April round-up: what we did, where we went

Where we went:  Lansallos, Lerryn, Lanreath, Pelynt.  Not all of which have found their way into this month’s posts, but they’ll turn up eventually

I left Cornwall for: the Brighton marathon. And I learned how to open train doors on the Great Western line

I’ve been walking: around the local roads, to Lansallos Cove and in Ethy Wood.  Still getting to know our immediate neighbourhood

In the house: we’ve unpacked the lounge, dining room, kitchen, bedroom and bathrooms. None are finished but all are homely and comfortable.  And B has made huge strides with setting up the barn and the garage – both important spaces for storage; resolved the problems with smoking stoves and smelly loos; started getting quotes for work required

In the garden: I’ve pruned the buddleia and the dogwood, and planted snowdrops and Mme Alfred

Bird highlights from the balcony: buzzards, egrets, swallows

We’ve been watching:   Master Chef and a re-run of series 1 of Outlander.  Easy – and in the case of Outlander – sumptuous viewing

I’ve finished reading: Norah Webster by Colm Toibin; The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

I’m currently reading: A Year of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman; Timeless Simplicity by John Lane; Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens; Anne of Ingleside by Lucy M Montgomery. I’ve never been one for reading one book at a time

I’ve been writing:  emails, letters, Footnotes from Fowey, The View from Here (now renamed) and not enough of the Madworthys or The Story Bear

I’ve been studying: On Futurelearn: Literature and Mental Health; What is a Mind?  Plus a little more Italian on Duolingo, and on Memrise: a brush up on famous authors and their works; European capitals and English  counties.  And I’ve learned quite a bit about creating a blog

April Highlights:

• We are here – in Cornwall – and we live here.  We are not on holiday.  I have to remind myself of this quite often
• I started this blog, which was quite scary.  A baby step towards thinking of myself as a writer
• Lansallos Cove
• Lerryn and Ethy Wood

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So, farewell, April!

In 2016, a momentous month in our lives.  Our roots are settling fast in this Cornish soil; our hearts already tethered to this quirky house and this wildly romantic place.

I didn’t have to look far for a poem that sung to me of this year’s April.  I’d not heard of James Hearst – but clearly he’d experienced a mercurial English April….

Then I learn that he’s an American who hails from the Midwest.  Can an April in Iowa and an April in Cornwall really share so much?

Once again I am reminded: the world is a very small, and a very beautiful place. However the many and varied faces of the Earth may appear, at soul level all is One.

In April

This I saw on an April day:
Warm rain spilt from a sun-lined cloud,
A sky-flung wave of gold at evening,
And a cock pheasant treading a dusty path
Shy and proud.

And this I found in an April field:
A new white calf in the sun at noon,
A flash of blue in a cool moss bank,
And tips of tulips promising flowers
To a blue-winged loon.

And this I tried to understand
As I scrubbed the rust from my brightening plow:
The movement of seed in furrowed earth,
And a blackbird whistling sweet and clear
From a green-sprayed bough. 

James Hurst  (1900 – 1983)