We woke to brilliant sunshine although the chilly wind was still in evidence. After a tasty breakfast in the Griffin Inn, the owner James very kindly offered to drive us to Trading Boundaries, two miles away. He was well disposed to us because James had helped him to light the fire in the pub in the morning!
Trading Boundaries is an interesting place; a shop for antique and unusual items, a café and a music venue. But the main reason that we were there was to visit the Roger Dean art work that is on permanent display in the upstairs gallery. I bought a painting from there for James’ 60th; I used the online catalogue to choose it as well as many phone calls with the owner, Michael. We were both interested to visit the gallery.
There were many large original Roger Dean paintings and James was mesmerised. We met up with Michael and he was very pleasant and genuinely enthusiastic about the artwork. He is a longtime friend and business partner of Roger Dean. In due course Roger himself arrived and we all went back to the Griffin Inn for lunch. We had a good chat; James was asking Roger about how he had started working with Yes, and Roger told us some great stories about his life. He once shared a flat with Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd and told us a very funny story about him. The postman once arrived at their flat and Syd answered the door naked. This made the postman retreat and Roger then saw the postman running away, pursued by naked Sid who was trying to reassure him that all was well. Roger then took us to see his architectural project which is a unique structure that he hopes to build in California. What an amazing afternoon. We had to leave at 4 to go to Gatwick Airport, and I’m currently blogging as we wait for our plane to depart for Glasgow.
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