Leaving on a fast train...............

On Monday afternoon I'll leave the Senior Partner, Mr Ben and M'selle Fleur home alone, and hop on a fast train, away from the sleepy Normandy countryside.

My destination?

Paris!

That's right, the City of Lights -  Paris, France,

to spend the day with friends

 before they fly home to Dallas, TX.

 at the end of the week.

I'm thinking galleries, museums, shopping!

à tout à l'heure mes amis.

A Seasonal mosaic

There's definitely a chill in the air these early mornings here in Normandy.
Autumn has finally arrived after our wonderully unexpected Indian summer of last week.
To add a touch of Fall decor to the dining room I used an orange and black paisley shawl as a table runner on the dining table, filled an antique Choissy -  le - Roi, Majolica soup tureen with windfall apples and pears and placed it on a matching serving platter.
I added faux mini pumpkins, leaves, berries, acorns, real horse chestnuts from the garden, a pair of vintage French, silver plated pheasants and a simple white lantern to complete a seasonal vignette.
Photographing the whole table was a nighmare, thank heavens for mosaics!

Joining the Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays #69

Mary @ the little red house for Mosaic Monday
and Marty's Tabletop Tuesday @ A Stroll Through Life

Click on the links or sidebar buttons to visit our gracious hosts.

Reality Shot Thursdays

Have you ever looked at a favourite blog and found a new party going on that you think you like the look of?

Well, this morning whilst perusing Mary's delightful blog "A Breath of Fresh Air" I discovered Reality Shot Thursdays a new blog party being hosted by Claudia @ Mockingbird Hill Cottage.
Claudia describes it like this -
it's about letting everyone in on a glimpse of real life in our homes every Thursday, a Reality Shot  is what's just to the left or right of a staged, pretty photograph?

If I can drag myself away

 from my computer and camera today

 this is my next task...........ironing!

Go on take a deep breath and show us what's lurking at the corner of your eye.

Heligan - the tour continues.

Once you've bought your ticket to enter the wonderful Lost Gardens of Heligan you are faced with two options.
Walk straight ahead towards the Northern Gardens, or turn right into the Woodland Walk.
We turned right along a sheltered and shady path venturing into over 80 acres of ancient woodland.

The Grey Lady

It isn't long before intriguing woodland sculptures such as the Grey Lady and the Mud Maid reveal themselves.

The Mud Maid sleeping peacefully beneath the greenery

Once past the Grey Lady another choice presents itself - continue on along the Georgian Ride eventually arriving at the Lost Valley, or cut across to the Jungle?

As the walk back up from the Lost Valley is described as steep, or very steep in places we decided to take the less strenuous path and explore the Jungle.

Everywhere you turn there's a "Kodak" moment waiting to surprise you.

We walked past the Steward's House, which is now a tearoom, and the Poultry Orchard.

Whichever way you decide to walk around the Lost Gardens Of Heligan eventually the path leads back to two very important places.

The Willows Tearoom - where you can sample many delights such as savoury snacks, sweet treats and wonderful pasties all freshly baked at the on site Heligan bakery.

Oh! They bake wonderful scones too for delicious Cornish cream teas.

After tea - shopping!

The Heligan shop is a wonderful place where you can find high quality items such as stationery, prints tapestries, toiletries and much more.

Next door the Heligan Plant Centre is brimming with all sorts of marvellous plants, gardening equipment, seeds and bulbs.

I stocked up on Cornish Spring bulbs.

They all had such fabulous names - Pipit; Niveth; Cheerfulness; Chuckles and Rip Van Winkle.

I'll be planting them in the garden and garden urns soon, for a marvellous display next year.



Joining our gracious hosts Bunny Jean and Susan

for

Bunny Hop Wednesday #9

and

 Outdoor Wednesday #143.

Click on the above links or the sidebar buttons

to see more Wednesday posts.

A Very UN Seasonal Sunday

White Clematis - Orange & Yellow Nasturtiums
Pink Fuschia - Blue Hibiscus

Joining the Tablescaper for Seasonal Sunday

 and

Mary @the little red house for Mosaic Monday

this week

with these photographs taken around the garden yesterday.

Red geraniums - Yellow Marigolds - White Marguerite (self seeded!)
Red poppy

The thermometer on the patio climbed to 30C/86F

on the hottest day of 2011

 here at Le Presbytère.

Pink Saturday in October!

Although it's officially Autumn and the Virginia creeper on the house is beginning to change colour from green to burgundy, there are still plenty of roses in my garden.

So, I'm sending you all a little piece of pink, from Normandy, to celebrate the first day of October!

Joining Beverly @ How Sweet The Sound and her wonderful Pink Saturday party

click on the link to see more beautiful pinkness from around the globe.

The Lost Gardens of Heligan - The Productive Gardens.

One of the highlights of our recent stay in Cornwall, UK was a visit to the Lost Gardens of Heligan.

I imagine that most of my British followers will know the amazing story of how the abandoned and forgotten gardens were discovered by Tim Smit and John Willis (a descendent of Samuel Tremayne who purchased Heligan in 1569), after the devastating hurricane of 1990.

Fruit such as melons, grapes and peaches
 were cultivated for the Heligan table

It is a story that has captivated me for many years, since I first saw a BBC documentary featuring Heligan in the 1990's.
We joined the guided walking tour through the Northern Garden and these photographs were all taken in the walled garden of the Victorian Productive Gardens.

potted plants "resting"
inside one of the many glasshouses

There is so much to see at Heligan that I decided to devote a blog post to each of the special areas of interest.

Bee boles were incorporated into the wall outside the garden. Here bee skeps (the forerunners of bee hives) would be placed, the boles had wooden doors which could be closed during the winter to ensure that the bees survived.

 herbs planted close to an ancient stone building
where garden tools are housed
onions and shallots hung against the wall
a wheelbarrow full of leeks
ready to go to the restaurant kitchen

"A motto etched into the limestone walls in barely legible pencil still reads “Don’t come here to sleep or slumber” with the names of those who worked there signed under the date – August 1914. "
(source Heligan website.)
Many of the gardeners, who's names were listed there, were never to return from the Great War.

seedlings and sensitive plants are "brought on"
 in the large glass frames

A quote from the Heligan Gardener's blog.
The Productive Gardens at Heligan have been restored to reflect the workings of a Victorian garden before the First World War. We remain true to this period in our cropping plan, growing only heritage varieties and cultivating the soil by hand. The garden is fully productive throughout the year and there is a constant supply of produce ready for harvest. This is taken to our restaurant on a daily basis in much the same way that it would have been given to the cook at Heligan House a hundred years ago.

gourds and succulents sit in a shadowy, cool glasshouse

If you have enjoyed this virtual tour of the walled kitchen garden at Heligan and want to learn more about this amazing place all you need do is click here to visit the Heligan website and here to learn about it's chequered history.

Linking this post to

Outdoor Wednesday #142 @ A Southern Daydreamer

and also to

 Hey Harriets Shadow Shot Sunday.

Click on the links to join the other bloggers participating in these great memes this week.