Sending love and good wishes to all my family and friends and all my readers in America on this your 250th anniversary.
Here are two of our fridge magnets collected on trips to your beautiful counrty.

Two celebrations in Redruth today – Murdoch Day ( a celebration honouring the legacy of William Murdoch, the pioneer behind the use of coal gas in lighting) and Redruth Pride and the town has been buzzing with the parade, activities, live music on various stages and lots of market stalls. The sun shone too which is such a bonus. Enjoy the gallery and click on any photo for the caption and more detail.
May 1st is La Fête du Muguet in France and our dear friend Kath, to whom this blog is dedicated, always gave me a bunch of Lily-of-the-Valley or, if they were away in their house in Meysaac, a card would arrive on the day. The flowers symbolise happiness and good luck and I grow them in the garden in memory of my lovely friend.
Here is the Meaningful May calendar of happiness.
It’s a lovely time of year for bird song. Here is what we heard in a 10 minute recording. 
The first message to come through on my birthday (31/12/2025) was an invitation to Afternoon Tea at The Greenbank Hotel in Falmouth and this afternoon we went with our Dear and very generous friends to celebrate my birthday with a splendidly delicious afternoon tea and the most wonderful views. Enjoy the gallery and imagine our tastebud joy!
Thank you so much N&G – that was a wonderful afternoon with you two and what a truly lovely birthday present!
Tonight was the opening of the exhibition, Cornish Myths and Legends, at the Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery.
A day to celebrate all the wonderful women in my life, sisters, daughters and friends, those still with us and those who have been very special influences in my life – my Suffragette Great Granny, my Spanish Granny, my Mum and my dear friends Kath and Angie in whose memories I write this blog. To learn more about either of these much missed women, put their name in the search bar.
It’s the 8th anniversary of our lovely neighbours’ wedding and every year I take a small posy round in memory of Dear Bill-next-door, a posy like the ones I made for their wedding when my lovely Mr S and I were witnesses. I was delighted to find rich blues in the garden this year which Bill would have loved, the colour of the Underworld…
It’s been a fun packed day in sunshine today, the parade, markets, daffodils, live music, flowers everywhere and so many happy, smiley people. Enjoy the gallery.
For those who wonder about the lamb:
Redruth Town Council uses The Lamb and Flag as its emblem building on a heritage of use in the town for hundreds of years though its origin remains widely debated. Historians believe the symbol first appeared in the wool trade during the Middle Ages. By the 19th century, people associated a lamb with purity due to its Christian connotations and used it in the mining trade to indicate the purity of the metal they were producing – the smelters stamped each ingot with the sign of the lamb and the St Piran flag was added to indicate its Cornish origin. Both copper and tin were very important in Cornwall, with various mines in the Redruth, Pool and Camborne area being the largest in the world for each of these minerals.
Today after choir, we sang Harry Glasson’s Cornwall My Home in the courtyard to celebrate St Piran’s Day Here it is now, especially for my sister in Hawaii.
We have another Choir-Baby after many years of none and we are all delighted to have one year old S with us and clearly enjoying the singing.
We had pasties for lunch to mark the day but I was enjoying it so much I forgot to take a photo until it was almost all gone.
It’s also World Book Day so happy days to all you readers and to all those who have dressed up for the day, especially LiveWire 3 who at almost 15 years old has gone to school as a very beautiful and tortured Lady Macbeth.