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Monthly Archives: October 2013

Pumpkin Hat, Raw Food and Bath-time

1   The Pumpkin hat arrived in time for Hallowe’en and was very well received.

2   I spent the morning working with a local artist who is making an enormous willow sculpture for Truro’s City of Lights Parade in November. I took along some delicious Raw Chocolate Brownies to share for our break.

Raw Chocolate Brownies

Raw Chocolate Brownies

3  My lovely neighbour has just returned from a Community Theatre project in Nablus, Palestine and she brought me a beautiful locally made skin scrubber and a block of locally made soap which I am looking forward to using. Her descriptions of the Hammam reminded me of our trip to Morrocco when we went to a local hammam with the women from the neighbourhood! Quite an experience!

A Loofah perhaps?

A Loofah perhaps?

Palestinian soap

Palestinian soap

 
 

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The Platinum Pebble on Cape Cod, A Rare Find

We discovered a gem of an Inn on Cape Cod. This was our ninth resting place on our three week road trip and surpassed all the others by so much, it deserves a special mention, as do the owners, Simon and Annabelle, whose welcome makes it such a delightful place to stay.

Our room on the ground floor was beautiful! The whole decor is in black and white with gorgeous splashes of vibrant colour which works really well, being both clean and bright.. Something I love to find when we stay somewhere, is generous towels and these were fabulous! There’s a swimming pool (though I was too chicken to swim!) but the Autumn weather was so mild we were able to have our delicious breakfasts beside it on both mornings.

All that was lovely but it was all the special and unique touches that made this stay such a treat.  There were snacks in the room – fruit, crisps and Oreos (I had my first Oreos!) not for buying but included. There was a guidebook of the area for us to borrow. Each evening, there were chocolates on the pillow and a small card with the next day’s weather, sunrise and sunset times.  I loved the black and white umbrellas also available to borrow, the delightful Occupied notice for the bedroom door and the rainbow on the stairs!  Coffee and tea were available in the sitting room at any time and  a nightcap was on offer – just help yourself!

Yet another treat was the garden, with its bike-shed full of bikes for the riding (not more than four hours at a time so that everyone could have their turn!) and a woodland walk full of interesting small sculptures. Those readers who have followed for sometime will know that this would touch my quirky streak!   Truly, The Platinum Pebble was a home from home!

Annabelle and Simon felt like friends after only two days. They made us feel so welcome, shared their knowledge of the area, including where to get the best lobster roll at Arnie’s and a fabulous evening meal at The Oyster Company, and judging by the comments in the Guest Book, do the same for everyone. It’s very obvious that they genuinely enjoy what they are doing, have time for each and every one of their guests and take pride in the uniqueness of what they have created.

Have a look at the posts for October 19th and 20th for more detail of our stay in Cape Cod and if you should ever find yourself in Cape Cod, give yourself a treat; stay with Simon and Annabelle in the lovely Platinum Pebble and for more than just two nights!

 

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My Beetle, Pumpkin Hat and White Poppies

1   My lovely little 10 year old Beetle passed its MOT with no trouble today.

My Beetle

My Beetle

2  Today I have posted a delightful little pumpkin hat for our hat-loving Granddaughter, just in time for Hallowe’en.

Pumpkin hat

Pumpkin hat

3   I have ordered my white poppies today from The Peace Pledge Union.  I wear a red poppy  to commemorate the dead, including civilian casualties, in current and past wars wherever in the world that might be.    I wear a white poppy to indicate a commitment to peace in the future.

 
 

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Ribbon Cloth, Stormy Sky and The Golden Rule

1    Today I have posted the lovely new ribbon cloth I have just made for one of our Grandchildren. Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.

Ribbon cloth

Ribbon cloth

2    Thank you to all who hoped we would be okay in the storm. We were lucky here in Cornwall, not getting as severe a battering as promised nor as bad as it has been further up country though the day has been full of squalls.

Stormy skies

Stormy skies

3     A good blogging friend today wrote about kindness. As she says, many in our blogging world do. We are all trying to follow the Golden Rule, treating others with the kindness with which we would want to be treated. When on holiday I found a little book, “The Golden Rule, as expressed by cultures around the world” which I found quite fascinating.

The Golden Rule book
The Golden Rule book
An African proverb

An African proverb

Golden rules from The Odyssey and from Mahabharata

Golden rules from The Odyssey and from Mahabharata

 
 

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Storm, Dahlia and ‘Poem in October’

1   It’s a very grey day today and we are promised an enormous storm with possibly 80-90 mph winds.  A friend sent me this warning.

Batten down the hatches! There's a hoolie blowin' in!

Batten down the hatches! There’s a Hoolie blawin’ in!

2   The dahlias are still in flower, though, given the forecast, this may be the last we see this Autumn.

White Dahlia

White Dahlia

3    I love the poetry of Dylan Thomas whose birthday it is today. Here for you is his ‘Poem in October’, one of my favourites. I love his lyricism and the way he plays with words and the intimations of the wonderful ‘Under Milk Wood’, to come some ten years later.

Poem In October

It was my thirtieth year to heaven
Woke to my hearing from harbour and neighbour wood
And the mussel pooled and the heron
Priested shore
The morning beckon
With water praying and call of seagull and rook
And the knock of sailing boats on the net webbed wall
Myself to set foot
That second
In the still sleeping town and set forth.

My birthday began with the water-
Birds and the birds of the winged trees flying my name
Above the farms and the white horses
And I rose
In rainy autumn
And walked abroad in a shower of all my days.
High tide and the heron dived when I took the road
Over the border
And the gates
Of the town closed as the town awoke.

A springful of larks in a rolling
Cloud and the roadside bushes brimming with whistling
Blackbirds and the sun of October
Summery
On the hill’s shoulder,
Here were fond climates and sweet singers suddenly
Come in the morning where I wandered and listened
To the rain wringing
Wind blow cold
In the wood faraway under me.

Pale rain over the dwindling harbour
And over the sea wet church the size of a snail
With its horns through mist and the castle
Brown as owls
But all the gardens
Of spring and summer were blooming in the tall tales
Beyond the border and under the lark full cloud.
There could I marvel
My birthday
Away but the weather turned around.

It turned away from the blithe country
And down the other air and the blue altered sky
Streamed again a wonder of summer
With apples
Pears and red currants
And I saw in the turning so clearly a child’s
Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother
Through the parables
Of sun light
And the legends of the green chapels

And the twice told fields of infancy
That his tears burned my cheeks and his heart moved in mine.
These were the woods the river and sea
Where a boy
In the listening
Summertime of the dead whispered the truth of his joy
To the trees and the stones and the fish in the tide.
And the mystery
Sang alive
Still in the water and singingbirds.

And there could I marvel my birthday
Away but the weather turned around. And the true
Joy of the long dead child sang burning
In the sun.
It was my thirtieth
Year to heaven stood there then in the summer noon
Though the town below lay leaved with October blood.
O may my heart’s truth
Still be sung
On this high hill in a year’s turning.

Dylan Thomas
 

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon

This is my favourite horizon photograph, taken a few months ago. For the whole sequence of the moon rising, have a look here.

Moon on the horizon

Moon on the horizon

For others in this week’s photo challenge, click here

 

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Front Doors, A Visit and Two Murals

1   In Penryn this morning I was struck by how many lovely front doors there were. I especially love the one with the apple tree in a pot and a bucket for a hanging basket.

2   We went to visit a good friend in hospital today and were delighted to find him looking well and in good spirits prior to his operation very soon.

3   There were two delightful murals in the hospital, one ceramic of Custom House Quay, made as it turned out by a mutual friend, Peter Wright, and we didn’t know until J told us. The other was in fabric and made by children in the hospital schoolroom, colourful and personal.

Custom House Quay by Peter Wright

Custom House Quay by Peter Wright

Identity

Identity

 

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Waves, Beach Daisy and Digging Dog

1   A very windy but still warm day took us all for a walk on the beach. The off-shore wind was blowing the tops off the white horses.

Porthtowan Beach

Porthtowan Beach

Wave spray

Wave spray

2   There were lots of large pink daisies still in flower.

Beach daisy

Beach daisy

3   We had great fun watching a dog try to bury its owner in sand!

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Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – Beautiful Things

We spent a wonderful day at the end of our New England road trip in Boston immersed in the beauty of this museum. Click on any photo to see more detail.

Here are just a few of the beautiful exhibits we enjoyed, starting with a beautiful handmade quilt from 1830.

All over the Museum are lovely doorways like the ones I featured in this post about Boston.

The Audubon exhibition of Audubon’s Birds, Audubon’s Words was lovely, the words like poems, taken from his book, Birds of America.    As author and illustrator of The Birds of America, John James Audubon (1785–1851) traveled thousands of miles throughout the United States and Canada to seek out and draw North American birds in their natural habitats. In the book’s enormous pages—each more than three feet high are the most glorious illustrations but…….

Explanation

Explanation

There were so many exhibitions, we couldn’t see everything but we did find these treasures before moving on to a remarkable exhibition which took my breath away.

This final exhibition was of photographs from women in Iran and the Arab world, each telling a story. Do look carefully – they are quite remarkable, very moving and sometimes quite shocking.

IMG_0176

After those shocking images, some joy.

If you ever get the chance to visit this remarkable collection, don’t miss it and I’ve told you about only the tiniest fraction of lovely things.

 

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Singing, Crawling and Baby-Led Weaning

1  Oh, it was so good to be singing in harmony again! I have so missed singing while away on holiday. Singing along to  Steve Earle is fun but not a patch on a Suitcases session with Claire Ingleheart!

Health benefits of singing

2   L has arrived for a couple of days visit with GrandBaby B who has crawled for the first time this afternoon! She went 10 ft altogether going for a ball of crumpled paper a foot or so out of reach.

3   All three of our Grandchildren have been weaned using baby-led weaning and tonight Grand-baby B, 6 and 1/2 months old, has eaten poached chicken, carrots, celery and potatoes and thoroughly enjoyed her meal, all picked up by her, no spooning here!

 
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Posted by on October 24, 2013 in family, Grandchildren, Postaday2013, singing

 

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