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Monthly Archives: July 2017

Bee, School Reports and A Sand Dollar

I spotted a Bee on the Marjoram this morning. It had collected so much pale yellow pollen it could hardly fly off.

Bee on the Marjoram

More sorting today and a great deal of pleasure! I found school reports for two pupils from many years ago, both of whom I thought might well have a career in writing so I saved their reports to be able to say later, “I used to teach this young man/young woman!” I managed to track down one of them and we had a delightful conversation about his career so far. It pleases me so much to hear from ex-pupils and to hear their enthusiasm. His report contained phrases such as, ‘S has an enviable talent for original writing,’ ‘an intuitive feel for language,’ and ‘S writes fluently with imagination and skill.’ Plenty of time yet to fulfil his dreams.

Among my treasures to sort is this sand dollar which we picked up over 30 years on our first visit to America to see my brother and we discovered the delicacy of sand-dollars on the beach near Savannah. Isn’t it beautiful?

Echinodiscus tenuissimus test (Astriclypeidae)

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 31, 2017 in America, Beauty, nature, Photography, postaday2017

Tags: Echinodiscus tenuissimus test (Astriclypeidae), marjoram

Early Evening on Chapel Porth Beach

30 Jul

Sunny but windy and cool this evening so not many people on the beach. Those who were there were having fun – running away from waves, splashing in pools, building sand castles, watching seagulls and admiring the most amazing clouds. On the way home there was a splash of rainbow in the sky. Click on any photo for a better view.

Close up of Beautiful clouds

Squealing and running away from the incoming waves

Dark clouds and blue

Beautiful clouds

Sparkles in the pool

A pair of Sea gulls

Abandoned sandcastles

Rainbow splash

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 30, 2017 in Beauty, Chapel Porth, Cornwall, environment, nature, Photography, postaday2017, Sea

Tags: fun at the beach

Letter, Earrings and Supper

29 Jul

The post today brought us an update on the seven year old girl we are sponsoring in Senegal. It is always a delight to hear from the family. I love the tree A has drawn for us.

Letter from A sponsored through PLAN

I have cleaned and re-hung all my favourite earrings today. It is lovely to remember where I bought each pair or the person who gave them to me.

Earrings from all over the world

Supper tonight, Creamy Courgette and Tarragon Cobbler, is from a new Yotam Ottolenghi recipe in today’s Guardian. The photo is from the magazine as our dish is still in the oven!

Creamy Courgette and Tarragon Cobbler

P.S. Well, that was delicious! I used almonds instead of walnuts and cut the ingredients to suit two rather than six, served it with broccoli and we have just finished a most scrumptious veggie supper! DSCN9961

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 29, 2017 in Beauty, Food, Photography, postaday2017

Tags: Creamy Courgette and Tarragon Cobbler, Plan, sponsored child, vegetarian meal, Yotam Ottolenghi

Rain, A Ring and A Flower

28 Jul

It has rained all day again and the garden is quite sodden. I like the muted effect through the rain-splattered window.

Rain soaked garden

My Wedding ring has been too small for me for some time and I wear it on a chain. Today we went to a local family jewellers and found a beautiful silver ring with a Celtic knot design and I have a new ring on my wedding finger, just in time for our Golden Wedding Anniversary next month.

My beautiful ring

Joseph Conrad’s words

From the flowers we were given last week, this one is pink and fluffy but I don’t know its name.

What is this pretty flower?

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 28, 2017 in Beauty, garden, Happiness, nature, Photography, postaday2017, quotations, Uncategorized

Tags: Celtic knot design, Joseph Conrad

Sunflower, Magpies and A Poem

27 Jul

We were given a lovely bunch of Sunflowers on Sunday and they are still gorgeous though dropping their bright yellow pollen.

We have a family of Magpies in the garden but they are very skittish and I cannot get a photo of them all together. I’ll keep trying! There are six altogether, two parents and four very demanding youngsters. Six is good as the old nursery rhyme tells us:

One for Sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told
Eight for a wish
Nine for a kiss
Ten a surprise you should be careful not to miss
Eleven for health
Twelve for wealth
Thirteen beware it’s the devil himself.

A good friend sent me the following poem a couple of days ago. It is a gentle evocation of a beautiful place, written by Edwin Waugh in 1864.

‘Tis sweet in pleasant Silverdale,
All in the blossom-tide,
To watch the hardy fishers sail
O’er the blue waters glide.

There, changeful ocean’s
Murmuring waves
Sing in the smiling lea;
A paradise upon the land,
And wonders in the sea.

Edwin Waugh (1864)

I looked him up as his work is new to me and found the following on Wikipedia. There is more to be found here.

“The son of a shoemaker, Waugh was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, England and, after some schooling, was apprenticed to a printer, Thomas Holden, at the age of 12. While still a young man he worked as a journeyman printer, travelling all over Britain, but eventually returned to his old job in Rochdale.^[1]

Waugh read eagerly, and in 1847 became assistant secretary to the Lancashire Public School Association and went to work in Manchester. By 1860 he was able to become a full-time writer; but in 1881 he was in poor health and was granted a Civil List pension of £90 p.a.”

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 27, 2017 in Beauty, nature, Photography, poetry, postaday2017, Uncategorized

Tags: nursery rhyme

Raindrops, Perun and Poem by Merrit Malloy

26 Jul

Heavy rain this morning left just-about-to-drip-off raindrops on the Agapanthus buds.

Agapanthus

Perun, the 6 m high Slavic Thunder God next door, is being dismantled for his journey to Slovakia. I love how his hair is flowing in the wind! You can read more about him here.

Perun, Slavic God of Thunder

The Party

This beautiful poem came my way today. Thank you Silver Tenters.

When I die
Give what’s left of me away
To children
And old men that wait to die.

And if you need to cry,
Cry for your brother
Walking the street beside you
And when you need me,
Put your arms
Around anyone
And give to them
What you need to give to me.

I want to leave you something,
Something better
Than words
Or sounds.

Look for me
In the people I’ve known
Or loved,
And if you cannot give me away,
At least let me live in your eyes
And not on your mind.

You can love me most
By letting
Hands touch hands
By letting
Bodies touch bodies
And by letting go
Of children
That need to be free.

Love doesn’t die,
People do.
So, when all that’s left of me
Is love,
Give me away

Merrit Malloy

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 26, 2017 in Beauty, Photography, poetry, postaday2017, sculpture, Uncategorized

Tags: Slavic Thunder God, Sue Hill and Pete Hill

Exhibition, Bee and Butterfly

25 Jul

The Cornish Studies Library in Redruth now has our Perthi Kov Exhibition of the people we researched for ‘Until the Day Break’, all put together by Lesley Trotter and me and designed by Anna Oliver. It looks good in this venue! If you are local, go in and have a look. If you are from somewhere else in the world, please click on the photo to be able to read about our fascinating characters.

Notice

The Harvey children and Captain Charles Frederick Bishop

Eight of our characters

Bees and butterflies are enjoying our Agapanthus flowers as are we.

Honey bee on Agapanthus

Large White butterfly on Agapanthus

Agapanthus with Crocosmia

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 25, 2017 in Beauty, Cornwall, environment, garden, nature, Perthi Kov, Photography, postaday2017

Tags: Agapanthus, Anna Oliver Fresca marketing, cornish studies library, Crocosmia Lucifer, honey bee, Large White Butterfly, Until the Day Break

Masts in the Sunset

24 Jul

We are just in from a beautiful evening with both my choirs – a boat trip from Falmouth to St Mawes where we sang joyfully to passers-by and then came back, singing all the way.

Coming back into Falmouth

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 24, 2017 in Beauty, Cornwall, Falmouth, Happiness, Photography, postaday2017, Uncategorized

Tags: red sky at night

A Very Special Wedding

23 Jul

Here is a gallery of photos from last Monday when Mydd and Josh celebrated their marriage at Godrevy Beach, Cornwall. Click on any photo for detail. It was a day so full of love that it was tangible. The air was alive with love and laughter, smiles and serenity. May their life together be long and happy and full of beauty.

A young guest

Flowers and Godrevy Beach

Flowers for everyone

Creating small bunches

In the afternoon

Six Spot Burnet Moth found on the rocks

All coming down to the beach for the Ceremony

Guests

Pete

Sue

Marquee full of food and drink

We’re on our way down!

Coming down carefully

Coming down onto the beach

Waiting for the Ceremony to begin

Now we have our garlands, we can begin

Love

Happy!

First kiss

Mercedes reading her ceremony poem

A small guest

Ceremony over

First swim

Beautiful Becca

Many guests in the water too

Coming out of the water

Rose petal confetti on the beach

Good friends

Coming back from their first swim

Special pot shards for the guests

Against the sunset

Sunset ending the best day ever!

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 23, 2017 in Beauty, Celebration, Cornwall, friendship, Godrevy, Happiness, nature, Photography, postaday2017, Wedding, Wildworks

Tags: love, romance

Buzzard, Waves and Lewis Carroll?

22 Jul

An evening ride in late sunshine to Chapelporth was a delight. We were able to get close to this Buzzard on a telegraph pole.

On a telegraph pole

It was high tide and the waves were crashing satisfyingly against the rocks.

Crashing waves at full tide, Chapel Porth

A VW camper van came into the car park for a few moments and had some of (?) Lewis Carroll’s words on the side.

On the side of a camper-van

In fact the lines are not from Alice in Wonderland though the sentiment is when the Cheshire Cat has a conversation with Alice:

‘Cheshire Puss,’ she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. ‘Come, it’s pleased so far,’ thought Alice, and she went on. ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’

‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.

‘I don’t much care where …..’ said Alice.

‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.

‘….. so long as I get somewhere,’ Alice added as an explanation.

‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long enough.’

The words are, of course, George Harrison’s in his composition, Any Road. Listen here!