After breakfast with friends, we walked a little in Boscawen Park which borders the Truro River and I noticed a fish sculpture. It looks as if it might have come from a building at some point. I couldn’t see any info and would like to know what it signifies.
Walking through Truro later on, the rich honey scent of the Choisya was blown our way long before we came upon the blossom laden bush .
At the entrance to the Lemon Street Market was a pleasing mural of lemons.
A day of sunshine and showers and a rainbow late in the afternoon just as I was feeling a little blue after our daughter had just left. It’s been such a lovely few days. Look carefully and you can just see the reflection of the rainbow. It was brighter in the sky than my camera managed to capture. 
Our garden has really come alive over the last few days of sunshine. I love the yellows and whites at this time of year.
World Poetry Day is celebrated on 21 March, and was declared by UNESCO in 1999, “with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard”.
I wanted to find a poem today to make readers smile and remembered this one by Billy Collins which delighted me many years ago when we went to his poetry reading. On one of our holidays in France we went on an adventure to find the painting in the gallery only to be told it had gone away for cleaning. I was so disappointed. I really wanted to see Goya’s smile and his remarkable hat.
Candle Hat
In most self-portraits it is the face that dominates:
Cezanne is a pair of eyes swimming in brushstrokes,
Van Gogh stares out of a halo of swirling darkness,
Rembrant looks relieved as if he were taking a breather
from painting The Blinding of Sampson.But in this one Goya stands well back from the mirror
and is seen posed in the clutter of his studio
addressing a canvas tilted back on a tall easel.He appears to be smiling out at us as if he knew
we would be amused by the extraordinary hat on his head
which is fitted around the brim with candle holders,
a device that allowed him to work into the night.You can only wonder what it would be like
to be wearing such a chandelier on your head
as if you were a walking into a dining room or concert hall.But once you see this hat there is no need to read
any biography of Goya or to memorize his dates.To understand Goya you only have to imagine him
lighting the candles one by one, then placing
the hat on his head, ready for a night of work.Imagine him surprising his wife with his new invention,
then laughing like a birthday cake when she saw the glow.Imagine him flickering through the rooms of his house
with all the shadows flying across the walls.Imagine a lost traveler knocking on his door
one dark night in the hill country of Spain.
“Come in, ” he would say, “I was just painting myself,”
as he stood in the doorway holding up the wand of a brush,
illuminated in the blaze of his famous candle hat.
I just love the whole picture painted by the poet so that it all happens in your mind’s eye and you smile and feel the delight of himself and his wife ‘laughing like a birthday cake.’
I first read this poem in October 2023 and the poet, Danusha Laméris , kindly gave me permission to use it then. Here it is again, and, I feel, needed even more now as we support each other through these very difficult times. 
Happy St Piran’s day to all those around the world who love our bit of the UK!
Daffodils for St Piran’s Day
The new mural in town was ‘opened’ on Saturday when we held our St Piran celebrations.
Sitting in the lovely Grow Box cafe at Krowji, having a cuppa with a good friend, I was taken with the occasional sunbeams highlighting the dried orange slices decorating the windows.
On the way out I noticed the feather that someone has put on the arrow pointing the way to the cafe.
In the car park, while waiting for my lift (my lovely Beetle is in the garage), I watched some workmen loading thier van and liked the painting on the side. 
This beautiful little thing was made for us some years ago by LiveWire no 4 and we love it.
One of my birthday presents was a beautiful book, “Blowin’ in the Wind”, an illustrated version of the Bob Dylan song. There is also a cd of his original recording. 
The water colour paintings by Jon J Muth are very lovely, with a paper aeroplane motif representing the thought that is blowin’ in the wind. 
In the dining room at Hearts Together is this delightful piece made by a local Scout group.
The place names on our ride home always amuse me. Forgive the quality of the shots, all taken from a moving car!
This morning there were deer in the grounds of the Hearts Together hospital hotel, such a delight to see.
I have walked miles around the huge complex that is Derriford Hospital. Some of the corridors seem longer than two football pitches! I easily hit my step target of 5000 steps and more. The longest corridor has prettily painted windows. 
At the entrance to the Maternity Wards was this beautiful sculpture.
We are home after an extra day in the hospital. It was a very tiring day so no blog last night, sorry. My lovely Mr S is doing okay, op went well and he’s not too uncomfortable. Thank you for all the good wishes and healing vibes sent through the ether. They worked!
Such a busy day at Roots, school holidays means lots of youngsters all doing their bit. More onions harvested today too.
The post brought a package, two beautiful crochet butterflies made for me by a wonderful blog follower in my favourite Suffragette colours, purple, white and green. Thank you so much, J. 
I’ve posted Lemm Sissay’s poetry before and when I saw this lovely mural on Fb had to share it. I don’t know the artist or the photographer to credit. Please help if you can. 
My brother and SIL are visiting from America and are staying this week in St Ives so we went over to have a lovely day with them.
On one of our walks around we found two amazing murals. 
The mesembryanthemums (One of our Mum’s favourite flowers) were enjoying the warm and bright sunshine. 
From this point onwards the sun shone!
Most of our journeys from Montecatini Terme were by train, this one was a coach trip to the “City of the Beautiful Towers’ and it was very beautiful.We visited the Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta, the duomo, and were blown away by the lovely frescoes, the painted ceilings, the stained glass. The views from the hill top town were lovely too. We also visited a delightful museum and had dinner at a vineyard – more of that another day.
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