A Cornish country garden…

We have just returned from an extended weekend away with my Aunt and Uncle to Cornwall. We went especially to visit the Tresco Abbey Gardens.

We all travelled down together late in the week and went straight to St Michaels Mount. The bad weather had just started to improve as we approached and the fog that was shrouding the island lifted to reveal the picturesque view. Luckily this was one of the bright periods in an otherwise very rainy weekend. It is a great for a short visit.

Afterwards we drove off to check into the Gurnards Head Hotel where we were staying while we were on the mainland. An ordinary looking country pub with average facilities, but it did do some less than ordinary food. However, as is our way when we holiday, we did end up spending more on wine than food. The landlord was from Newcastle, his wife was Finish and other staff included a Polish couple and a Thai woman.

Cornwall seems to have been forced out of its traditional industries and solely into tourism. There is hardly any evidence of farming, fishing or other traditional industry any where, but you can’t drive down a road without noticing that every second building is a B&B or Hotel. We looked at the local papers and the housing section was enormous with houses more expensive than those near to London. And yet the job vacancies pages, of which there were few, had no great opportunities.

We flew to Tresco in the Scilly Isles by helicopter, which was quite an interesting and enjoyable (if somewhat noisy and expensive) way to travel (also much faster than by boat). 20mins later we were on the island where we jumped into the back of a small truck and were driven to our hotel, the New Inn.

The island is lovely and once again we benefited from a break in the weather. We walked around the much of the small island in a couple of hours. The next day we walked around the rest and visited the exceptional sub-tropical gardens.

Whilst we were in the county we also visited one of our favourite looking theatres, the Minak built onto a cliff side over looking a beautiful sandy bay.

We also managed to fit in the obligatory National Trust site, this time it was the stately home called Terice.

We had a nightmare journey home with traffic accidents, poor weather, and road works combining to have spent the whole day in the car. We had a short break at my aunt and uncle’s where we dug up the first of the new potatoes for dinner, before we jumped into our car for the journey home. Again we got caught in more traffic and road works and we didn’t get home until the early hours of the morning.