The View from Here: first visitors

… up the hill behind the house and beyond – where the steep climb is rewarded by a view over the countryside that leaves you feeling you’re on top of the world

A key reason for choosing this house was to entertain.  This is quite a contrast from the quiet life we were living in Mixbury when visitors were relatively rare.  Here the plan is to have many visitors, with space to spread out and freedom for people to come and go and enjoy this lovely corner of Cornwall (as well as our company!) Continue reading “The View from Here: first visitors”

Green Up

Like the trees in Larkin’s poem, we are beginning afresh.

Quite a few years ago I had a pen-friend in Saskatchewan and she used to refer to ‘green up’.  In her corner of the world there was snow for many months and then – suddenly it seemed – green up.  I often think of her and that phrase at this time of year. Continue reading “Green Up”

May in the Garden: all along the banks

Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination.

And so to my early plans for the garden.  Perhaps because they’re the first things one sees, but most probably because it is here that spring-time has given us the most to enjoy thus far, I find it’s the welcoming banks along the drive that have claimed my attention and imagination. Continue reading “May in the Garden: all along the banks”

Birds on the Balcony: the swallow is come!

The edges of their wings on the underside are like chequerboards…

I saw my first swallow of the year at Lerryn on April 19th.  There it was – just the one – sitting neatly on a telephone wire.  I was astonished; it seemed so early!  But a few days later they were here, at Highfield, in numbers.  Swooping and plunging, weaving intricate patterns through clear skies with swift sureness of eye and wing.  And from the balcony, I can watch them as often from above as below.  Beautiful and breath-taking grace. Continue reading “Birds on the Balcony: the swallow is come!”

White tea and Walking books

“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.” Henry David Thoreau

We are expecting our first visitors shortly.  This fact focuses the mind: two guest rooms are required.  One didn’t take long at all; the other meant I needed to unpack my books, which meant B needed to secure the bookcases, which couldn’t be done until the broadband connection was moved.  Continue reading “White tea and Walking books”

The View from Here: an early-morning secret

The view from here holds many secrets

For the second morning in a row I’ve climbed the stairs early, to a golden morning.  Clear open skies, sharp shadows, a gentle, fresh breeze.  The trees are almost all in leaf now, a verdant jumble of shapes, textures and soft movement.  The leaves are new, their colours vivid: chartreuse, lime and emerald.  But others add softer hues: shades of grey-green sage and viridian, and here and there the pale white undersides of leaves turned uppermost by the wind.  Continue reading “The View from Here: an early-morning secret”

Walking: what you learn and who you meet, from striding around your local beat

I’d anticipated a spider’s web of glorious local footpaths: up hill and down dale, across field and pasture, through woodland, over streams…

Almost of the walking I’ve done since arriving here has been on our local roads.  I must admit I’d anticipated a spider’s web of glorious local footpaths: up hill and down dale, across field and pasture, through woodland, over streams…  Continue reading “Walking: what you learn and who you meet, from striding around your local beat”

The View from Here: The Pinnacle of my Festival Experience

I don’t know why she’s exerting such a huge influence on me here but I’m glad that she is

I could have tagged this onto either of the previous posts. But really, this small nugget of time was so special that I need it to have a post all to itself.  A seemingly tiny thing, and I don’t expect to do it justice in words, but I need to have it here. Continue reading “The View from Here: The Pinnacle of my Festival Experience”

Ideas from the Heart

… when my heart is awake and I write from that aliveness

Either side of the inspiring talk, A Space to Write, I found myself wandering alone in Fowey through narrow streets and tentative showers.  The town was quiet, and as soon as I moved from the quayside and the tangle of small shops and cafes, it grew quieter still.  What cars there were moved slowly and softly; forced to creep along because the streets ARE very narrow.  Almost every person had a dog.  Such a lot of dogs in Fowey.  Continue reading “Ideas from the Heart”