At the local plant nursery today there was a very friendly robin.
I loved the colour of these leaves but didn’t take note of what the plant was. 
I’ve made a special cake for Community Roots tomorrow as a birthday is being celebrated.
Lemon Victoria Sponge with a Lemon Drizzle Topping
Another cracker of a day, this time with our wonderful Roots community and many, many visitors celebrating the harvest, especially of Squash. Click on any of the photos for a bigger version.
The Welcome table at the gate
We used a human chain of all the people to bring the squash in for drying before storage. The children each took a parent onto the squash patch and the harvesting began in earnest. Each beautiful vegetable was handed around the chain and put on the racks to ripen off.
A delicious lunch was made for every volunteer, a very tasty tomato sauce with spaghetti.
There were other activities for children including the Gratitude Tree which was a delight.
Lastly there was a parade around the garden led by the trio Jaclarabag with such verve that got everyone dancing at the end of the walk.
And tonight we are just home from a brilliant evening at The Redruth Comedy Club where Mark Steele and Marcus Brigstock kept us laughing all evening.
That was a cracker of a day at the festival!
Our town was buzzing – live music, delicious cakes and excellent coffee, some wonderful outfits, meet ups with friends, bubbles in the park and, in the afternoon, two fascinating talks.
The first talk, by Sharron Schwartz, was about the Cornish miners who went to work in Mexico and Wisconsin in the 1820s. Cornishman were experts in hard rock mining and their skills were called for all over the world. The other talk, by Dr Lesley Trotter, was about the women who were ‘left behind,’ The Married Widows of Cornwall.
I’ve put some hyacinth bulbs in the special glasses today, put them in a dark cupboard for the roots to develop and in about 6 weeks they should be ready to come out into daylight and then hopefully be in flower for Christmas, maybe New Year.
Tomorrow is Redruth’s International Mining and PastyFestival.
So I’ve made a coffee cake for the cake stall.
On this day, 9/11, people have been remembering the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives in the attack on the twin towers.
Here in Cornwall, hundreds of people attended a memorial service in Hayle this afternoon to remember Rick Rescorla, a Cornishman who died in the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre.
“Today, twenty-five years after the attacks changed the world, the proud Cornishman from Hayle continues to be remembered on both sides of the Atlantic.  Having already helped hundreds to escape, he bravely went back into one of the burning towers to look for missing staff members.
Last seen moving upwards as he sang songs from his beloved Cornwall, they echoed through the staircases as he urged workers to keep moving.”
Waiting by the Penryn RIver before going into choir this morning, the reflections of the masts in the still water were lovely.
It was interesting how different the light was looking the other way up the river towards Falmouth just a few moments later.
I collected up the last of our tomatoes today and roasted them prior to making Roasted Tomato Sauce to go into the freezer for some tomatoey pasta reminiscent of summer in the darker months.
The set of The Choir of Man, yesterday’s post, was a pub and at the start, lots of audience members were among the cast enjoying a drink. If you are local, there are still some tickets left this week at The Hall for Cornwall, Truro.
I liked the paper flowers in the shop window as we collected our bread this morning.
Walking back along Lovers’ Lane, there was lots of Cow parsley, more prettily known as Queen Anne’s Lace.
Along the way there was a delicate white feather on the path.
After a very busy morning at Community Roots preparing 24 seed trays for the winter salads and 13 module trays for Spring onions and other seeds, I’m out for the evening – going for a meal with a dear friend and then going to what promises to be a crazy evening.
The publicity material says, “An uplifting celebration of community and friendship where everyone is welcome – don’t miss this feel-good night of foot-stomping entertainment, so good you’ll want to come back and see it again and again.”
Back home. That summary was right! If you get the chance to see the show, it really is a treat.
I missed Six on Saturday this week as it was a very busy weekend so here are my six for last week.
First some really good news – we thought our Acer, a present for our Ruby wedding, 19 years ago, had succumbed to the drought. It may be a different shape as it recovers but it isn’t dead! We spotted some new growth today.
The Japanese Anemones are looking very good especially with the purple of the Verbena Bonariensis.
The Rudbeckia are glowing.
The Clematis Montana in the front garden has two flowers but you’ll have to look hard to see them!
Other Clematis seed heads are looking delicate and lovely.
The Buddleia is in the field behind us, not strictly in our garden but we benefit from the blooms.
I’m a bit late to the party this week but you could still pop over to Jim, over at Garden Ruminations, where you’ll find Six on Saturday and in the comments, you’ll find many delightful posts from keen gardeners all over the world.
Yesterday, after buying the wonderful pastries at Redruth’s monthly market, we called in at our favourite gallery in town, 89 Redruth. The room was full of very interesting work but my eye was immediately drawn to a small painting, We went in saying, we mustn’t buy another piece and came out later to have a short chat about whether to buy. Happily, my lovely Mr S loved as much as I did so we were back within minutes and today called in to collect it. It was so lovely to meet the artist and to see her reaction to my loving her work.
Sunset at Elmscott by Michelle Rudd
We went to a birthday do at recently refurbished Rose Cottage today. We just had our lunch but the guests were encouraged to make use of the spa in the delightful back garden of the pub. After cooking themselves in the sauna, they had the option of three ‘plunge pools’ – one warmed by the sun in a lovely white bath, next a cooler metal bath and lastly, for the truly hardy, a refrigerated tub!
Today we have harvested the last of our sweetcorn cobs and I have made a big batch of Corn Chowder. We had some tonight and the rest will go in the freezer to enjoy some summer sunshine on a grey winter day.
P.S. There was one more piece in 89 Redruth that I fell for and might have bought today but it had gained a red spot overnight…..
Specimen no 2 by Anita Pryor
It was good too to learn the story of this collective:
Our lovely neighbour who takes my cakes to the market each month, made a special sign for it on the market stall. 
There was a new stall at the market, a French/Italian patisserie, Nougatine, and, my goodness, the Lemon Tarts were absolutely the best I have ever tasted.
The sky this evening was beautiful. 
P.S. The exhibition at Truro Cathedral ends on October 5th.
Commentator Award
