Our town is full of flowers.
There are very tall sunflowers in a neighbour’s garden.
Our garden is full of flowers too and this is the bunch we took to friends this evening when we went for supper.
Monthly Archives: July 2019
A Floriferous Day
Mobile, Poem and A Calendar
Our nephew’s wife, our niece-in-law, is an artist with words, otherwise know as a poet, whose work thrills me. She has given me permission to share this one here. In honour of her poem, Pisces Public Apology, here is a photo of a mobile that my Dad brought me from Mevagissey when I was five years old. I have treasured them for many, many years.
Pisces in pottery
Pisces Public Apology
I’m not a rock, I’m water.
I will never be still, try to understand that.
There will always be a ripple beneath the surface of my clouds
There will always be a reaper in my waves.
I am the child they called Powder Puff,
crying eyes caricature
doggy paddling the riptide
squinting for a dwelling place
in the oasis of my own peace but at the moment,
that pebble
is somewhere downstream.Try to swallow the fact that I
ingest my surroundings and
spit them out in distillate form and
that could be a shower or
hold on to your hats cos
it could just as well be a storm.I know that you want me to stop dissecting the particles in search of a source babe,
but isn’t that the definition of
precipitate?Can you relate to the water cycle,
from pool to vapor to ice and then bled
out by gravity over and over and over again-
Have you ever danced in the rain?
Have you ever tasted water from a glacial stream?This is a public apology.
Don’t get too close to me.
When you see the water rising,
get to shore or I’ll pull you down.Try to understand that I am not
an empty threat,
you will get wet.Your nostrils will burn with the flush of salt.
The sun setting in coral tones behind me
says that the only way to make it is to float.The moon never says anything,
a conductor in silhouette.It’s just the way of the sea,
the rage is under the surface
and rises up like Neptune –
Is my tongue a wave or is it a blade?The sun has seen me sleep serene
beneath his rising,
like a mirror in the dark.He knows I will show you
the red and aubergine vessels,
I will pull on the pumps in
your own heart and you will drown
in love for the rawest remnant of yourself.I am a teal tyrant to be sure
and yet,
in the summer months all of the earth’s children delight in my mischief.They say you haven’t lived
if you haven’t at least dipped your feet or
turned your grinning face skyward in the rain.I am not a rock but I’m a home for
beings too small to even see,
predatory beasts with bloody teeth,
creatures too foreign to even believe.I’m not a rock, but
anyone will tell you,
I am the blue blanket on this
big round boulder,
the source of life for every form and
the finest refinery of every stone.
A Dear Friend from choir who knows my Suffragette history has given me a Suffragette calendar. The following are July’s picture and caption.
Soup, Estah’s Story and A Surprise
It has been a wild day with a wintery feel, down to 17C! I made a delicious warming soup of Squash, Sweet Potato and Carrot and loved how the chunks looked in the pan. The soup was pretty too.
At choir we have been rehearsing for a production in August. If you are local, it will be well worth going to see this story of the diaspora.
In my absence, the wild winds had taken the top off one of our palm trees!
Six on Saturday – On Sunday
A day late as I was busy all day yesterday hearing about the climate emergency and how we can each be doing our bit.
July is turning out to be a month of abundance, many more blooms that I remember from last year. Perhaps I have been more vigilant about feeding and certainly the sun and rain mix has been beneficial.
1. Day Lilies
Day Lilies
2. Alium with bees
3. Trailing Begonia called Million Kisses. We had these in all the chimneys and pots the year of our Golden Wedding.
One Million Kisses begonia in an old chimney cowl
4 Clematis and Dahlia in Suffragette colours – in the back garden, not in my Suffragette garden in the front.
Dahlias and Clematis
5. Agapanthus
Agapanthus
6. Poppy Seeds to save. There have been dozens of Poppies, all from seed saved last year and we have labelled the ones we like the best for harvesting this year.
Frilly red poppy
To see those who were on time with the SoS challenge, visit the propagator
Renewable Energy Fair
That was a fascinating, challenging and fact filled day, all about how to try to save our beautiful world in the face of the climate emergency. We didn’t get a chance to see the electric vehicles as we wanted to hear each talk. 
We heard about the experimental United Downs Deep Geothermal Power project which is tapping into the granite hot rocks; we heard what Cornwall Council are doing having declared a Climate Emergency some weeks ago – one of which is the wild flowers planting; we heard about wind turbines and solar power and we heard from Nikki Jones, one of the leading environment speakers about why this is an emergency. It was all engrossing.
Molly Scott Cato, Green Party MEP for our area, rounded of the day with an inspiring speech that left the audience in no doubt as to what needs to be done.
The following graph pleased me, not for the end result of the rise in Carbon emissions which is very worrying but for the way it shows how the trees breathe. When all the trees green up in Spring they absorb the carbon dioxide so the graph spike goes down and when they lose the leaves in Autumn they can absorb far less so the spike goes up. It might be called the Baldocchi effect but I didn’t quite catch what the speaker said. Anyone out there know?
The whole event was brilliantly organised by a group of committed people in a very small village, Chacewater, just a ten minute bus ride away from us.
Flat Lode, Petrichor and Pinks
We did our circuit around a small part of The Flat Lode Trail this evening – it’s not flat! It is called that because the tin/copper ore under the ground here is relatively level but it doesn’t make for a flat walk! Shafts of sunlight were coming through the trees.
Path up to The Flat Lode Trail
We have had many hot and dry days, happily not as hot as in London, and suddenly this evening there was a short, sharp shower and the air was filled with that magical smell of petrichor. I have to leave you to imagine that as I couldn’t photograph the beautiful scent.
We were struck this evening by almost all the wild flowers being shades of pink/purple. Enjoy the gallery and if you can id those I haven’t managed, feel free to comment and help me out.
Wild Buddleia
Bramble
Foxglove
Hemp Agrimony Also known as ‘Raspberries and Cream’ Thanks to Jude
Pink Campion
Heather
Fireweed
For those who love words as I do – and petrichor is one of my favourites, it is “the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. The word is constructed from Greek petra(πέτρα), meaning “stone”, and īchōr (ἰχώρ), the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology.”
Fish Shop, Spider and Supper
Opposite the Zed Shed in Penryn where we sing on a Thursday morning is a fabulous fresh fish shop – with a sense of humour.
Ark, do you recognise this tiny spider?
I treated us to Scallops from the fish shop (as well as hake for another evening.)
Scallops with Pancetta and Crushed Garden Peas
A Bargain, A Project and A Poem
We met a friend at the Car-boot sale on Sunday. She is just the best bargain hunter and had discovered this delightful panel for £2. It is destined to become cupboard doors. Isn’t it delightful?
Day Lilies in the foreground with Agapanthus and our new sculpture behind, along with the old pot sink that is to become a miniature pond and the wheelbarrow with some of the soil from the newly dug hole.
Kindness is what we all need and what we should all share as in this poem by Danusha Lameris.
Small Kindnesses
Bark, Beetle and Borage
I love how the sunlight caught the beautiful designs on the cinnamon bark of the Crepe Myrtle in our neighbour’s garden.
I hope no-one tells me that this beetle is a voracious eater of all things blue! It seemed to be collecting nectar. Is it a Milkweed bug? 
We had Pimms in the garden on this very hot day and put Borage flowers in with the cucumber.
Boat Trip, Singing and Sunset
The Ingleheart Singers have been on their annual boat trip tonight and it was brilliant. We all take food to share on the trip out from Falmouth to St Mawes, then we entertain the punters in the local hostelry and then board the boat for the trip back home. We sing all the way back, entertaining those on the quay side, those in their boats and onshore in Falmouth.
Claire conducting
St Mawes Hotel where the punters enjoyed our singing
St Anthony Lighthouse
In Falmouth harbour
