First of three
Beginning with useful advice on bogs
Three related posts that have hung around for too long, so much so that I’ve been tempted to ditch them as being out of date and of relatively little interest. They were supposed to be three short posts. They’ve grown. There’s a lesson there…
Continue reading “A Triptych on Dartmoor: two wars; one church; one prison and a teller of tales”
“To his eyes all seemed beautiful, but to me a tinge of melancholy lay upon the countryside, which bore so clearly the mark of the waning year. Yellow leaves carpeted the lanes and fluttered down upon us as we passed. The rattle of our wheels died away as we drove through drifts of rotting vegetation–sad gifts, as it seemed to me, for Nature to throw before the carriage of the returning heir of the Baskervilles.” Continue reading “Dartmoor: with thanks to Conan Doyle”
The view from here has been aqueous
January draws to a close. One month ago this evening – on New Year’s Eve – it was wet. Torrentially wet. The tale of our attempts to enjoy the NYE celebrations at Looe may resurface at more length one day but for now I shall say only that the weather played a significant, and not very pleasant, role. B’s face probably says it all. Continue reading “The View from Here: water, water, everywhere”
For me there was an atavistic connection: strong and raw. Unsophisticated, preliterate.
There was a darkness so thick it felt like a warm bath, yet the air was crackling sharp with cold. And the pin-bright sliver of moon hung over the water between the cliffs. A scimitar shining; sprinkling magic. Continue reading “The View From Here: reaching back”
The view from here in the present gives no clue to the drama in its past
The beaches are not the only places to be deserted in Cornwall in the winter. We visited Cawsand and Kingsand, two small villages joined at the hip, which at one time straddled the Cornwall/Devon border. (The border has now been shifted further east and follows the course of the River Tamar.) Had I known of the old border when we were in the villages, I would have looked out for the actual house which perches astride it and proclaims its unique position in its house name. Continue reading “The View from Here: from winters past to winters present”
To walk along a harbour wall is always to walk with history
While others talk of signs of spring, I’m still in the throes of winter. I may be revelling in the birdsong and the sturdy, bright friendliness of the têtes a têtes; I may be delighted by the sight of scudding clouds in a bright blue sky and the clump of bashful purple crocus and the single bluebell I discovered this week (yes, really). But I’m not yet ready to let winter go. Shy pale primroses, shiny bright celandines and bold lemon and yellow daffodils have already burst upon the garden and the lanes here, and I welcome them. But winter shall have her time in the spotlight too. Continue reading “The View from Here: Of Winters Past …”
Turning away, I returned to the robins in the sunshine and pondered for a while on the lives playing out around me… We intersect, but how rarely we connect.
We parked away from the main car park on our last visit to Lanhydrock, opting instead for the smaller and nearer car park at Respryn.
It was a sparkling bright winter’s day. The holly was polished to perfection and there were robins in abundance. This bold little fellow caught my eye. Continue reading ““You reading this, Be ready””
I’d like to bottle this autumn and bring it out to smell and savour whenever I need to stop and slow down and remember all that is good in this world.
It has been a languorous autumn. Long, slow and peaceful. Bright, crisp, sunny days only occasionally demarcated by a grey no-weather day or a day of relentless rain. Frosty mornings. Stunningly beautiful star-spangled velvet skies. Continue reading “The View from Here: autumn in a bottle”
The mud maid greeted us
on our Hallowe’en hike.
Not that we were seriously hiking.
More of a Saturday afternoon stroll if truth be told.
But Heligan appears to be hauntingly beautiful
whenever we visit
and this was no exception. Continue reading “Hallowe’en at Heligan”
…perhaps I shall find that there is a season for each little town
We finally got to Looe! We’ve been several times to be fair, either passing through or taking Harri to the vets, but finally we spent some time mooching around and getting a feel for the place. Continue reading “Looe. At last”
A Corner of Cornwall 