My Working Week

It’s been a funny old week, workwise. This morning I was writing about professional negligence in the construction industry. In between taking Jade to the beach and preparing our favourite chicken meal for the oven this afternoon, I’ve been finding out about the HD CCTV, CMOS sensors and progressive scanning systems that I have to write about next. Earlier in the week I was enjoying the memory of last year’s holiday in the corner of Cornwall where it so happens that a caravan and camping site requires content for a new website and other marketing material.

That’s why I revisited all the holiday pics and posted the jungle pic here on Wednesday. I took that when we visited the Lost Gardens of Heligan, which had been on my bucket list for a while. You can find more about that holiday in my November posts last year, including this one which was the first in a series about that garden visit. 

The pic above was taken at the nearby Megavissey harbour on a misty day.

Wordless Wednesday: Heligan Jungle

Charcoal Sculpure in the Lost Gardens of Heligan

I can't call this a Wordless Wednesday post becasue there are lots of words in my second photo. I hope you can read them. This is the largest size I can post in this template or the right hand side is lost, but you might be able to drag it larger with your mouse. 

Wordless Wednesday: the Heligan Shepherd's Hut

Lost Gardens of Heligan: Part II

The jungle at Heligan has a board walk encircling and crisscrossing the water at its centre. The long hollow in which it sits is so sheltered from the British climate that it is possible for its tropical plants to survive and thrive, as you can see from my pictures.

 After feasting our eyes on them, we left the jungle before attempting to follow the very steep walk down to the bottom pond. (Fortunately for us old fogies all the steep bits were marked on the map we got with our entry tickets so we were able to avoid most of them.) We crossed a field that was labelled the East Lawn to reach the Sunken Lane which we followed down to the Lost Valley with trails beside a river. It also had interesting features such as charcoal kilns and a charcoal sculpture, plus a shepherds hut on wheels that was doubling as a bird hide. I took the picture of the odd shaped tree in my Wordless Wednesday post along the trail here.

By this time we had been on the move for nearly two hours and were beginning to feel it, so again we avoided the steeper paths and skirted the estate via the Georgian Ride till we arrived back at the Grey Lady and retraced our steps through the woodland walk to the exit. We were wearing stickers that had been issued to allow us to enter the gardens as often as we liked on the day we bought our tickets. We needed sustenance but there was a lot more to see.

After a satisfying lunch of local produce in the café, hubby opted to take Jade back to the car and wait for me. I just couldn’t leave before a quick gallop around the more formal areas of the northern gardens. I took more photos of course. So look out for Part III to come.

PS I found a much better photo online of the Mud Maiden. Click the link to see it.

Lost Gardens of Heligan: Part I

I was really excited when I learnt that from October 1^st you can take your dog with you to the Lost Gardens of Heligan. It was only a few miles from our week long Cornish retreat and was on my list of desired places to visit, but I wouldn’t have made it on this occasion if we couldn’t take Jade.

Lost no longer, over the last 20 years, these gardens have been extensively restored and returned to their former glory around the 400 year old seat of the Tremayne family not far from the coastal village of Megavissey. And we are lost in admiration of the dedication and passion it must have taken.

As we had Jade with us, we decided to take the woodland walk as soon as we entered. This meandering path cuts through the woods which skirt the edge of the estate and form the shelterbelt for the house and gardens. The wood is home to some small Heligan pigs that help to keep the ground clear.  They are contained behind a low electric fence which we were warned to keep Jade away from.

 The other side of the path has been decorated with some fascinating garden sculptures, all well in keeping with their surroundings. Here is the first, the rather scary Giant’s Head.

The next one is the reclining Mud Maiden. She just wouldn’t fit into my camera lense, but I got most of her to show you. The head is a bit unclear but you can see a hip, thigh and waist as well as a shoulder and arm.

The final one is the grey lady. She’s a bit of a giant too. Made of wire, you can look right through her to the trees behind, so she’s quite hard to see in the photo. Everything was in silhouette so I’ve added a lot of light to try and make it easier to make her out.

She stands close to the end of the woodland walk and was inspired by a ghostly grey wraith said to haunt this area of the estate. The sculptors of all these were Sue and Pete Hill. The grey lady is a recent addition and has been planted with wild roses.

After this bit of the walk we headed down a steep hill into the hollow that houses the jungle. That calls for another post so our memorable visit to the Lost Gardens of Heligan will be a series on here.