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Monthly Archives: April 2023

Clematis and A Poem

The Clematis in our front garden is amazing. I took the photo from upstairs.Another pleasing poem we shared with Ti on our last visit is also by John Masefield and it has been going round in my head all week. I love the contrasts between the exotic cargoes of the first and second stanzas and the last which are all so dirty and ‘cheap’ but also very valuable.

Cargoes

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amythysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 30, 2023 in environment, nature, Postaday 2023, Uncategorized

Tags: Cargoes by John Masefield, John Masefield

An Award, Craft and Tulips

29 Apr

Our lovely Greengrocers, Butchery and Deli has won an award – Best New Local Business – certainly very well deserved. It’s always a pleasure to shop there where fresh seasonal veggies can be found, where delicious deli dishes, beautifully prepared and presented can be taken home for lunch and where everything you need to make good meals at home can be sourced. We are really very lucky to have such a shop in our town.

In the shop are some lovely crafty items made by another delightful local business, Make A Mends. Several businesses in town now have such items, all beginning Re as showing their belonging to our Redruth community. I shall seek them out and show you.

Our white tulips are gorgeous especially with our jewel wallflowers.

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 29, 2023 in art, community, Cornwall, craft, felting, flowers, nature, photography, Postaday 2023, Redruth, sewing, Uncategorized

Calm Water, Swan and Julius Caesar

28 Apr

We met friends for breakfast today by the Penryn River which today was calm and lovely. The daffodil field across the water was very bright.

I think the swan came close to the quay in hope of being fed but I had nothing suitable with me.

We are going to The Hall for Cornwall this evening to see the RSC’s production of Julius Caesar.

It was brilliant!

Irony, Bluebells and A Masterclass

27 Apr

The heavens opened while we were singing this morning, such heavy rain that it made the Penryn River look as if it was boiling. It was somewhat ironic that we were singing, the Beatles’ song, ‘Here Comes the Sun’ at the time.

I’m loving the bluebells in our front garden. The photo doesn’t do them justice – they are a much deeper blue, almost purple.

I’ve joined an online Masterclass, Life Writing, this evening, run by the Guardian and it was brilliant, The tutor, Huma Qureshi, was full of ideas and encouragement, really quite inspiring. There were people from all over the world in the class from Bury St Edmunds to the Bosphorus, Canada to Cornwall, Montana to New Zealand and everywhere in between!

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 27, 2023 in community, Uncategorized

Tags: Guardian masterclass, Huma Qureshi

A Posy and Two Poems

26 Apr

One of the joys of visiting our Dear Friend Ti, is sharing favourite poems and remembering lines together of poems that we both learned by heart many years ago. It will be her 104th birthday in a couple of weeks and she remembers more of the lines than I do. Here is the garden posy that we took for her today and two of the poems we shared and talked about.

Sea Fever by John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a gray mist on the sea’s face, and a gray dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way, where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

I love this poem and when living in South Yorkshire, has a lovely poster of the poem and the sea in my office.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

8 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 26, 2023 in flowers, garden, photography, Postaday 2023, Uncategorized

Tags: John Masefield, Robert Frost, Sea Fever, The Road Less Travelled

Yellow, Green and Red

25 Apr

A bunch of flowers for you today, brought home by the lovely Mr S after his volunteering morning at Community Roots. He also brought home lots of wonderful just-picked salad leaves.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 25, 2023 in nature, Postaday 2023, Uncategorized

Tags: community roots

The Moon and Venus, A Jackdaw and A Magpie

24 Apr

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 24, 2023 in Uncategorized

Redruth Book Feast, Sunset and Blossom

23 Apr

The Book Feast continued this morning, Shakespeare’s birthday and the anniversary of his death, completing the best of booky weekends, listening to authors, talking about our reading with friends old and new and enjoying wonderful food at the dinner last night where Terry Waite was the after dinner speaker. The programme is in yesterday’s post. I love the design of the logo and need to find out the designer.

From the front windows this evening, there was the view of a lovely sunset with the warm glow touching the back garden too, lighting up the wood on the arch, the Amelanchier blossom and the ring of primroses below.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 23, 2023 in art, books, community, Cornwall, environment, garden, nature, photography, Postaday 2023, Redruth

Redruth Book Feast and Earth Day

22 Apr

Truro, Lemon Quay and A Flag

21 Apr

An unusual sign caught our attention this morning while shopping in Truro City.

We were reminded that Lemon Quay really was a quay before it was all paved over in the 1920s. On the hill is Truro School where both my brothers went and on the left is what is now the Hall for Cornwall, our theatre. You can read more about it here..