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Port of Charlestown
On the suggestion of our B&B owner, we wandered down to Charlestown, the old export centre for China Clay mined from the St. Austell area. The graceful tall ships, both in port and standing off at sea, flavour the port with briny charm. Even without the ships, the port was quite picturesque, but I shall have to leave you to imagine the sun-brightened green-topped cliffs and sea stacks. My camera batteries gave out after this picture, and we went for dinner at the Rashleigh Arms- the local inn, pub, and restaurant. I would have fit in far better if I was one of Tolkien's Ents; life runs a sweet and leisurely course in this idyllic village, and I felt like a hasty, reckless, mannerless speeder every time I swept past a certain elderly lady in the restaurant.

Vancouver airport lounge. Aug. 16, 2005. We're starting our trip off right with a leisurely breakfast of pastries in Air Canada's business class lounge. From this window, we watch as baggage falls out of the carts, and count our blessings that we managed to pack eleven days of necessities entirely in our carry-on. We'll be delighted quite shortly at the gate- when we receive free upgrades to the front cabin!	Kew Gardens temperate house bananas. Aug. 17, 2005. We've got ten days to tour some of the grandest (and most easily accessible by public transit) British gardens. We're wasting no time, and having purchased a six-zone travelcard to get from Heathrow Airport to our hotel downtown, we decided to head back out towards the airport to visit the famed Kew Gardens. Broad avenues of trees and grass outside form a lovely summer's backdrop for the real treats thriving indoors under enormous Victorian glasshouses.	Kew Gardens temperat..e Chilean Wine Palm. The whopping specimens at Kew represent plant diversity across the globe, with plants generally grouped by climate or geography.	Kew Gardens administ..e building and pool. This year, Kew presents Gardens of Glass: Chihuly at Kew. Throughout the gardens, you will find the fluidity of glass blown into eye-catching organic and floral motifs by Dale Chihuly and company. Here, near the Victoria Gate entrance, a collection of his Niijima Floats bobs brightly on the water across from the Palm House.

Kew Gardens Palm House entrance. I'm happy to see that Mummy is enjoying herself, snapping pictures of the statuary, including this stately White Lion of Mortimer.	An ancient plant. Doesn't the gnarled horizontal trunk of this Encephalartos altensteinii bespeak its venerability?	A closer look at the oldest potted plant. ... I don't know if I would be happy growing in a pot since 1775, though!	Kew Gardens Palm House catwalk. We went up on the catwalk to get a better view of the kaleidoscope of leaf textures of the exotic trees housed here.

Kew Gardens Palm House exterior. Phew! It's nice to be back outside in the 28 degree Celsius summer weather. The humidity inside the Palm House is stifling.	Kew Gardens Temperate House bananas. These bananas are mirrored by sun-catching red glass "reeds" from the Chihuly collection.	Kew Gardens Temperate House glass. More glowing glass.	Kew Gardens Waterlily House. Don't you just want to sit on those metre-wide giant waterlily pads, glide on the glassy water, and dream?

Euston Station. One can't visit London without coming away with a picture of the signature double-decker busses. In a foreign country, even something so simple as a brief stop at a public transit station for lunch is loaded with opportunities for observations.	Kew Gardens Underground Stop. At least we didn't get lost returning to the tube stop! It's been a beautiful first day in London. Now we're going to go pig out on cheap Chinese food, and get that sleep that eluded us on the airplane ride.	Big Ben. Aug. 18, 2005. This is the last picture for our jam-packed night in the city after returning from a day out at Wisley Gardens. Using my mother's shoulder as a platform, I was able to get this last shaky photograph of Big Ben illuminated for the night.	Houses of Parliament. In the foreground is the monarch's entrance to the Houses of Parliament. I wonder if the Queen feels as tall as that portal is when she walks through?

Tourist's signpost. Mummy wanted a picture to show how close we were to all these famous places.	Trafalgar Square. Lord Nelson has a great hat! Having successfully found Trafalgar Square, we continued to navigate towards Big Ben.	Waterloo Station. This is one of the entrances to the old Waterloo, graced by an imposing, fancifully decorated facade. The International Waterloo/Eurostar Station just to the right offscreen is a modern glass tower.	Whitehall. We got back from Wisley Gardens too late to harass the stoic guards at Whitehall!

Wimbledon Station. Too bad we didn't have time to disembark and explore all the familiar places so embedded in Western culture. But today, we are on a six-zone travelcard for a reason- to take Southwest Trains out to Surbiton, and bus from there to Woking, Surrey, to have a look at Wisley Gardens, crown jewel of the Royal Horticultural Society, and prolific cultivar science centre.	Wisley Gardens robin. We missed the bus in Surbiton due to our failure to flag down the driver. It was probably healthy to have an extra hour to browse the Marks & Spencer to select some fruit for lunch. Finishing our last pieces of melon under the arbour in the walled garden at Wisley, we noted a hungry little English robin eyeing our watermelon. In exchange for us having provided it with a most excellent lunch, it posed for some nice close-ups!	Wisley Gardens Fruit Mount. Under renovation, the Fruit Mount, normally cascading with grapes and strawberries, still proved quite popular with the children, for whom a simple spiral path provided one of the most entertaining structures on the grounds.	Wisley Gardens Garden Room Demonstration. As part of Wisley's educational mission, a number of small plots have been professionally landscaped around particular themes, demonstrating the green oasis you can construct from an urban back yard. This patio featured strategic container gardening.

Wisley Gardens Fruit Mount grapes. Grapes are trained along the railing of the Fruit Mount.	Wisley Gardens Garden Room- Bonsai. Herons Bonsai filled this garden room with a base of Zen garden landscaping and a number of pedestals featuring graceful specimens of bonsai.	Wisley Gardens Laboratory. Wouldn't you love to do horticultural research on a campus in such a gorgeous setting?	Wisley Gardens- a perennial border. While Kew Garden's interest was mainly indoors, Wisley Gardens did a fabulous job with their outdoor plantings. The broad manicured lawns at Wisley are not bordered simply by shrubs and trees, but rather by exceptionally well-grown specimens of the finest garden plants. Here, a breathtaking perennial border stretches for dozens of metres, with enough depth to showcase plants short and tall, shade and sun-loving, from warm colour themes in summery reds, yellows and oranges to cool formal themes in white, purple, and pink.

Wisley Gardens- a p.. border (closer-up). This is a closer picture of a warm-palette section of the border (although there is a stray blue plant if you look closely).	Wisley Gardens orchid house. Wisley has a population of small glasshouses. While none of the extant glasshouses at Wisley are on the scale of those at Kew or Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, they do contain fine smaller specimens. Here, Mummy admires some of the flora in the delightfully scented orchid house. The real treat is at the very back, where several tiers of luscious flowers beg for your attention. For me, the ones which entreat my attention with a vanilla olfactory appeal always win out- combine a bakery and a greenhouse and I'm sold!	Motorway overpass outside Wisley Gardens. The bus drops you off across the highway from the Wisley Gardens entry road. If you have vertigo, then you'd better not look down as you cross this overpass to get to the gardens!	Wisley Gardens subtropical border. This strategically placed clump of Cannas draws you over to the sign showing you what's new in the Wisley subtropical border planting for 2005.

British Museum, Elgin Marbles- hall. August 19, 2005. Today, we were supposed to go visit Sissinghurst Castle and Great Dixter, two photogenic gardens out near Northiam. It rained, though, and although we were armed with umbrellas, my mother insisted that we use the day to continue looking at downtown London, "Otherwise, people will say I coerced you into seeing gardens!" Well, you don't need to twist my arm to get me to see gardens, but my mother is completely in charge this trip, so an indoors day it is. These are the friezes taken from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin. Britain wouldn't return them for the Olympics, so these cultural treasures remain stranded thousands of miles from home.	British Museum, Elgin Marbles- metopes. The heads of these metopes seem quite fragile.	British Museum, Rosetta Stone- front. This is nearly the first object you see upon entering the British Museum. What an impressive way to start the visit! Surprisingly, the staff don't mind the throngs of tourists firing flash photographs to their hearts' content. It's quite a contrast to the no pictures policy at Westminster Abbey.	British Museum, Egyptian Sarcophagi. The museum was closing for the day, and my batteries were dying, but I'm sure my brother would not forgive me for missing the sarcophagi.

Buckingham Palace. The changing of the guard at the Queen's palace attracts a crowd as deep as if there was a parade. On a rainy day, however, the classic red uniforms are hidden under gray coats.	Buckingham Palace ticket office. The inside of the palace is just as popular as the outside, when the Queen is away and the palace is opened to tours. We didn't bother with the inside this time around.	Canada gate near Buckingham Palace. Several grand, gilt gates decorate the park entrances near the palace. They are emblazoned with the names of Commonwealth Countries, and this is our patriotic picture of the Canadian gate.	St. Margaret's Church sundial. St. Margaret's Church, dwarfed by Westminster Abbey, is adorned with unusual teal-tinted sundials. How nice to see astronomy in action on the side of a church! A plaque instructs the curious on how to read the sundial, and how to correct for the path of the sun over the course of the year.

Victoria Monument. An imperious Queen Victoria sits in front of Buckingham Palace, attended by a retinue of angels, soldiers, and lions.	Westminster Abbey. Westminster Abbey's floor is packed with tombstones and memorials. A warehouse for dead royalty and the most famous Britons, inside, you will find the most lavishly finished burials from hundreds of years, some worn down by the soft but steady erosion of daily dusting, crammed into the various chapels. I wish I could show you pictures of the breathtaking interior, but photography is not allowed.	Cows outside Logan Botanic Gardens. August 20, 2005. Using the seated sleeper car on First ScotRail's Caledonian Sleeper overnight service to Glasgow, we left the rain behind in London, and arrived in the port of Stranraer ready to venture out into the middle of nowhere. This is a sample of the rolling pastures just outside our next destination, Logan Botanic Gardens.	Logan Botanic Gardens- tree ferns. The feature plant at Logan is the tree fern. Do you know which continent tree ferns used to grow on, many eras ago? Here, a clump of Dicksonia antarctica show off their black trunks against a perfect blue sky.

Logan Botanic Gardens- Echium sp. My mother craves better soil for her garden so she can grow echiums as tall as these.	Entry road for Logan Botanic Gardens. Were it not for the sign and the horticulture student who got off the bus at the gardens, one certainly would never suspect a public garden existed at the end of this lonely road. It is known to the populace, though- Lynn, the proprietress of Fernlea B&B, knew about the plant sale to happen on Sunday. We just missed it!	Logan Botanic Gardens- Fasicularia Fasicularia pitcairnifolia.	Logan Botanic Gardens- Gunnera A gunnera inflorescence.

Logan Botanic Gardens- gunnera grove. What's a picture of gunnera without people for scale?	Logan Botanic Gardens- hydrangea. The blue didn't come out completely perfect on this picture, but let me assure you that the wall of well-tended blooms was an extremely striking blue.	Logan Botanic Garden..ropaeolum speciosum. My mother grew this on her trellis at home. It's tender, but Scotland's fair climate really favours these climbing nasturtiums. You'll see another sample at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.	Train, outside Girvan. This picturesque hill and that rugged island in the distance rushed by me, but I still managed to whip out my camera in time for a quick snapshot.

Stranraer- train and ferry terminal. Stranraer has shut down by 9 p.m. My mother and I were wandering the streets in a fruitless attempt to find something for dinner, and we went all the way to the oceanfront (not too difficult in such a small town). The train shares a common terminal facility with the ferry, which connects to Ireland. How tempting! But alas, we don't have time this trip to squeeze in Ireland. We'll have to make do with gazing westward from the pier. (Oh, and we eventually found a chicken burger and a generous portion of take-out fish and chips to sate ourselves upon.)	Edinburgh Castle August 21, 2005. We returned from today's day trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh in time to take a short stroll downtown before sunset. Here, perched imposingly atop a whale-shaped lump of rock on the Royal Mile, is Edinburgh Castle. Unfortunately, it is about 7 p.m., so the castle, and even the park surrounding it, are closing now.	Edinburgh Castle illuminated As is proper for any building that lends its distinctive image to its host city's postcards, Edinburgh Castle is lit up at night. It reminds me of the Parliament Buildings at home in Victoria. I took this picture as we scanned the bookstores for postcards to fill out during our wait for our sleeper train back to London.	Downtown Edinburgh- giraffe sculptures When we were bumbling about downtown attempting to find the bus to the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, my mother wanted a picture with these giraffes, so I obliged.

Not Edinburgh Castle Alighting in Edinburgh and exiting the train station, we saw this lovely crenellated tower. My mother's thirty-year old memory of Edinburgh could not recall whether it was Edinburgh Castle or not, but it will always be my first castle in Edinburgh.	Scott Monument The most curious structure stabs your eye as your train pulls into Edinburgh. A blackened Gothic spire rises blatantly against the city background, daring you to discover its nature. This monument, along with the Edinburgh Castle, probably figure in over 90% of Edinburgh picture postcards. At the bottom of the monument sits Sir Walter Scott, lawyer and poet.	Glasgow city centre On our way from Stranraer to Edinburgh, we had to change train stations in Glasgow. I'm glad we did, because we were able to take a quick glance around us as we walked. Here, a square in the city centre was playing host to the Gourmet Glasgow food fair, while seagulls resting atop famous people's heads looked on. Trivia: what is a zucchini called in Britain?	Royal Botanic Garden..- alpine greenhouse While the moderate temperatures in Scotland will delight alpine plants from around the world, the rain is not ideal. So, these cute, manicured, rarefied grey-green tufts are kept well-drained and ventilated under glass.

Royal Botanic Garden..inburgh- palm house A collection of brightly coloured carnivorous plants!	Royal Botanic Garden..dinburgh- tea house My mother is happy that we are finally eating! We have salmon filet and vegetable calzone, for six pounds each (actually not too steep a price).	Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh- lotus Here in the series of glasshouse environments is a pond of water plants, we found a lotus plant with both a flower bud and a shower head seed pod.	Royal Botanic Garden.. palm house exterior I can't get enough of these graceful, soaring historic glasshouses!

Royal Botanic Garden.. outdoor alpine area The RBGE is free, so the locals are able to use it as an exceptionally beautiful public park. As a result, you see a larger percentage of children than you normally would at a garden. I wouldn't say the kid tearing through this picture is particularly interested in the specimens, though!	Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh- senecio We saw a specimen of senecio at Logan, but this crop possessed much healthier looking leaves!	Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh- skyline Steeples dot the city skyline, visible from the top of the alpine beds.	Royal Botanic Garden..inburgh- tibouchina At times like these, I wish for a camera with a well-calibrated piece of slide film. Growing up on the second floor of the glasshouse complex, the blooms on this backlit tibouchina glowed with the most richly saturated, velvety violet you could possibly desire.

Royal Botanic Garden..Tropaeolum speciosum This tropaeolum has grown lovingly through a rhododendron bush. The scarlet flowers trumpet the combination to the passerby, who might almost wonder whether the young, petite, stellate growth of the vine could simply age and transform into the similarly splayed forest green rhododendron foliage, whose sheen echoes off the complementary gloss of the luscious clusters of tropaeolum berries.	Stranraer town centre sculpture Don't be alarmed- although these look like brazenly sliced tree stumps, they are actually granite pillars with images embossed on top, as described in the convenient plaque beside them- a celebration of centuries of area history. (The two men sitting in the background were either very friendly or a little strange, with one of them saying good morning and shaking my hand.)	Stranraer town centre- castle On the green, beside the sculpture exhibit, is the Stranraer Castle referred to on the plaque. Every town needs a castle!	Pine Lodge Gardens- Cuddra Mine August 22, 2005 Our sleeper train last night was on time, and we made a successful transfer from Euston over to Paddington in London. Out in mild St. Austell, Cornwall, by midday, we checked in to our bed and breakfast, where the proprietress most kindly volunteered to drop us off at Pine Lodge Gardens and Nursery when she went shopping! Here, in one corner of the acreage, a broad lawn slopes away towards an old, flooded mine, where today, ducks swim.

Pine Lodge Gardens- house pond This soothing pond and bridge beside the main house is bathed in dappled sunlight filtered by the whispering leaves of the canopy overhead.	Pine Lodge Gardens- Lapageria rosea My mother had been searching high and low all this trip for a Chilean Bell Vine in bloom, showing off how happy it was with the British climate. Here it is!	Pine Lodge Gardens- nursery Pine Lodge is quite a plantsman's nursery. Not only are the plants arranged alphabetically by scientific name, but the array of collector's items is incredible. I mean "collector's items" literally; some of the plants are identified by barely more than a genus and an expedition collection number- the initials of the collector plus a serial number! It must be exciting to grow a newly collected type of seed for the first time, not knowing anything about the growth and flowering habits.	Pine Lodge Gardens- Prunus sp. This plum tree's burnished copper bark just begged to have its picture taken.

Port of Charlestown On the suggestion of our B&B owner, we wandered down to Charlestown, the old export centre for China Clay mined from the St. Austell area. The graceful tall ships, both in port and standing off at sea, flavour the port with briny charm. Even without the ships, the port was quite picturesque, but I shall have to leave you to imagine the sun-brightened green-topped cliffs and sea stacks. My camera batteries gave out after this picture, and we went for dinner at the Rashleigh Arms- the local inn, pub, and restaurant. I would have fit in far better if I was one of Tolkien's Ents; life runs a sweet and leisurely course in this idyllic village, and I felt like a hasty, reckless, mannerless speeder every time I swept past a certain elderly lady in the restaurant.	Sea stacks This is the Cornish Riviera, and the rail line from London to Penzance takes full advantage of the views, nestling up as close as possible to the beach for several minutes. The red soil and cliffs punctuated and fissured by erosion would look especially fine against a blue sky, but this was an overcast morning.	Anchor of HMS Ark Royal August 23, 2005. Perhaps our most complex itinerary of our trip took us back east to Plymouth, Devon by train early this morning, followed by a double decker bus to the small town of Yelverton (my mother expressed her pleasure that we were not attempting to navigate this maze of roads ourselves), and a community minibus to Buckland Monachorum to visit Garden House. Since we finished taking tea and touring the garden quite early, we still had plenty of time to wander Plymouth on our way back to St. Austell. Here in Plymouth lies a rather large chunk of metal, presented by an Admiral to the Mayor of Plymouth. Even though it was intended to stop a 22 000 ton aircraft carrier, it appears to be bolted down...	Armada Way Plymouth appears to have had some outstanding city planners! A broad avenue has been left as a park and pedestrian mall, cutting all the way from the train station, through downtown, right to the waterfront. Here is one of the floral features- an old dinghy seeing service as a planter.

The Citadel The most visible sign of Plymouth's naval history is this imposing centuries-old walled fortress at the seashore. Now, some of the buildings in the complex are devoted to marine biology.	The Citadel- south wall The Citadel makes a nice backdrop for a seaside promenade.	Eclipse monument The British sure seem to take an avid interest in astronomy! A large inlaid cross along Plymouth's waterfront marks the occasion of a total solar eclipse. What do you suppose they will do to celebrate the next one?	Floral boat in Nelson exhibit 2005 is the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar, and in commemoration, SeaBritain 2005 is a country-wide festival of naval celebrations. This flowery display along the waterfront makes it very clear what is being celebrated!

Guns and flowers I love how ironic it is that these grand fortifications built for war now take the roles of public parks, with plants and flowers clambering over the weathered stones.	WWI and WWII cenotaph The central feature on the Plymouth Hoe lawn west of the Citadel is a cenotaph dedicated to all the sailors assigned to this port who died in WWI and WWII.	WWI and WWII cenotaph- far view It is always sobering to realize just how many people were lost due to human squabbles. The number of plaques on the cenotaph, combined with the minuteness of the type on each plaque, is staggering. And that's only naval losses. To the left, peeking out behind the cenotaph, is Smeaton's Tower Lighthouse, which formerly sat on a reef in the sound, but was removed for preservation when its foundation rock had eroded.