Trelissick Gardens and Falmouth...

Wednesday 1st June and Thursday, 2nd - (Catch-up)

 

Cloudy this morning and we went to Trelissick Gardens, which are across the river from 'our' side of the river, from the K.H. Ferry. You pass the gates every time you go up the hill from the ferry, and they are also National Trust, so another saving on entry fees.

We have missed the best of the Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and similar plants, with only a few last hangers-on showing their colour. Lovely long perennial borders, and some sweeping lawn areas edged with many beautiful plantings. There are long walking paths criss-crossing the garden and some very interesting clumping bamboo that are great shades of green and don't seem to be 'running' and sending up suckers. Also some nice specimens of tree ferns.

We spent about an hour there, and then went for tea/coffee in the cafe, but it was like a bun-rush, with parents and little children milled around and NOT making up their minds what they wanted. Brits are great sticklers for queuing, and woe betide you if you jump the line, but a lot of them are also very insensitive to other people around them, and how they might be holding things up.

Whilst Lee was waiting for me to get the coffee, (which I gave up on), she was sat at a table at which someone had left a piece of cake, and some chaffinches were after the crumbs. She only knew what they were as she heard a man at the next table tell his son.

Climbing hydrangea

Looming above everything near the road and the entrance is the most beautiful 'water tower', which we had seen from the road a few times and wanted to bring home! It is stunning, and is now let as holiday accommodation, and I was determined to get some shots of it and ventured out on to the road. Not really a problem because it is the road down to the ferry, so you know when there are no cars coming, because the ferry is crossing the river, and so at least one lane is empty.

This picture is of ONE Cryptomeria japonica!!
The lower parts near the ground are worn smooth by decades of children climbing on the tree.

 So back to the cottage for lunch and the requisite nanna naps!

Thursday, 2nd - Falmouth

Today is a ferry trip across to Falmouth from St.Mawes harbour. Cool, but the sea was calm and we had great views of St.Mawes Castle as we passed by. The trip takes about 30 minutes, and you can see across to Pendennis Castle on the other headland. The ferry diverted to show us the cruise ship called "The World",  on which the cabins/suites/staterooms, etc are OWNED by people who do nothing but cruise around the world! He said the smallest, inside apartment cost  $1,000,000 US!

If you stay with this blog you will see how small it is compared to the one we cruised on to Norway, as they were both in Oslo at the same time, so these people had sailed from Falmouth in early June, and were up in Oslo on the 30th June, via whoknowswhere?

Falmouth is apparently the third deepest harbour in the UK, so it can take big ships, and there are also an enormous number of yachts, both motorised and sail in the marinas. You do appreciate how nice it must be in good weather to be able to sail in this area.

Got a taxi up to Pendennis castle as we weren't sure we'd find our way there ourselves and it was 2 miles anyway. It is on the headland with all the fortifications facing out to sea, with gun placements, battlements., etc.

The castle is similar to St.Mawes and has some great displays and a reproduction battle set up in one of the gun towers. Very noisy and it is set off when anyone walks in to have a look. Quite well done, but very loud. Kids would love it.

Got some supplies at the post office to send some stuff back. We are mainly sending back leaflets and maps and things like that which aren't necessarily heavy, but take up space and are easy to send,. It really does help, and already (13/7/11) some have turned up, which is interesting as we made them all surface mail.

Had coffee at the cafe and then another taxi back to the next ferry. On the wharf there was a very talented guitarist, playing very peaceful classical and popular music. He was very good and we threw some money in his case.

On the way back the ferry man went past some rock outcrops, with a navigational light on it, and there were quite a few seals laying around in the sun. Many yachts out too, and it was just a great day, and we stopped in town on the other side and had lunch in the deli.

After the naps, we had to think about packing up and heading east across to Stonehenge and over to Woking, near London and then Kent.