18. The Lost Gardens

 It’s Sunday morning and I’m ready for my most perfect day. We’re off to the The Lost Gardens of Heligan. We came here when we were in Cornwall 7 years ago and it did not disappoint then. To me it’s a magical place. Lost Gardens of Heligan were brought back to life starting in the early 1990s. It is 200 acres of estates, forests, and Europe’s largest garden restoration project. It gives the public access to a vast array of walking paths and gardens; pretty much anything horticulture related takes place here. It’s a production estate as well with fruits and vegetables grown on site .and farm animals and wildlife and formal gardens. And of course there’s a well-established retail shop and also Lobb’s Farm Shop which sells food and goods for the kitchen. 

We started walking through the Woodlands. Bluebells were out in abundance and the trees and the lower growing plants and bushes are thriving thanks to all of the rain. We branched off into the Jungle and enjoyed our time walking across the Burma Rope bridge. All throughout the walking paths you come across huge trees and bushes in massive blooms of camelias and rhodendrons and azaleas. It seems as though the blooming cycle this year is actually slower than when we were here last time (which was actually a few weeks ago in terms of the calendar year). 

Of course today’s blog would not be complete without a few, “Now how do we do this?” Our first conundrum of the day, 1) How Do We Get to The Lost Gardens? We used the Navigation system in the car to tell us how to get there as the cell phone wasn’t loading anything. We definitely were directed along every single back road, and also every single track road. There was never a sign to indicate we were headed to The Lost Gardens of Heligan. We were quite fearful (or rather I was fearful) we were “The Lost Car of the Kings” but we should have known better, and all of these back roads magically got us to where we were supposed to be. We figure it is good practice for the upcoming trails through Wales. Did I mention that the speed limit in all cities in Wales has been reduced to 20 miles an hour everywhere, and it is seriously enforced. 2) How to Operate the Wet Room Shower (this was a first experience for us where the toilet and a rainfall shower are in the same space so the toilet gets soaked while you are showering and anything else you forgot to remove. Except we first had to figure out how to turn it on. I think I could actually do a whole blog series on “Showers on My Vacation.” As our children well know, this seems to be a lifelong challenge for the elders in our family. Every shower needs to be turned on a different way. It bears mentioning that in order to avoid the Wet Room experience I opted to use the claw foot bath which had a hand-held shower unit which I was carefully aiming just over my head. But I still managed to get half the room wet, and this tub was in our bedroom. We were successful in getting the Wet Room Shower on. 3) How to Use the Manual Can Opener? I really wanted a canned salmon sandwich for lunch but could not for the life of me figure out how to use the can opener. I even went so far as to Google the instructions online for the brand of opener but no directions existed. So I resorted to emailing our landlord. She sent her husband over and I felt so redeemed because he couldn’t get it to work either. He resorted to going and getting their can opener and now I shall have salmon sandwiches for dinner tonight. 

Feeling energetic after doing a warm-up trying to get the salmon can open we ventured down to the waterfront and walked along the coastal path near the cliff face. It was a good hike and we burned off lots of energy climbing all the steps. Coming down was very relaxing and listening to all of the sheep in the meadow baa-ing is really very soothing. We even dipped our hands in the English Channel today, inspired by the woman who went swimming in the open waters. It surprised us by how warm it felt. 

Mud Maid sculpture

Pour mes petite enfants. This pump reminded me of the kind I used to pump drinking water from at the lake. 

Grandpa crossing the Burma Rope in The Jungle. Grandma did it too!

I don’t know what these are called but they are enormous leaves and they looked like young plantings. 

The chickens. 

I believe these are calla lilies. 

A scene from our hike up the coastal path in Charlestown. 

Pour mes petites enfants.
This is what the post office boxes look like when we mail your post cards. 

I think it would be wonderful to have to sweep up the remnants of these beautiful flowers. 

How nice to hear the sheep grazing not too far away. 

This one’s for you, Jeannie.
Lots of shells and stones on this beach to collect. 

We dipped our fingers in the English Channel on this beach in Charlestown.