Friday, May 14, 2010

Better Late Than Never?

First thing yesterday morning, we decided to go to Falmouth in Cornwall. It was an ambitious drive-- about 85 miles (170 return), which seems like a long way in England. Robin wanted to visit the Maritime Museum. So off we went. On the way out, I made a little movie to show you the road we use to get in and out of Weblands. (I must keep in mind that making little movies positively devours batteries!)If YouTube finishes its magic before I finish this post, I'll embed my movie. Otherwise, I'll wait until Sunday. I doubt there will be much posting tomorrow. We're off for a family get-together in Dorset early in the day, then rushing back to Buckfastleigh in the evening to hear the Mozart Requiem.

Anyway, back to yesterday: When we crossed the Taymar Bridge,
we were in Cornwall. We remembered that you don't have to pay a toll to cross the bridge into Cornwall – but you do have to pay to get out again. That is just strange. Cornwall is a lovely place, and I always regret leaving it.

When we reached Falmouth, we parked the car and headed straight to the Oggy Oggy Pasty Company. I know we had other reasons to go to Cornwall, but I suspect I would go all the way there just for the pasties.



Once we had had our lunch, we visited the museum. There was a very interesting exhibit that dealt with the history of lighthouses in Britain, and there were boats everywhere – old ones and new ones and some under construction. A lot of the boats hung from the ceiling, and ramps around the perimeter of the room allowed us to climb higher and higher, seeing the boats from different angles.


It was about 2:30 p.m. when we came out of the museum, so we got back on the road. We wanted to visit the Lost Gardens of Heligan. The first time we tried to go there was years ago, on our trip to Newquay. Somehow, on that trip, we ended up visiting Trelissick Gardens instead. This time, I was determined to find Heligan. Just getting there was a pleasure, because I could not only enjoy the beauty of the landscape, but also read the road signs. Cornish place names are delicious. They are like honey on the tongue: For example, there are Pendennis, Penjerrick, Trenarren, Trewithen, Trelissick, Polperro – and my favourite, Mevagissey.

Mevagissey also happens to be where the Lost Gardens of Heligan are. We got to the gardens at 3:30, and we emerged two hours later, tired but very happy with our find. In retrospect, I'm glad we didn't find the gardens the first time we tried. It looks as if there's been an awful lot of work done in the last nine years, and I think it was about that long ago that we made our unsuccessful attempt. I took about 70 photos while we were there - and then I discovered the above link, where you will find much better photos than mine. Hmmph.

After a very full day, we got home at about 7:30 last night. I set about preparing dinner while Robin went down to the pub for an aperitif (pint). We ate our dinner and at about 9:00 p.m. I turned on my computer. I couldn't get onto the internet. I thought perhaps the fact that I had installed Avast! Antivirus and not bothered to uninstall AVG was causing problems, so I uninstalled AVG and tried again. Nope. After about eight attempts, I asked Robin to try to get online with his computer. He couldn't get there either. Despite the fact that our computers said we had a connection, we were in fact DISconnected from the world.

Ah, well. I can still type on Open Office, right? Right. So that's what I did. The web is finally working, and I am left pondering the fact that there was a time in my life when being without internet overnight would not have been a catastrophic event.

Okay. YouTube is still labouring away at my feature film, so I think I'll leave it alone, like Little Bo-Peep.







Speaking of sheep, though, there was a part of the lighthouse exhibit at the museum that I found particularly interesting. It seems that, in order to keep themselves occupied, the men who cared for the lights used to knit (I saw some lovely examples of the craft), write poetry and prose, sketch -- very creative stuff, all. Then TV was introduced. This was the result:

8 comments:

Unknown said...

A time before constant interweb access--do tell! Fun travelogue & pix.

Tess Kincaid said...

I'm sooo envious. Sounds like you're having fun!

Truth said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Totalfeckineejit said...

By Tre ,Pol, Pen you shall know Cornish men.


Looks like your having a fine time.Enjoy the rest of your holiday!

RLM Cooper said...

Is "Square Eyes" what's happening to us with computers, Sandra?

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

This may be as close as I'll ever get to England. I am loving the trip!
Maribeth
Giggles and Guns

Kathryn Magendie said...

Love it all! *smiling at you*

Sandra Leigh said...

Yes, John. It was long ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Willow, TFE, thank you. I'm having a great time.

AngelMay - not quite, because we talk back to our computers, as it were, rather than staring mindlessly at the moving images. (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.)

Maribeth, I'm glad you're enjoying the trip. Just think - you get to see England without experiencing jet lag!

Kathryn, I love your smiles. Thank you.

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