Category: Lost Gardens of Heligan

#1313 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Gardens and gardening, Interior design inspiration, Lost Gardens of HeliganLeave a comment

The Naked Gardener. When we bought this house 4 years ago it had been done up to sell. The bathroom was an homage to greyness and masculinity and definitely frolicking. The shower is a huge glass box and the bath is a light flashing jacuzzi that takes an hour to fill. We always knew we needed to soften the whole thing. We need not have worried, all our house plants pretended to be light starved, over watered and generally unhappy in most other rooms. The bathroom was an obvious plant convalescent room. Some still failed but others thrived.

For most of the summer, it has been obvious that thriving was certainly going on at the cost of light levels in the room. Plans were made, while showering, for a September day of houseplant care. Two hours of leaf culling and some reorganisation went to plan.

This morning it is hard to believe how much perkier everyone is.

Without us being fully aware this plant has had a baby. The baby is actually an adolescent. And so a bigger job of moving the adolescent out of the shared pot is required.

More plant planning while showering. Which is about as frolicksome as this bathroom gets. Unless there are three people under 6 in the bath which is actually very frolicksome.

Mid-century stereo cabinet reinvented as a bathroom storage unit.

#1004 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Gardens and gardening, Lost Gardens of Heligan, Serendipity1 Comment

Texture and Context. Wandering around a favourite local tourist attraction, with small people, alters the context of my adult engagement with the place. On this occasion, Heligan Gardens near Mevagissy in Cornwall. Small people linger longer in places that I give less time to. But they also give me less time to gather information because their  needs, interests and safety are less predictable than mine. I would love to be able to tell you which rare breed of donkey owns this beautiful fluffy ear. We visited her many times practiced the word donkey and moved on.

Similarly the Bronze Turkey.

We made animal noises in English and Polish. They are not the same.

And stare in wonder at a tiny fairy ring growing in a border.

But a small person version of a favourite place is not all hustle and bustle. I was left for ten minutes in the potting shed and again in the head gardeners office while playing hide and seek. Wonderful silent places where the illusion of stepping back a century or so is tranquil and authentic.

And where my pursuers are glimpsed through dusty old windows.

My fascination with bees is tempered by worrying if small fingers may try to touch a bee bottom. For once, a good enough photograph is the perfect balance of being a competent and trusted nana.

No bottoms touched.

The other thing busy days with small people affects is enough  moments to summon up a blog. My apologies for yesterday, maybe I can crack out two today. Maybe not. But there are plenty more pictures to share…

#676 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Lost Gardens of Heligan1 Comment

Describe one habit that brings you joy.

We have a family habit that has brought joy for more than 30 years.sAnd We are lucky enough to live within easy reach of all of the great tourist attractions of Devon and Cornwall. The place we visit most often is The Lost Gardens of Heligan near Mevagissey. We go so often we almost certainly don’t take the iconic pictures the location deserves but we do get some quirky shots most times we visit.

Today the mud maiden looked very relaxed.

And the Head Gardeners office never fails to charm me.

There are places to find peace, like this simple white greenhouse.

But for the most part today we did what a small person wanted to do and that meant hide and seek in all of the varied garden areas and dog walking on the beautiful lawns.

Somewhat amazingly we were there, almost when the doors opened until closing time.We would actually have been there at opening time but we had a traffic hold up on the way.

Action shot of us overtaking a steam engine on a narrow Cornish lane. It all added to the joy of the day. Link below to the Website of the Lost Gardens of Heligan.

https://www.heligan.com/