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Wet Wet Wet
• Rain fails to dampen Folly Fanciers' Spirits
 On the Web |
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By
The Minx, Contributing editor
Saturday,
18 August, 2007
We spent the day at the Folly Fellowship's Summer Garden party, in driving rain, at Pelham Place Hampshire.
The highlight of the day was to be Vernon Gibberd's new grotto folly for the owner Damon de Laszlo. (Vernon designed the grotto at Leeds castle).
You get into a punt, punt along a short stretch of water, duck into a tunnel and then dismount into a grotto with a relief of Methusalah by Derek Bruce. You exit using hand-holds in a vertical climbing wall to emerge at ground level in a Chinese pavilion.
So we were all looking forward to it.
Unfortunately the first couple in the punt, despite being advised by the owner to leave their valuables behind (camera, mobile phone etc) declined to do so and when they got to the landing stage, both stood up at once, overturned the punt and fell into the water.
The male half of the duo then departed in high dudgeon shouting he would sue both the FF and the property's owner. For the rest of the day the punt was tied up at its mooring........
One of the nicest features was a custom built helter skelter. Full sized. Complete wth bucket of soapy water at the top to keep it slippy, unnecessary in the driving rain which persisted all day. Ex FF Chairman Iain Gray, had a go. He came down on a wooden slider, which goes much faster than a coir one........and positively exploded out the end. Muffled shrieks and thumps emerged from the helter skelter all day.
The Millennium folly is entered at the bottom and in pitch darkness the visitor winds his way to the top via an illuminated chamber containing a mother and child base relief overlooking a black infinity pool by William Pye. I thought this was a table and put my shoulder bag on it before I realised....Others made the mistake of trying to lean on it.
The wood behind the house is full of sculptures, some impossible to locate in the rain, while the fields contain a number of fake cows.
The highlight of the afternoon was the consumption of Pimms, or iced coffee with ice cream, according to your preference and the cutting of the traditional folly cake, this year in the shape of the helter skelter.
Despite the weather, the follies and sculptures were appreciated by a record turn out, including a number of continental members.
The Naked Reader 2007
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