I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to resume my travel diaries from my cruise. But, actually seeing these glorious images when the weather is so bleak is actually very restorative for me, so I hope it is for you too!
The 9th day was the day I was most looking forward to. The Isles of Scilly have long held a beguiling charm for me from images I have seen, books I have read by Michael Morpurgo,travel posts and because of a certain Scilly-based blogger who I was to meet!
On this morning, I woke up really excited. This was the first stop we had made which was an anchorage so we couldn't just walk ashore, we had to get a tender, (why it's called that I don't know!) which is basically getting into a motorboat, to get to shore.
It was looking a bit grey so Mum and I donned our rain coats and got into the boat.
Bye, bye Magellan!
On board, we saw our lovely friends, John and Miriam!
St Mary's was in front of us, looking beautiful!
As we reached the shore, we headed straight off to the St Mary's boatman kiosk to buy tickets to get a boat to Tresco.
The boat arrived at 10am and we joined a large queue. Luckily, we managed o get on and a dog settled down on Mum's feet!
The sea was fairly gentle and there seemed to be a lot of vessels on the water.
At Tresco, we arrived at the port on the New Grimsby port.
It was a pleasant walk across the island. We took in some beautiful beaches and Agapanthus plants everywhere!
Stopping for a moment, we spotted this pretty little fellow sitting on a bench.He didn't mind us at all.
Our destination was the Abbey Gardens which boast an amazing variety of tropical plant life!
There were certainly many weird and wonderful species to see!
This blue bridge was right at the start and we saw no reason at first to linger until...
We noticed a red squirrel!!!
Apparently these beautiful critters were introduced to the island around 2 years ago as there are no natural predators for them there. These were the boldest, most camera-happy red squirrels I have ever met!
We were utterly delighted by them and spent ages observing their merry antics
I loved catching this 'Daylight robbery'* moment (*this was a TV programme about Squirrels in the 80's or 90's)
This photo below made me laugh! The way he was clutching the top of the feeder box, looking so orange!
Eventually, we tore ourselves away from SQUIRREL TV and went to explore the gardens. We only spent around an hour and a half there and we could have spent much longer, there was so much to see. It was labyrinthine in structure
Aside from the posing squirrels, there were other delightful creatures to see.
Here's Mum trying to capture a photo!
I was photographing this ornamental fountain when a streak of red appeared in the picture...
Yes, that would be yet another photogenic red squirrel!
Continuing onwards, it was difficult to limit what I photographed. Everything was HUGE or brightly coloured or unusual-looking. I wish I could name some varieties for you but I cannot!
This beautiful folly appeared in front of us.
Its beautiful shell decoration was painstakingly put together.
Here's Mum looking fabulous and comfy in her patchwork trousers!
I enjoyed the paint-splattered effect of these tiny flowers.
The stigma or stamens of this flower were almost furry!
This tall umbrella-like plant was most unusual!
The views along paths were really beautiful. I enjoyed looking around a corner or along a path seeing what might come next!
We ranged from enormous to tiny in a matter of metres.
As we walked along this path, I ran my hand along these shrubs and they were feather-like in their feel!
The joy of seeing such huge plants was that you could really get you head in and have a look at them!
This tall tree reminded me of the Gruffalo in tree form!
This was enormous!
There were some beautiful ideas like this!
I wish I knew what these were!
Creeping through twisty-trees.
Promenading past lofty branches.
The Abbey gardens were a real joy with hidden gems and I wholeheartedly recommend you go to Tresco and see them.
As we finished, Mum grabbed a cup of tea and I bought CBC some Squirrel cufflinks and myself a Squirrel pin-badge as our tradition is to buy something with squirrels on when we see a red squirrel.
That was only 1.5 hours of our day, next, coming up was our adventure meeting the wonderful
Anna Parkes for the more delights of the island!!!
Have you been to Tresco?
xxx
