Let Them Eat Torte

How terribly sad, I have forgotten to snap a pic of the Chocolate Torte! The closest I came was this photograph of its demise, when we had very nearly obliterated it. I feel certain that there is no other place in town with a torte like that, and it would be needless to search. We weren't the only customers in the Italian Coffee House who had one, either. It disappeared slowly but surely as people came, and went.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Even before we'd had the lovely lunch and torte, we had been to the Barbara Hepworth Museum. The Barbara Hepworth Museum is worth looking at, dear Readers, and we 3 ladies thought that 4 of us were going to go inside. That had been the plan. We attempted to do this, until Ted suddenly quailed and said, "I'm going to sit in the sun..", easing his way back in the direction of the Harbor. 

"What?" we said. "What about the Hepworth?"

"The Hepworth will be just fine without me." 

I won't go into the details of his attempt, and prevention, and eventual escape, because some things are not needful to mention. Suffice it to say that 3 of us did ultimately see the Hepworth, and that our Ted did not. Suffice it to say that we all got what we wanted, in the end.

The sun came out as we observed, and read, all about Barbara. This lovely sunshine threw the entire Hepworth studio into a favorable light, both indoors and out. We learned of her Yorkshire childhood, when she would ride past the moors with her father and develop ideas for her sculptures. We learned of her two marriages and 4 children, and of the day when a property she loved suddenly came onto the market, and she bought it. We learned that she had died tragically of smoke inhalation from a fire due to the cigarette she had been smoking in her bed. I had known about this because the Hepworth gardener had said so, in 2014. Only he said it had happened in her summer house, whereas today's Docent said it had happened in her studio. It is a conundrum, one which I will probably never be able to solve because I don't know where to find the Hepworth gardener who had said so.

We wandered around in Barbara's beautiful garden, all dotted about with her sculptures, and tried to figure them out. I don't think I did ever figure them out, but I do have a theory or two. Which I will share with you. One day. When I think you would like to know.

The day did not end at the Hepworth, but went on to include a very interesting Cornish tin mine, an actual mine we actually got to go into. It is a mine very near the activities and excitements of the television series called 'Poldark', and this is very exciting. But since I am too tired to describe it right now, is it ok with you if I wait until tomorrow? It's past my bedtime.


See you along the way!
the SconeLady