Christmas Garland

Every November gardeners, volunteers and visitors at Cotehele in Cornwall create a 60ft long Christmas garland using thousands of flowers grown on the estate.

We took advantage of this weekends welcome sunshine to go and see the garland in its halfway stage where one side was finished, and the other was still green. Will be quite splendid in a few weeks time.

Enjoyed our lovely walk down through the woods with all the autumn colours and the streams and rivers full for a cream tea and had a look around the Cotehele Christmas Craft Fair.

Tamar Valley Stroll to Cotehele

We often stroll down our beautiful wooded valley to the nearby National Trust property Cotehele Estate.

The Estate covers a large area of the Tamar Valley and both the natural woodlands, orchards, plantations and formal gardens have enough varieties of trees throughout to always be able to catch a seasonal photo.

This time of year, the colours of the trees in the sunlight is quite magical.  Early walkers get views of the gentle mists dreaming in the valley. 

Deer tracks are seen on the paths and the squirrels have fewer leaves to hide behind.  This living willow sculpture in the Cotehele orchards is worth revisiting as its look changes throughout the year.

There's always something happening at Cotehele, this time we caught a parade of the Cornwall Austin Seven Club motor vehicles, and a local crafts gift fair in a marquee in the grounds.

Cotehele House has just started the famous Christmas Garland in the Great Hall. All the flowers are grown in the estate gardens and used to create this huge 60 foot long suspended floral masterpiece. We popped in to look and the scaffolding was just being assembled for the florists to stand on.

This is the Garland from a couple of years ago, it is HUGE!