Cothele Christmas Garland

The Christmas garland that decorates the Hall at Cothele is famous and each year we go to see it.  This year the good weather meant they had more flowers to use in making the garland so it was larger than usual and they had decorated around one door in the same manner.  It was even more impressive than usual.

Our visit was further enhanced by there being a talk from one of the gardening staff about how the garland is made.  This was really interesting. It is amazing how much time is spent growing and preparing the flowers for the garland all through the year. We saw the rope that is at the base of the garland and she showed us how they attach bunches of pettisporan using wire and a long instrument (like used for rug making)

There was also a display showing the flowers that were in the garland.

As usual the walls of the Hall were decorated with beech twigs and the doors were framed with Christmas foliage and a fire was burning in the hearth.  It all made for a very attractive Christmas room.

Even outside the Hall there was colour brightening the day -  a border of irises.

After viewing the garland we had a quick look around the gardens where there was still some autumn colour, then walked down through the Valley Garden to the Chapel in the Wood and onto the Quay.  From there we walked up till nearly the mill before climbing up the hill back to the House.

Cremyll to Cawsand

It was a bright sunny day so we thought we would do a walk along the South West Coast Path. We have often  done the part of the walk that goes through Mount Edgecumbe Park but not all the way to Cawsand.  Looking back on this blog I see that it was 28 February 2013 when we last did the whole stretch, just a couple of weeks after moving to Plymouth.

We parked the car at Devils Point and took the South West Coast Path through the Royal William Yard to Admirals Hard where we caught the ferry to Cremyll.  Although there has been rain lately the path was not too muddy.  It was not too hard a walk until we got to the steps.  Usually we go up one flight of steps then turn back to Cremyll, but this time we had to continue to the top and it was a hard slog.  However, once we had conquered them it was easy walking all the way.

Twice on the way we saw deer but they ran away before I could photograph them.  There were still some leaves on the trees, but not many and not much autumn colour.  The views out to the Sound, however, were beautiful.

View to the Breakwater and Mew Stone

The walk is about 4 miles and we were surprised how quickly we saw the villages of Kingsand and Cawsand.  At this point we stopped for lunch on a bench looking out to sea with the sun shining on us.  It was really warm for the last day of November.

Kingsand and Cawsand

Walking through the narrow streets of Kingsand we were charmed by the quaint old cottages. We noted that the car park in this village was £1 for 6 hours.  I am sure this is a winter rate, but worth remembering if we want to come in this direction by car.

View through a garden gate, Cawsand

Cawsand was in shadow and a little chilly so we decided not to linger but catch the next bus back to Cremyll.  Fortunately we only had a couple of minutes to wait,  The bus ride itself was very pretty with views over woods and fields to Millbrook and across to Plymouth.  The tamar bridges stood out in the sun. The bus links with the ferry so we were soon back home.