Heligan Gardens

Today started a bit cloudy, with minuscule drops of rain. This all cleared up by 10 am-ish. This was good, because I spent the day at Heligan Gardens. Pronounced Hel-LI-gan, with the emphasis on "LI". Gorgeous gardens, no formal plant signage, though plenty of map signage to find your way about the grounds. The gardens are set out on the general principals of the layout when the gardens were at their peak - just prior to WW1. The owners of the estate, the Tremaynes, were a very wealthy family, who had a couple of estates, this being their primary. As many very wealthy families of the day, they had found or purchased plants from all over the world, and had turned Heligan into a botanical showplace. During and after the war, they seemingly completely lost heart in keeping the gardens going, and first let the house as a hospital for wounded soldiers, then for general use as a staging ground for soldiers heading out to Normandy. After the war, the house was leased out, and the gardens left go to the wild. Some 75 years later, the group of people that were to end up restoring most of the garden to its original state started clearing the grounds. This all began in about 1991. The very old trees and shrubs were left, and any plantings that were original and still alive were pruned. I signed up for the guided tour of the formal grounds. Graham, our guide, was amusing and most informative. He described the wilderness state that the entire property had come to, with the brambles 10 feet high, and only rotted remains beneath of glass houses, pleasure rooms, grottos, tools, pretty much everything.

Now, the gardens are a great pleasure to see, with the Victorian vegetable gardens, the massive rhododendrons (which would be in spectacular bloom in spring and summer), the restored melon house, bee boles, vine house, and a host of others. In the spirit of keeping the best, but also creating a dynamic, living and working self-sustaining grounds, the staff have added a saw-mill, live-stock, and are working on forestry. Part of the research that had to be done to bring the gardens back to the pre-1900 state was to figure out what the original varietals would have been. After a somewhat rocky start (finance-wise), the gardens have taken off. Much of the produce used and sold in the cafe and shop are from the gardens. Graham said that the general consensus of the staff was that the flavour of the old vegetable varietals was much tastier, with better texture than the modern varietals. With the exception of the peas.

My big bonus of the day was meeting another "singleton" lady - Peta - who (as it turns out) is mostly my age, with mostly the same interests as myself. Art, fashion (well, the jewelery part anyway), literature, beads, people. In any case, we hit it off immediately, and when I suggested that I needed to start thinking about getting out to my bus stop, she suggested we could spend the afternoon seeing more of the garden, and perhaps have dinner. What's not to like?? Chance-met companions can be ever so much more diverting than pre-arranged; something like surprise gifts. So we cavorted about the garden; first with the organized tour, then through the grounds. Peta enjoys random encounters (oh, and I don't?) - she will engage anyone in conversation, including the lady at the grocery store to inquire about the comparative qualities of the bottled water. Hah! Good fun. The rest of the afternoon we spent in Mevagissey (which the next day's chance met companion described as "Sin City"), where the sun did not desert us; the weather continued mild, sunny and perfect through the night. A leather goods store, a knick-knack store, and (whoops!) a bead store. No book stores. I had already declared my addiction; and was firmly led away from the only bookstore we passed. Pfff. I'm sure it wouldn't have been any good at all... Not to mention a walk around a picture perfect harbour, complete with lighthouse. Afterwards, into St. Austell to meet up with two chance-met acquaintances of hers, from her B&B, for dinner at the local pub. Mussels in wine sauce, VERY nice bread, wine, and an extremely noisy hen party. Note to self: do we have hen parties in the States? Am I missing something?? Frankly, even if we do, I think not!! And, yes, she drove me back to the hostel in the evening; returning before the witching hour of 10:30.

Altogether a MOST satisfying and enjoyable day.