A pretty peachy cloud was hovering over Pednandrea Chimney as we walked down to buy some milk.
Pednandrea chimney stack (the Cornish name means ‘At the head of the town’) can be seen for miles around
Coming back up the lane we saw pink Hollyhocks over a neighbours fence and burnished golden leaves along the path.
Hollyhocks in the evening light
Wet Autumn leaves on the last day of August
We’ve spent the afternoon in Falmouth, shopping and taking coffee and cake in the Courtyard Cafe where Passion Flowers were in bloom and the Coffee, Chocolate and Vanilla Cake irresistible. Many shops on the harbour side of the town have windows with wonderful views which look over the harbour and the opposite coastline. The Hospice Shop however, has a veritable jungle outside the window and is fabulous! The volunteer working today let me go through to the back to see the garden, belonging to the owner above the shop, properly. We loved it.
The last family have left today and so we are filling the unwelcome silence with music that our kids organised for our Golden Wedding. They sent an email to people they could find on our Mac and received back lots of wonderful messages from family and friends from our 50 years together including a song from each to make two cds and a third in the making as we contact some who were missed for some reason. The lovely messages have all been printed in a booklet.
CD cover
Cover of the booklet
Our beautiful ‘children’ made us wonderful gifts – the cds, a family portrait up-dated to include the new Grandbabies also used as the cd picture disc, a hand printed Family tree and there was a poem from GrandsonJ. We are overwhelmed by the love in these presents.
Family Tree
Poem written for us by J, LiveWire 2
After just the best Celebratory ten days together, our eldest daughter left last night, two families this morning and we now have just one family here for two more days. This morning, before leaving the little girls, LiveWires 3 and 4, played making hand and foot prints on the slate terrace by dipping their feet and hands in the dewy grass!
Much to our delight, we were taken out for dinner tonight to The Rock Pool by Godrevy and after a delicious meal, went further along to admire the dramatic sunset.
Sunset at Godrevy Beach
What a glorious day on the prom in Penzance as another attempt was made to get the World Record got the most Pirates in one place at one time. We missed it by 77 but we had fun in the sunshine. St Michael’s Mount across the water looked beautiful.
We celebrated in the best Cornish way with a Cornish Crean Tea in the garden. Our lovely friend, A, turned up yesterday morning with freshly baked scones and a big tub of Cornish Cream, some delightfully appropriate napkins and with a card reminding us that no celebration in Cornwall is complete without a proper cream tea. She’s right and it was all truly delicious and greatly appreciated by all. Our Strawberry Freezer jam completed the treat.
There are now 15 of us at home so one family plus J, LiveWire No 2, are camping in the field behind our house, thanks to our lovely neighbours whose field it is.
J, all set for his adventure, leaving the house.
The four Mums today had a very special treat of a Weleda Mini Spa, over two hours of pampering while the Dads looked after the children, taking them for a walk around the back, along the Great Flat Lode and collecting more blackberries which are now in the freezer awaiting my having time to make some Blackberry and Apple Jam. The afternoon was spent playing all sorts of invented games together. This evening we collected Fish’n’Chips for ten from our excellent local shop and the three girls carried everything home.
The day started with brunch at the Blue Bar in Porthtowan, a favourite haunt, moved on to beaching and belly boarding and ended with a party held in our honour with the loveliest presents made by the family and involving lots and lots of our friends.
The party photos are almost all face on so I can’t use them here. Suffice it to say that we were served a veritable feast cooked up by our kids and their partners, danced along to the music sent as gifts by friends, of which more later and wept with joy at the love and forethought that had gone into their presents to us, more of that later too.
It’s only rock and roll, but I like it!
Day 7 will follow tomorrow! It has been an exhaustingly happy week so far!
It’s very late and we have just had the most wonderful family party with such thoughtful presents. We had the morning on the beach with most of the family body boarding then, after a brief sojourn at home, returned for the party. I shall give you the photos tomorrow.
A sunshine forecast so a day at the beach was in order – at our family favourite, Chapel Porth. Dam building, Pooh sticks, Croque Monsieurs (fabulous!) from the Beach cafe, ice-creams all round and a good time was had by all. The Grandbaby twins were a hit in the supermarket on the way home! Today’s gallery follows.
In the shopping trolley
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