I was given this beautiful necklace for my birthday a few weeks ago and I just love it. The colours are gorgeous and Bluebells are some of my favourite wild flowers.
Bluebell necklace
Ginger is my favourite snack!
Crystallised ginger
Just before Christmas, a young friend held a Pop-up Art exhibition to raise money for refugees in Lesvos. Click here for lots of photos of the event. This little Mermaid was the piece of art that I bought. She is on the wall in our kitchen.
Mermaid by Carol Buller
A Petrified Forest has been uncovered on Portreath beach, exposed by the wild winds. It can only be seen at low tide so we went down before breakfast this morning and saw some of the trees that are said to be between 4000 and 6000 years old! At one point, they made up a coastal woods–but after the seas began to rise, the trees became submerged by mud and muck. Eventually, they compressed and became petrified. Similar beach forests exist in Wales and Oregon. We met someone, who swims there every single day of the year – no wetsuit – and she showed us where the wood was, much more than just the tree trunk which we had spotted easily.Click on any photo to see more detail.
There were lots of pretty shells on the shingly part of the beach.
Little shells on the beach
I heard the following poem by W H Auden Radio 4’s ‘Poetry Please’ on Sunday and though it was written for another age, it is all too apt for today.
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Refugee Blues by W H Auden Say this city has ten million souls, Once we had a country and we thought it fair, In the village churchyard there grows an old yew, The consul banged the table and said: Went to a committee; they offered me a chair; Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said: Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky; Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin, Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay, Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees; Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors, Stood on a great plain in the falling snow; |
We have had a lovely day celebrating eight years since we came home to Cornwall. We shopped in Truro, had a tea-cake in Oscars (beautiful Peace Lilies in Lemon Street Market ) and have just returned home after a fabulous meal at The Fox and Hounds in Comford. This used to be my Mum and Dad’s local when they lived in Sunny Corner, Cusgarne. It is now run by a lovely couple, Nicki and Mark, and is a wonderful place to eat. You know that feeling, when you really don’t want your meal to end? Well, it was one of those. I had Roast Pheasant and the lovely Mr S had Venison – scrumptious! We followed that with sharing a delicious dessert!
I read some time ago that refugees landing in Lesvos were being given baby carriers and that this freed their hands to hold the hands of their other children. The faces of the parents as they were fitted with the carriers was beyond beautiful. I read that one can make Mai Tei baby carriers and so began to research how this could be done. I have found a pattern and gathered together all the materials and my first one is on the way. Here are three of the four straps/ties in various stages of making, two of 3′ and two of 6′. I’ll show you as it grows. I shall have to borrow a baby to try it out when done. If you would like to join me I’ll send you the links for the pattern.
Ties in various stages
I also read that people in Calais have been being given warm woolly snoods and they are as delighted with them as are the parents on Lesvos. I cannot sew in the evenings but I can knit while watching TV and these are very quick and easy in Super Chunky Wool. If you want to join me with the knitting, I’ll pass on this pattern too. It was a free one.
Snoods
One of my Blogger friends posted this today Thanks Ute.
This morning on Radio 4, I heard the hymn, ‘Now the Day is Over’ being sung. It was both a tearful moment and a beautiful memory at the same time as my Granny, who lived with us in Birmingham for about a year when I was 5, sang this to me every night at bedtime. She often sang it in Welsh – Nawr bod y diwrnod wedi dod i ben. This is the best recording of the right tune that I can find. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrDkI0yzzAo
Along the lane by St Euny Churchyard, Mr Smith noticed a Christmas bauble. It took me a few moments to find it. Then it made me smile, wondering how it had ended up there.
Spot the bauble!
The bauble
The 40 minute walk up the lane and along the Flat lode at the back of our house is always a satisfying one to do. It was good to see some new colourful growth on a Sycamore.
Sycamore new growth
We went to Marazion to see the murmuration at sunset tonight but no starlings came by. That was disappointing but the shot I got of Penzance lights reflected in the water in Mount’s Bay pleased me greatly.
Lights in the water
The clouds on the horizon were prettily peachy.
Sunset clouds
The lights were being switched on in the Castle on the Mount.
St Michael’s Mount
In the furniture shop in our town there is a draught stopper that I have fallen for!
Sheep!
Opposite where I park for the wool shop was this amazing Camellia. Of course, I have some new yarn!
Camellia
I’ve found another poem for you in one of my new books. Dana Gioia is another poet new to me. Perhaps if I were American, a Californian even, I would have met his works before. I am having lots of fun reading my two new books packed full with poems to make one laugh, cry, gasp and recognise – certainly to make one think. But it is much more than fun as I ‘meet’ new writers.
Dana Gioia speaks to me through his poems and through this interview on the importance of reading. His linking of reading with activism stirs me! I would have loved to have been in his classes. I also learned that he is Poet Laureate for California. As Michelangelo said,’I am still learning.’ (Clip from the interview and apt!)
Nothing is Lost
Nothing is lost. Nothing is so small
that it does not return.
Imagine
that as a child on a day like this
you held a newly minted coin and had
the choice of spending it in any way
you wished.
Today the coin comes back to you,
the date rubbed out, the ancient mottoes vague,
the portrait covered up with the dull shellac
of anything used up, passed on, disposed of
with something else in view, and always worth
a little less each time.
Now it returns,
and you will think it unimportant, lose
it in your pocket change as one more thing
that’s not worth counting, not worth singling out.
That is the mistake you must avoid today.
You sent it on a journey to yourself.
Now hold it in your hand. Accept it as
the little you have earned today.
And realise
that you must choose again but over less.Dana Gioia
A lovely peaceful scene outside the Zed Shed made the singing even more lovely.
The Penryn River
The nearly moon here shone out in contrast with the evergreen and the winter branches.
Moon
There were more pretty clouds on the horizon this evening.I always wonder where a plane is going when I see a vapour trail.
Pink and grey
What a beautiful place St Michael’s Mount is! This is the view from Penzance where we had a windy walk along the prom.
St Michael’s Mount from Penzance
Fish’n’chips for lunch! It was delicious crispy batter and beautifully fresh, local caught fish.
Fish’n’chips
The clouds today have been very dramatic starting with the ones as the sun rose this morning.
Dawn clouds from the back window
Dark clouds from the shelter of the pub where we had lunch. These clouds brought a hefty hail-storm!
St Michael’s Mount and a huge anvil shaped cloud
One hundred years ago today my lovely Dad was born. “Let’s look it up!” were some of his most used words and have become something of a family motto as here on my birthday poster made by our four. Even when he had gone blind (the last two years of his life) he would say “Let’s look it up!” and could tell me just where the reference book was on his shelves. What kind of moth? The green book on the left hand book shelves, third shelf down, about six in from the left! What year was a piece of music written that he had heard on the radio that day? Bottom shelf of the book case next to the bureau, dark blue cover and right in the middle. He was right every time.
Birthday poster of the ‘Things Mum says!’
“If you are sad today, just remember the world is over 4 billion years old and you somehow managed to exist at the same time as David Bowie” – Dean Podesta. Thank you to my lovely SIL for sending me this today.
Sung by David Bowie, written by Eden Ahbez
We stopped at the lovely market in Chacewater today. The vegetables there are so beautiful.
We also bought a delicious Pain au Raisin to share.
Pain au Raisin
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