On Thursday Mum & Dad had to take 'The Teenager' to the hospital A&E as he thought he had broken his ankle. How he managed it is anybodies guess as he wouldn't come out with us. These teenagers are a strange species....he obviously didn't know what he missed. Although he said he did...as he grunted 'boredom'! How could you possibly be bored being outside, enjoying the wonderful gardens and history? Fortunately it wasn't broken, just sprained, although it was discovered he had an 'unusual ankle' as he had an extra bone at the end of his fibula. Auxillary something...
Anyway we finally managed to drop him back to the cottage and make our way to Glendurgan Garden.
This garden has been developed over the last 180 years and has beautiful trees and shrubs and must look absolutely amazing in May when the rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias are all in bloom.
At the gates are a couple of stone foxes - we pretended to be scared of them. These sculptures are a recreation of the fox sculptures on the original garden gates which are now at the private entrance to the Fox family home.
We venture off down the hill.
What you can't see behind the ferns is the seating area of this unusual feature - a boat turned seat.
Loved this tree.
Looking down on the maze, Pinny and I were looking forward to finding our way through it.
We tried to study and memorise how to get to the centre of it.
Being later afternoon and slightly overcast we had the gardens almost to ourselves, and it was so lovely and peaceful with just the birds singing to listen to.
Mum & Dad both said they would love to have a garden like this.
At the bottom of the gardens is the little village of Durgan.
The little postbox set into the wall of the cottage.
Sitting on the edge of the shore watching the birds and boats in the little harbour.
Cute little cottage behind us
The old schoolhouse which is now a holiday cottage.
We were quite relieved it was no longer a school house - fancy if they discovered us outside - they might have made us go to school!
Being filmed again!
Such a quaint pretty little hamlet consisting of 20 cottages which were originally almost entirely occupied by fisherman who fished the Helford River and Falmouth Bay for pilchards, mackerel, lobster and crabs.
The fisherman's catches were taken by donkey to Falmouth market and were allowed to roam freely in the summer in the nearby fields. In the winter they lived in the cellars in the village.
The National Trust owns three of the cottages which are available for holiday accommodation.
We then walked back up through the gardens exploring.
Just look at this amazing plant! Looks a bit like a giant rhubarb plant.
Makes our rhubarb look small!
A little while later we get to the maze
This maze was planted in 1833 by Alfred Fox using Cherry Laurel. He got his inspiration from the famous maze in Sydney Gardens in Bath. I wonder if he planted it to keep his 12 children occupied?!
I tell Pinny that you are supposed to keep following the maze to the left....
...but this theory didn't seem to work... we came upon a dead end!
Hmmm...better try again.
It really was a very good maze! Finally we made it.
We're here!
In the middle is a lovely little thatched summer house which follows the design of the original. We sit and chat with some friendly people from Bath and just enjoy the warmth of the afternoon.
Aware that the gardens are soon to close and we still had much to see we had to reluctantly say goodbye and move on.
We had to move quite quickly through the rest of the gardens but managed to get in a little more tree climbing...
Looking down the valley overlooking the maze and pond.
This building is built on the footings of the original family school room - what a lovely place to learn!
Lastly we see if we can count all the coins thrown in the pool!
Our afternoon ended all too quickly and this is a place we hope to visit again in the future. Probably not with Pinny, but certainly I will go and who knows maybe I will have another friend staying with me?
