Corker!

Have you seen the cork tree in the Christchurch Botanical Gardens? If not, look for it next time and give its springy bark a pat. It’s on the edge of the archery lawn opposite the herbaceous border. The label just says “Quercus – Cork Oak”.

There were cork plantations most of the way from Lisbon to Évora.

There was agricultural land between with harvesting going on, and sheep and cattle grazing.

In Évora, there is a lot of cork in gift shops. Today I chanced upon a wonderful exhibition of cork models at MADE: Museu do Atesanato e do Design de Évora.

I’ll let them speak for themselves.

This is the artist.

There were all manner of things made of cork in the museum.

Straw panniers for a donkey:

A wool rug:

There was a modern design section.

Imaging lugging these about on your travels:

Kenwood mixers, but not as old as yours, Mum!

A flip-open landline dial phone:

To put our throw-away society into perspective, there was this medieval pot with repairs evident. I imagine it would be unthinkable to throw such a useful container away just because it had a few cracks in it.

And, “A gourd!” For the Monty Python fans among us.

These are cork products for sale in the streets: