Seeking the Winter Colours of Cornwall

Brrrrr! It was freezing at Pentewan, even if there were shades of blue in the sky.

As I returned home I wondered if there was any colour in our garden on such a chilly, January day.

Couldn't see a lot - other than some interesting shades of brown in the hydrangea raised bed - with the green leaves of a primula showing through.

A reddish leaf under another another hydrangea.

By the house wall a brave geranium flower survived with a small head of flowers.

No flowers on this invading green nasturtium though, just raindrops.

Looking upwards into a colourless sky, there's a hint of colour.

A quick detour into our front porch where a Christmas Cacti  (Schlumbergera bridgessii)  lingers on ...

...as does our money plant

The next day, as we were passing Truro's Boscawen Park, we popped in for a walk and hopefully to spot some colour. I liked this tree.

Spotted a cyclamen tucked away in remarkably good condition ... 

... and some more colour.

It started to rain but snapped two more flowers. 

Another day and moving on to a quick visit to Cornwall's Eden Project.

The next four plants I spotted in the Mediterranean Biome.

We then moved on to the Rainforest  Biome, which is usually more interesting (in my opinion).

We arrived at the Baka Basecamp - photo as below!

Baka people live in Mongolu huts while out hunting. It's the men who do the actual hunting and food gathering, while the women build the huts, covering them with Nyongo leaves.

They eat forest fruits, nuts, bush meat and fish killed with plant poisons.

The Baka women sing and make music the night prior to a hunt. They believe this enchants the animals and ensures a successful hunt.

Moving on, there is a wobbly rope bridge high amongst the trees.

Three more photos from Eden's Rainforest Biome.

Now we are homeward bound. The display below is on the route out of the Eden Project.

I then noticed the early daffodils (12th January).

Yes, definitely daffodils, quite made my day.

Thanks for visiting my blog, hope you have an interesting week ahead. Good wishes ~ Mike.

Colours of Cornwall in Autumn

Gosh, it was raining cats and dogs when we arrived at Cornwall's Eden Project for a short walk.

We hurried down to the Mediterranean biome for some shelter and to look at some of the plants.

We plonked ourselves on a seat, where we often sit when visiting the biome. A friendly robin came to say hello.

This reminded me of a good friend, sadly now deceased, who believed robins brought him good luck. 

One Saturday he was off to a football match to see his team play an away game. The team, by the way, also had the nickname of 'the robins'.

He drove about half the journey and pulled into a lay-by for a cup of tea. His wife was with him and he pointed out a robin sitting nearby. The bird then hopped onto his car bonnet. My friend said a few words to the effect that this was lucky - and therefore his team would win.

Before he continued his journey he crumbled up a biscuit for the robin. As he left the lay-by, he could see the robin feeding away and the bird appeared to look up as if in acknowledgement.

Yes, his team did win. But he was luckier than this because he bought a club lotto ticket as he entered the ground. At half time the result of the lotto was called over the loud speakers and my friend won £1000! So the robin did bring him luck. And maybe leaving something for the bird brought him some extra luck. Kind acts are often rewarded.

Anyway, still in the Mediterranean biome, there was also an owl - a big one! 

The colours are uplifting ... 

... even though the rain was still chucking it down.

Another photo from the same biome.

We decided to head for the Rainforest biome.

Pink flowers to welcome us ...

and lots of leaves ...

... big ones!

There was also a photo from a real rainforest.

An information board explained the following:

A little Ot Danum girl running through the forest far up the Melawi river in Kalinantan, the Indonesia part of the island of Borneo. She already knew the names and uses of many plants.

We continued wandering around the rainforest biome, in the pleasant warmth, and saw this basic building pleasantly decorated.

It was soon time to wander back to our car.

Mentioning the robin, in this post, reminded me of a meeting with a young bird we had in our garden, a while back.

We were doing some gardening when the little bird below flew onto my wife's gloved hand ... and stayed there - it wouldn't move.

I went indoors to get my camera and when I returned the blue tit still hadn't moved at all.

The RSPB (The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) advice is: "Fledglings are extremely unlikely to be abandoned by their parents. Just because you cannot see the adult birds does not mean that they are not there. The parents are probably just away collecting food - or are hidden from view nearby keeping a watchful eye, or even being frightened away from their youngster by your presence. Fledglings should be left where they are, in the care of their own parents."

As for our young bird we settled him in the garden, where he would be safe, and in a short while he was gone.

There's not very much colour about at the moment, but saw this lonely nasturtium stretching through a fence.

Also these red leaves and berries were overlooking a high wall - not sure what they are called but they are very attractive

Of course it is possible to overdo leaves!

Oh well, guess that's it for this week, thanks for visiting my blog, enjoy your days ~ Mike.

A Taster of Cornwall's Eden Project - 27 Photos

Here we are at Cornwall's Eden Project. The first view visitors see are the biomes, as above. There must be thousands of people who have a similar photo.

We usually visit the Wild Cornwall walk first as there are some nice views of the Biomes and beyond.

There are also some other interesting bits and pieces like the memorial leaves fixed to rocks.

A newish addition is the Labyrinth as below, which seemed to interest several children. There could, however, be more to this than expected.

The photo below is something I snapped a photo of, in the Rocky Valley on Cornwall's north coast. There are actually two such rock face carvings - and are said to be from the Bronze Age about 1800 t0 1400BC.

Moving on, I guess Eve has seen many things come and go in her lifetime.

We are now in the Mediterranean Biome for the next four photos.

Also in the Mediterranean Biome was a robin who seemed to follow me about.

There he was again looking at me - robins are one of my favourite birds, so very friendly.

Two more photos from within the Mediterranean Biome.

Now we have moved to the Rainforest Biome for the next three photos.

Watch out for the orangutan, okay he's not real but orangutans are often called the gardeners of the forest.

The sculptor, James Wild, has used scrap metal as his artistic medium.

A small stream within the biome.

Also a West Africa Crop Shop.

Three more photos from the Rainforest Biome.

On high is a rope bridge, quite wobbly but fun.

This is the source of the water within the biome, a waterfall.

That's all for today. Hope you have an interesting weekend and week ahead ~ Mike.