Greenway and Coleton Fishacre

Earlier in the week the weather forecast for today had been for sunshine in Torbay so I booked a car parking space at Greenway.  Because the National Trust wants to encourage people to use green methods of transport to Greenway you have to book your parking space in advance.  The process was simple, but by last night the forecast had changed and showers were predicted.  We would have been better going to Cornwall but as we had committed ourselves to visiting Greenway we continued with this plan.  This is a drawback of the parking situation at Greenway.  We like to be able to finalise where we will go on the day, and this is one of the reasons we have not been for Greenway for a number of years.  We soon realised that we had missed out!

The gardens were colourful with camellias,  daffodils and other spring flowers.  The bank of wild orchids that look like small daffs were particularly spectacular near the beginning of the garden.

The camellias were a little disappointing.  The National Trust had been advertising camellia walks so I assumed there would be a good display of these shrubs, but although there were some, other gardens we have visited have more species.  The cold weather recently has damaged some of the blooms and maybe there are more flowers to come when spring finally arrives.  There was specific camellia garden and one plant really caught my eye the red was so rich and luxurious.

We walked around all the garden paths and were surprised at how far there was to walk.  There were some beautiful views of the river Dart, it was just a pity the sun was not shining.  We walked down to the Boathouse and Battery to take photos over the river from there.

View from the Boathouse towards Dittisham

View form the Battery up the River Dart

There were a couple of magnificent magnolias in front of the house.  Unfortunately the flowers of one had been damaged by the recent cold weather.  Both had many more flowers to come out and they will look spectacular when in full bloom.

There was a couple of galleries exhibiting local artists, one above the cafe and one in old stables.  It was particularly interesting to talk to one of the artists, David Cowell, who is a digital artist.  I really liked his work which showed a variety of styles and good use of colour.

We concluded our visit to Greenway by exploring the House, once the home of Agatha Christie.  This contained many collections of items and I was not over impressed with it. The highlight was the frieze painted by the American soldiers billetted there in the second world war.

From Greenway we went on to visit Coleton Fishacre which is quite close.  This garden did not have as much colour as Greenway, although there were some daffodils and other spring flowers out.  However you could see that there were lots of flowers to come and this is a garden that will definitely be better later in the year.

We walked down the garden to the coast, but the South West Coast Path was very muddy, so we turned back rather than walking along the coast.  Instead we went into the house, once the home of D'oyly cCarte.  I preferred this house to Greenway, with its simpler, uncluttered style.  There were some lovely Arts and Craft style pieces and it had been furnished in an informative way.  The visit was almost spoilt for me by an officious volunteer who told me I was walking the wrong way around the house!  I was suppose to go up the main staircase and down the servants stairs, not the other way round.  There was no signs directing you around the building and as there were very few people in it at the time I did not think it mattered.  Fortunately  she obviously had second thoughts and once I had inspected all the rooms graciously allowed me to go down the main stairs rather than retrace my steps!

We had planned to sample the cake delights at the restaurant.  The seating area in the conservatory looked lovely but every table inside was taken and it was too cold to sit outside  so we left and returned home.