Seeds and the Iron Age (2 unrelated items)

[bunn]

I have planted the Sweet Orange Baby pepper seeds. Was going to plant the pumpkins and squashes too, but it's so cold still that I have put that off for a few weeks because once squashes take off they really take off, and I don't have room in the propagator for several large plants.

I'm planning to grow the peppers in pots in the windows anyway (it's a dwarf variety) so it doesn't matter if they grow quick. If I get too many I will pop some in the greenhouse. Hmm. I wonder if you can make chutney from peppers?

Still only one of the sweet pea seedlings has germinated! Boo hiss. I can't remember how old the seed is, but I'm now thinking it must have been older than I thought. I've now sown the rest of the packs of sweet peas in the hope of getting at least a few seedlings.




We had a day off on Tuesday, and went down to visit iron age villages near Penzance. We got to Chysauster and were disconcerted to find it was closed. We thought it had been closed since about 300AD, so that was odd. Luckily we found the gate was not actually locked, so we went in and snooped round anyway: the only thing that was closed seemed to be the wooden hut where they give you a leaflet and take £2.30 off you, so that was no great loss.

Mollydog was pleased to discover that they had raised greyhound bowls in the Iron Age (each house had a large stone block with a round bowl cut into the top of it, which was just the right height for a sighthound drinking bowl.)

It was raining when we got there but as we went up the slope the sun came through the mist and it suddenly became very warm. Most of the houses seemed to be set up to have a small stream running through the courtyard from a spring - very convenient. Generally houses that old don't seem very comfortable, but these did (OK, they had no roofs!).

Then we went over to Bodrifty, where the houses were smaller and older and generally seemed much grimmer as a place to live, (though it does have a reconstructed roundhouse - very dark as the fire was not lit). Finally we walked down to the coast at Zennor, which is a place I've always wanted to visit, I think because it begins with a Z (not very logical, I know...).

Comments

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

We went to Chysauster some years ago, and some other place with a fogou, whose name I can't remember. (Carn Euny - or is that in Wales?) We were on holiday with my parents, staying at Sennen Cove, and they almost sent us home in disgrace. We thought that Chysauster looked far too much fun to just walk around in a scholarly fashion, so we ran aroung it, hiding in the huts, leaping out at each other, playing "Romans and Celts."

This is not the way proper adults ought to behave. Apparently.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Carn Euny is round there somewhere. You get the impression that the area was much more populated back then than it is now!

We also raced round Chysauster, but as it was officially closed, there was no-one to see. Several of the huts had filled up with rain water, and Polo insisted on paddling in them.

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

I love Zennor! It is near the top of the list of dream places to live when my ship comes in and the need to work is not an issue. It has a delightful church with a mermaid carving, a quoit, and the sea at exactly the right distance.

It is also well-nigh inaccessible without a car, so I've only visited for about an hour in 1991, and never been back :(

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. We didn't see the carving as we were there rather late, but the walk down to the sea was lovely.

There are buses from Penzance now, cos we saw one. Still a long long way from anywhere though.

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

I wanted to go there again one time I was in St Ives, but they only had buses there on Tuesdays and Fridays, and it was a Wednesday...