This page is Gallery
2010, last updated 28th July 2010. All photographs ©
Robert Darlaston
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Contents:
1. Out and about in June 2010
Out and
about in June 2010
Family visit to South
Wales: Cymmer and the Afan Valley seen
from above Gelli Farm
The view from above
Cymmer, looking over Swansea towards Mumbles Head and the Gower
A sunny day in London
with ‘traditional’ views of the London Eye and Trafalgar Square
23rd
June: Darlaston at 70 (oh dear!):
Robert’s 70th
birthday: accompanied here by Mary and
Barbara in the garden on 23rd June
Celebratory family
gathering: Barbara, Robert (with
restorative cup of tea), Ann and Mary
26th
June: A return visit to King Edward’s
School, Birmingham
for the rededication of
the Chapel Altar Piece:
The Main Door and Big
School, seen from the Drive The
south front
Darlaston in the School
Library: in 2010 and back in 1959: two photographs taken at the same location 51
years apart.
Out with: oak parquet floors; card filing indices; shelves accessed by ladder (‘elf & Safety don’t like it)
In with: carpets;
upholstered chairs;
computers; pretty coloured posters
(and lots of waste paper bins)
Cricket on the South Field
with the Chapel at the left. It is hard
to believe that the centre of Birmingham is only two miles away.
Above and
left: Inside the Chapel, showing the restored Altar
Piece. The Chapel was designed in the
1830s by Charles Barry (architect of the Houses of Parliament).
Right: Garden party in the Chief Master’s
garden. Bruce Hurn, retired Art Master
who created the Altar Piece in the 1950s, faces the camera
And back home again to
our own garden:
The garden in June 2010.
Cornwall
Campion growing by the
Cornish Coastal path at Portscatho
We stayed at the Hundred
House Hotel at Ruan High Lanes, between Tregony and St Mawes:
A view of the hotel
entrance
Left: The view from our room across to the village
of Veryan
Right: The hotel keeps hens to provide our breakfast
eggs – this is the rooster who bosses the hens about
Left: Proprietress Denise tempts us with the wine
list
Right: after dinner, Barbara relaxes with a coffee
(and home-made chocolate fudge)
Our first morning: a visit to the gardens at Heligan: here a rhododendron is seen against a
background of blue sky and trees coming into leaf
A pleasant place to relax
in the sunshine at Heligan
Tulips are still in bloom
as a result of the late Spring, while in the Jungle rhododendrons bloom and the
bananas welcome the sunshine
From Heligan we drove to
Caerhays Castle, where more rhododendrons and azaleas dazzled the eye.
Next morning we used the
King Harry Ferry to cross the River Fal, en route to ...
Trebah
Garden, noted for more rhododendrons and for tree ferns
Attractive
woodland walks take one past what appears to be a bass clarinet tree
Being
close to the sea, there are many sub-tropical plants, as well as spectacular
beech trees in the background
Next morning dawned misty
and the conditions lasted all day
There was little
competition for space on the beach – just some locals with their dog
Darlaston hunts amongst
the rock pools of Towan Beach near Portscatho
Weak evening sunshine
illuminates the waves: Portscatho is in
the distance.
Next day, there was a
call at Charlestown, until quite recently a working port for the export of
china clay, but now home to preserved sailing vessels, one of which lies at
anchor in the bay
More rhododendrons and
azaleas at Trewithen Garden.
Behind Barbara in the
left hand picture can be seen the original “Donation” Camellia, from which all
current plants are descended, and which is now a vast bush reaching to the top
of the photograph.
Some interesting Cornish
signs:
An hotel at
Portscatho. Could it be Bertie
Wooster’s friends who are to perform “tomorrow” with their ukeleles?
An alarming sign for
motorists at Portmellon and one to prick the conscience at a roadside stall at
Ruan High Lanes
Further photos from our
holiday can be seen by clicking here: 2010Cornwall
(N.B. Only the first
photo of a sequence at a specific location is titled)
= = = = =
On our way home from
Cornwall we called at the delightfully situated theatre at Malvern to see the play
“Witness for the Prosecution”
These
views show inside the theatre foyer and the gardens outside the entrance, with
a view to the Malvern Hills beyond.
After the play, there was
time for a walk on the hills: here is
the view eastwards across the Severn Valley to Bredon Hill with the Cotswolds
on the horizon beyond.
The village of Welland
lies to the right in the middle distance;
Upton-on-Severn and Longdon are just discernible in the distance below
Bredon Hill.
Late December 2009 and
early January 2010 brought several heavy falls of snow.
Here is a souvenir of
that spell – very attractive to look at and for a short stroll, but otherwise a
very trying time.
Fresh snowfall on 5th
January
Next morning, 6th
January: Goostrey Church; view near Blackden
Tricky motoring in Meadow
Close. Off Mill Lane, Goostrey, 9th
January