Friday 28th May 2010, Falmouth and Glendurgan Gardens

We set off early anticipated heavier than usual traffic with it being Bank Holiday Weekend and drove to Falmnouth where we had hoped to have a walk along the sea front. We found that the place was very busy and the only parking would have meant too long a walk for Pat, bearing in mind that we wanted to visit two gardens as well.

So we drove to the outskirts of Falmouth and visited our favourite garden. We knew that is couldn't be as spectacular as it was the last time we visited in July two years ago, but we were pleasantly surprised with the flowers that were already blooming.

As you can see here it isn't a mass of colour as it will be in a couple of months time, nevertheless if you look closely there are some lovely flowers to be found
Look at this little beauty, and they came in several different colours too.
There were lots of beautiful irises like this one, they look too delicate to grow outside in the wind and rain, don't they?
Here is yet another exotic flower, needless to say I have no idea what it is called, but it sure looks lovely!
The gardeners were taking an impromptu break from their weeding and planting, and enjoying tea and bacon sandwiches, as you can see the grass must have been dry!!
Our main visit was to Glendurgan Gardens, a National Trust property and a must see if you are ever in the area, it is on a steep hillside and well sheltered, so many tropical trees thrive here as you can see, this area had lots of palms and ferns and also a little pool under the trees full of tadpoles.

And on a water lily in the pool Pat took this shot of her first Damsel Fly using her new camera, she was very pleased with the result!
One of the attractions of the garden is this fine maze, today it was busy with lots of foreign visitors (mainly German) who were clearly having a wonderful time!

Here is Pat completely overshadowed by one of the Rhododendrons, some of them here are over forty feet high!
There is a Tea Room (Cafe) on the site and we had dinner there, "Homicky Pie" which was Cheese and Potato and onion, served with Salad and a coffee to wash it down it was delicious.

Then it was time to make our way home through the narrow country lanes, Pat caught this shot of the Mawdach estuary (we couldn't stop) on the way back to Helston and home.

Late afternoon I left Pat sleeping and took myself off for a walk up to the village. This is the site entrance, a great place to stay if you are down here!

Walking through the footpaths I had the chance to play with the macro settings of Pat's new Camera, here is a moth
Two very Jazzy flies on a tree trunk, they were sunning themselves and half asleep, so made for an easy shot
And this was much more challenging, this bee was racing around like a mad thing, just look at those blurred wings as it flies upside down to collect nectar from a flower
Finally here is something you don't seem to see in Yorkshire: this is the local equivalent of a Cattle Grid, stone slabs with a whacking great gap between them, and drop beneath!