One of the many ponds at the Lost Gardens of Heligan. (see http://www.heligan.com for more information!)
Flora's Garden. This is a very large Rhododendron bush (tree?) - a single plant 86 feet from root to tip. The blossom was already starting to fall, so we didn't see the rhododendrons at their best, but they were still spectacular.
Even if the rhododendrons weren't in full bloom, lots of other plants were - including these forget-me-nots.
We think this is a tree fern.
These are vaulted cells, or boles, for bees. The bees were kept in the straw "baskets" - actually called skeps. The boles were left open in the summer and the doors closed in the winter. The bees could come and go when the doors were shut, because gaps were left at the top and bottom of the doors. These boles date from around 1820 - 1840.
Close-up of a skep.
There are masses of greenhouses and cold frames in the lost gardens. This is in the melon garden - on the right, the melon house, to the left is Europe's only remaining pineapple pit, warmed by rotting manure.
We're not sure, now, what were in the flower pots, but these are glasshouses built against the walls of the flower garden. You can see some of the flower beds protected by low hedges through the windows of the glasshouse.
Flowerbeds and greenhouse in the background. This one's used for growing peaches.
The flower gardens - used to grow flowers to be cut and displayed in the house.
Part of the vegetable plots.
This chap and another sculpture, "Mud Maid", also at Heligan, were made by Susan Hill. This one's called The Giant's Head.
Lots of fallen blossom everywhere.
The Old Ale House, Truro. Looks interesting, but we didn't have time to go in and try the food or the beer.
Old petrol pump in St. Mawes, a pretty harbour village looking out over the River Fal. According to the price on the pump, petrol was about 2.4 (new) pence per liter. This week we were paying between 93 and 97 pence per liter on the way from Stansted Airport to Cornwall.
This is the Eden Project, like the Lost gardens of Heligan this is also the brain-child of Tim Smit. We prefered the Lost Gardens, which were also cheaper to get into, but if you have children, you'll probably find they prefer the Eden Project, since there are more exhibits and displays which they can interact with.
This shot shows most of the site of the Eden Project, which is near St. Austell. You can see the two giant, transparent domes made of ETFE cushions, each emulating a natural biome that house plant species from around the world. The double dome in the background houses the tropical biome. The connected set of domes in the foreground contain the warm temperate mediterranean environment.biome.
This sculpture weighs 3 tonnes and represents the amount of electrical and electronic scrap that a person in the UK gets through in their lifetime.
An elephant yam
These were at the entrance to the tropical biome - no idea what sort of flower they were.
There were a number of wooden sculptures around the Eden Project - a large driftwood horse near the main entrance and a family of pigs made of cork inside the mediterranean biome.
The Rites of Dionysus by Tim Shaw
An anemone
This was part of the path around the spiral garden - an area for school parties and children generally. Ruth likes collecting unusual patterns for inspiration when working on her quilting projects, so we took several shots of this!
One of the latest additions to the Eden Project, this building, which I thought looks like a hedgehog, is called The Core.
The vents on the biomes also resembled the windows on the "hedgehog", I thought.
