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Harvesting, Preserving and Singing

It’s been a busy morning harvesting – sweetcorn and tomatoes.

We had freshly boiled and buttered sweetcorn for lunch and I cooked four more cobs and cut off the corn to freeze. There’ll be more for lunch tomorrow.

The black tomatoes from one plant I have today made into a rich tomato chutney with a hint of cardamom. It’s delicious.

500g tomatoes made two and a half little jars of chutney

This afternoon one of my choirs, The Suitcase Singers, had our last gig of the summer at The Meudon Hotel.

Looking from the dining room down the garden.

In 2018 I was the Humanist Celbrant at a delightful wedding in the gardens of the Meudon Hotel.

Humanist Wedding, Phillip Pullman and Blooms

Six on Saturday – Suffragette Garden

29 Aug

My Suffragette Garden, all purple, white and green, needs some overhaul. The clematis, Polish Spirit, seemed lost last year but is now doing a good job as ground cover which is pleasing. I think I’ll encourgae it up the fence as well.

Polish Spirit

Nearby are the delicate white Autumn flowering cyclamen.

Cyclamen hederifolium f. albiflorum:

I have just bought some crocus bulbs to lift the patch in the Spring and there are already Narcissus lurking underground to make their appearance next year.

The Japanese Anemones are looking good and please me greatly.

Japanese Anemone – Honorine Jobert

The Choisya Ternata gives us white and green in the summer months but I do need to get more purple for then. There was some Verbena Bonariensis but it has. disappeared sadly. Re-planning, replanting on their way.

Jim, over at Garden Ruminations, hosts Six on Saturday Pop over and in the comments, you’ll find so many delightful posts from keen gardeners all over the world.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on August 29, 2026 in environment, garden, nature, Postaday 2026, Uncategorized

Tags: in a Cornish garden

Mandella, Bee Hotel and Nepal

28 Aug

Sadly, our beautiful Mandella bought in Arizona many years ago, has been attacked by moths and we can’t keep it.

After a delicious lunch with our dear friend M, we went to the garden centre to find a new shrub. No luck with that but I did see an amazing bee hotel.

In honour of our fellow human beings in Nepal who are suffering in the terrible flooding, I give you some pictures taken when we were lucky enough to visit in October 2013. Beautiful people, beautiful country. My heart goes out to them all.

I just heard that our Cornish based charity, ShelterBox, is on the ground already and assessing how they can help. They had a deployment of boxes in the area so will be able to provide help quickly. They are a wonderful charity.
If you would like to see more of this beautiful country, click here and move forward through the days. I am so deeply moved by this tragedy having fallen in love with the place and its people on our visit in 2013.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on August 28, 2026 in environment, friendship, nature, Nepal, Postaday 2026, ShelterBox

Mural, Flowers and Watering Can

27 Aug

We had to go to Penzance to the auction house this morning and had illusions of afterwards parking and visiting the book shop, having lunch and going to the Penlee Gallery. We thought we were early enough but oh my, the visitors were earlier and parking was impossible! So, we decided to go to Mounts Bay to have one of the best ice-creams around. The beach was empty as there was a cool wind but I did manage to get a photo of the lovely mural on the wall at the back of the shop.

Yesterday, we were given a beautiful bunch of flowers, purple, white and green as our daughters and granddaughters are well aware of their suffragette heritage.

Our present to each other for our anniversary is another of Esther Smith’s automata, this one called Flower Power which the kids thought was me.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on August 27, 2026 in art, automaton, Cornwall, family, Postaday 2026, Uncategorized

Tags: Esther Smith, Flower Power, Keep the faith, Mr Riks

What a Lovely Day!

26 Aug

It’s our 59th Wedding Anniversary and we have some family here to celebrate with us – cards, flowers and chocolates and then a delicious breakfast of croissants and pain au chocolat made by LiveWire no 2. Join us…….as we walk along the cliffs at Godrevy, watch the seals at Mutton Cove, eat Sallie’s Ice-creams and have a really lovely time.

Breakfast made by J

Godrevy Lighthouse

A family having fun in the water

Looking across to St Ives where 59 years ago we went for our honeymoon having been married in Truro.

Seals in Mutton Cove

Tonight, to cap off a beautiful day, it’s another Shanty Sing at the Eco Park and LiveWire 3, who has been singing with my choirs since she was 6 or 7 whenever she was here on holiday, joined us with the rest of the family in the audience.

And here we are singing,”Cornwall My Home.”

12 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on August 26, 2026 in Cornwall, gigs, Godrevy, Happiness, nature, Postaday 2026, singing

Tide Coming in

25 Aug

Lovely busy family day today, Roots, the sea, more sea, fish and chips, games and chatter………

Low view of the sea

Birds, A Return and Independence Day

24 Aug

We were waiting to collect some family as they arrived in Penzance on the Scillonian after a few days holiday when we noticed a little flock of pretty, orange-legged birds – Ruddy Turnstones according to Merlin.

The Scillonian about to dock in Penzance

It’s Independence Day in Ukraine and we send love to our Ukrainian friends, here enjoying special ice-creams called Hedgehogs, at the Chapelporth Cafe in 2022. The angel at the top is one of mine made in the colours of the Ukrainian flag for Danylo..

1 Comment

Posted by mybeautfulthings on August 24, 2026 in Chapel Porth, Cornwall, environment, friendship, nature, Penzance, Postaday 2026

Tags: Hooligan Art Community, Scillonian, Slava Ukraini

Sculpture, Blue and A Pie

23 Aug

Our eldest daughter came today to help my lovely Mr S move our very heavy Finger Labyrinth sculpture a few feet. It has been tricky mowing around it so now it’s at the edge of a flower bed and a new lawn will be sown where it was. It looks much better where it is now.
My next job will be to find plants to grow at the base that won’t grow too high to obscure the carved words. I shall start researching an evergreen, low growing shrub that has flowers, maybe scent……

Ars brevis vita longa

Amor vincit omnia

Blue skies and a temperature of 21C – perfect!

Chicken, leek and bacon pie

1 Comment

Posted by mybeautfulthings on August 23, 2026 in art, baking, environment, garden, nature, Postaday 2026, sculpture, sky, wood carving

Tags: Peter Boex sculptor

Six on Saturday – Recovery

22 Aug

It rained! Actually it rained quite a lot and our very sad hydrangeas perked up. The flowers are still a little crisp but the leaves are mostly green again and not limp any more so we have hopes that they will recover properly. You can see them all looking much happier here. Sadly, several labels got lost some time ago.

Petiolaris

Black Steel Zebra

We bought a beautiful blue hydrangea recently and planted it out just before the heatwaves. It suffered and we thought we had lost it but I dug it up, popped it back in a pot and kept it watered and it is looking the healthiest of the lot. We’ll plant it again in a week or two..

Jim, over at Garden Ruminations, hosts Six on Saturday Pop over and in the comments, you’ll find so many delightful posts from keen gardeners all over the world.