After leaving the Church, we followed the signs to Gipsy House. It’s not as far out of town as I expected, but it really is very secluded and out-of-sight. This is the famous Gipsy House gate, unfortunately covered up with signs for the event. The bottom sign lists information for the year’s Open Garden days.
This one’s a little hard to see, but it’s actually the inside concrete wall of the Gipsy House garage. As I was standing to buy my ticket at the entrance, I noticed the names of the Dahl children written into the wall. If you click on the image, on the larger version you can make out “Tessa” and “Theo” on the top, followed by “Ophelia” in the middle, and then “Lucy” and “Daddy” on the bottom. It just struck me as something very sweet… the kind of thing you’d want your dad to do.
At last… the beautiful entrance to Gipsy House! It looks just like it does on the cover of Memories with Food at Gipsy House, minus a few big potted plants. If you look at the enlarged version, you can see that I cut off Felicity on the right side of the picture (pointing to the door). And I didn’t take anymore with her! Oh well, you can see her on the book if you want.
It’s me… and the BFG! Felicity introduced me to Mr. Wally
Saunders of Great Missenden, who she claims was Roald’s inspiration for the Big Friendly Giant. He’s not so big anymore, as evidenced by the fact that I tower over him. But look at those ears! I’ve done a photo comparison so you can see the resemblance:
