Slightly surreal goings on...

June is a very busy month.  Not only is it one of the most popular for garden group visits, requiring tea and cakes/biscuits/scones etc. to be made, tours to be conducted, and a lot of 'being on parade' (all of which we really rather enjoy, actually), but it is also the month when we welcome back the hoards of artists, opera singers, stage designers, directors, orchestras, stewards and other connected persons... it can only be the Iford Arts Season!

One of the benefits of this whirlwind of excitement are the slightly surreal sights and sounds which accompany the 'get-in' of an opera production - opera singers wearing 'half-costume' and 'representative make-up' trotting through the garden amongst the visiting public; final rehearsals as the musicians fit the production they had each envisaged in their own minds into the bizarre 'cloistered' reality with which they now have to contend; and this evening the wonder of walking into the kitchen to make a cup of tea only to find the Chroma chamber ensemble rehearsing in the courtyard just outside the window.

Marvellous.  Simply marvellous.