We visited Hopetoun Garden Centre back in 2018 and although it’s only a 15 minute drive away we haven’t been back until now. There are just too many garden centres closer to home. This is a good one however, with lots of architectural stuff. If you are looking for a statue of the Three Graces you’re in the right place.
Elections
On a week where the Great British Public go to the polls to elect our government for the foreseeable future there were several thought provoking signs amongst the plants here. Having been bored to death by the efforts of those campaigning to be our next Prime Minister, this sign seemed to strike a cord.
Rearranging the calendar
This one at the entrance commemorates a non-event in 1782. Could July 4th 2024 be another?
Nothing definitely happened from the 2nd to the 14th September 1753 mainly becuase these days just didn’t exist. They had to disappear to bring Britain into line with the rest of Europe that used the Gregorian calendar. There were riots by folks who thought the government had shortened their lives by eleven days. Can’t imagine that people with birthdays on any of the missing days would have been too happy either. This was also the year in which Britain declared January 1st to be New Year’s Day; something Scotland had done 153 years earlier, in 1600. We like a party!
Bottoms
Anyway, all this nothingness is not advancing your sconological knowledge one iota. 
The café area is large and called The Orangery. It’s self-service and we were lucky enough to get the last cherry scone. There was plain and fruit but we thought the cherry one to share suited our mood. No cream but a nice little pot of jam and some Irish butter completed the ensemble. I usually get stuck with scone bottoms as Pat snaffles the tops. On this occasion, however, she offered me a portion of the top so I could experience its delicious crunchiness. It was really nice and potentially a topscone had everything else been in place. 
We have our election in four days and the US has theirs in four months. The prospects there might even be worse than the UK’s. One candidate doesn’t seem to know what day of the week it is and the other refuses to believe it’s Monday because he thinks it’s a conspiracy by Tuesday people. Does the world need better than this right now … yes it does!
EH52 6QZ tel: 01506 834433 Orangery
///emotional.zone.driftwood
Our Trossachs correspondents have reported from the good ship Fingal, a floating hotel which we reviewed back in 2019. Back then the scones were round and excellent but evidently they are now square. Scotland is rightly proud of its square sausage but we have never come across square scones before. In 2019 we thought Fingal was perfect for itinerant millionaires so we had better start saving if we want to sample square scones for ourselves..
