go today if I had known.
We sat in the queue for awhile. A long while. Until I suggested that we go home.
All these cars meant we would be in the queue for another hour. And then we had to park. And then, even though numbers in the butterfly house would be limited, the crowds would be in the gardens. It wasn't going to be a pleasant stroll.
And so we came home.
