All today’s beautiful things come from our walk around Godrevy this morning, at first in bright sunshine and then in grey clould, hence the difference in the colour of the water! Join us on our walk and click on any photo for more detail. It was the first time we had seen seals frolicking in the waters before the island is reached. The usual crowd were on their beach on the far side.
1 It was a gloriously bright winter’s day and we took a walk up to Wheal Coates on the North Coast of Cornwall, starting from Chapel Porth. This is for Shelagh.
Wheal Coates
2 There was an off-shore wind catching the tops of the waves making long plumes of spray the length of each wave as it unfurled.
Spray
Waves
Sun towards St Ives
The Atlantic Ocean
3 Our small town, Redruth, was absolutely stuffed with people this evening for the switching on of the Christmas lights, the children’s lantern parade and our singing of carols. It was so lovely to be part of community happiness. Click on any photo for detail.
1 My lovely Sister-in-law in Atlanta sent me a photo of a tiny visitor to her garden. Thank you, V.
V’s visitor
2 Today’s poem in Poem of the Day 2 conjures up a delightful mind picture for me. I hope it does the same for you.
MY PAPA'S WALTZ by Theodore Roethke
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
“Here’s a poem by a Michigan lad, Theodore Roethke, whose father ran a nursery and greenhouse business in Saginaw. This poem avoids all psycho-babble about love-hate relationships, childhood idealization of the father, family tensions and conflicts, the borderline between play and violence, whatever. It avoids those cliches and trite formulations by instead seeing specific things and moments of experience — by imagery, in a word.
As you read it, avoid cliché reactions having to do with dysfunctional families, alcoholism, child abuse, and other newspaper topics. Such matters are real enough, but stock responses can block your perceptions. Instead, concentrate on the particulars.
Every image here deserves to be pondered and tasted to the full, for its emotional richness. The overall tone and feeling contains love and pain and humor and nostalgia all blended. This is a poem worth memorizing.”
I don’t know who wrote this but I found it here. I never thought of this poem as being about anything other than a Daddy dancing with his son. It remind me of dancing on my own Daddy’s feet and of watching my children’s Daddy dancing with them. We all loved the craziness of it all.
3 I have had a lovely afternoon with friends – chatting, eating mincepies and homemade cookies and planning next year’s meeting and social programme for the Cornwall Humanists.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
to all my American family, friends and readers. I just love that a day is set aside for being together and for being grateful for the people in our lives, no presents involved just eating a feast together at the family table. We will be thinking of you all as we have our mini Thanksgiving tonight. All the recipes I am using are from my lovely Sister-in-law – apart from the Apple Pie of which more later.
2 Aren’t the colours of these vegetables, just ready to roast,and the herbs, so lovely and bright.
Chopped chives for the creamed onions dish
Glossy carrots and parsnips
3 I have made a very special Apple Pie today from a recipe I was given on our first visit to New York to visit my sister in 1981. It contains its own custard and is the best apple pie I have ever tasted. I’ll post the recipe soon and you really should try it!
1 When we were in Atlanta with my lovely brother and sister-in-law, they cooked us a Thanksgiving dinner which was wonderful and I determined to do one for friends here. Circumstances conspired against me but tomorrow night I am doing a mini Thanksgiving dinner for the two of us. V’s recipe for Cornbread and Chestnut Stuffing called for day old Cornbread so that was my first job this morning.
Corn bread
2 This afternoon I went to a delightful Craft fair at a local hotel. There were so many beautiful handmade items there and it was all in aid of Children in Cornwall to help them realise their dreams. I bought these delicious cupcakes!
Delicious cup cakes
3 The Corn bread wasn’t a day old but I prepared the stuffing anyway and it looks delicious. Actually we know it is as V made it for us last month. I think there may be some left over to freeze for Christmas!
Corn bread and Chestnut Stuffing
P.S. I have published my recipe for the beautifully delicious Sticky Tangerine Cake. You can find a link here on my Recipes – sweet page and here is the full recipe with all the lovely photographs to take you through the processes.
1 On a Monday evening my choir rehearses in Troon Primary School. These delightful 4″ high models of some of engine houses, ubiquitous around Cornwall, were on display.
Engine houses, found all over Cornwall from the tin mining era
2 We discovered a lovely new café in Truro today where the coffee was excellent, the homemade Lemon Drizzle Cake even better than my own and lovely friendly service. It’s Oscar’s on the ground floor of Lemon Street Market. Try it if you are nearby. It really is a gem. We will certainly become regulars!
A gem of a cafe
3 The lovely Mr S was shopping for a shirt and we went into a long established store in Truro, Trevails and he came out with an excellent winter jacket! The shop has actually been there and run by generations of the same family for 95 years! I remember shopping for my school uniform for Truro Girls’ Grammar School there and I was so proud to be wearing it! The beautiful things in there today were very special indeed. Have a look and I will tell you the story which the lovely owners told us ……….
Very small football boots
These beautiful little leather boots with nailed-in leather studs were made especially for the current owner’s father about eighty years ago. The boy was still in Primary School in St Agnes and was such a talented little footballer that the secondary boys wanted him to play in a match for them. His mother went to the shoemakers in St Agnes and had these little boots, child size 10, made for him. They are in such pristine condition because the match was cancelled and the next time he was invited to play with that team, he had grown out of them!
Somehow, they ended up on display with dozens of other shoes in a pub in St Agnes where one day, on a family Sunday outing, Mr Trevail’s mother told him, “Those boots were made for your Dad!” It took the pub changing hands twice before the newest owner decided that the boots ought to go back to the family where they belonged and so they are now proudly on display in this splendid and last family owned shop in the city, Trevails. Go in and have a look if you are in Truro. Go on! You now have two destinations in this beautiful Cathedral city where I grew up!
1 Last night I finished off two head-dresses for Kings to go along with the three beards I have knitted – all for the Wildworks event at Eden – The Yule-tide Ark-ive
Kings’ headbands with glitter wool
2 The wispy clouds in a very blue sky have been very beautiful all day.
Cat’s tail clouds
3 The delightful Tibuchina Urvilleana is in flower again and it will continue all winter in my Suffragette garden. No white to go along with it just now except for the touch on the stamens. Where are my white winter Cyclamen?
1 After breakfast in London, we left that part of the family and went for a delicious lunch with Daughter No 1 on our way home. We were able to meet her beautiful Maine Coon kittens, just ten months and so very big and furry! Here is Gizmo who totally fills their basket. Just look at his furry ears and ruff.
Gizmo filling the basket
Furry Gizmo
2 Lizbeth is smaller and daintier but still big compared with most kittens of ten months. You can see how she is smaller than Gizmo in the basket but even so she fills the seat of an ordinary dining chair! Maine Coons can grow to weigh 22lbs!
Lizbeth has a bit more space than her brother
Beautiful Lizbeth
3 Tonight’s sunset was glorious and, driving West to come home, we were able to appreciate its beauty for ages.
1. It was fascinating to see Grandkid J with his homework. He logged on to his school’s site with his username and password and played a game with his Granddad that helped with learning mental arithmetic.
2. Grandkid T has been helping with painting her bedroom in the house they have recently moved to. She is a cracker of a worker!
3. Just look at these two in their beautiful Japanese pyjamas!
What a lovely week we have had seeing three of our Grandchildren in one week and last September we spent time with our oldest in Barcelona. We are so lucky!
1. The Grandchildren put cat treats into Bob’s new bed to encourage her to try it out.
2. Always look on the bright side of life! My initial feeling on being told that my hip op could be as late as March 2015 when I had been expecting it to be in December was horror and disappointment. I just want to be on the other side of the whole thing. But….. The bright side? I won’t have to miss any Christmas parties now!
3. I have a knitting challenge on. Can you guess what I have been asked to make?
