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Category Archives: ShelterBox

Mandella, Bee Hotel and Nepal

Sadly, our beautiful Mandella bought in Arizona many years ago, has been attacked by moths and we can’t keep it.

After a delicious lunch with our dear friend M, we went to the garden centre to find a new shrub. No luck with that but I did see an amazing bee hotel.

In honour of our fellow human beings in Nepal who are suffering in the terrible flooding, I give you some pictures taken when we were lucky enough to visit in October 2013. Beautiful people, beautiful country. My heart goes out to them all.

I just heard that our Cornish based charity, ShelterBox, is on the ground already and assessing how they can help. They had a deployment of boxes in the area so will be able to provide help quickly. They are a wonderful charity.
If you would like to see more of this beautiful country, click here and move forward through the days. I am so deeply moved by this tragedy having fallen in love with the place and its people on our visit in 2013.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on August 28, 2026 in environment, friendship, nature, Nepal, Postaday 2026, ShelterBox

Camera, Cloud and A New Book

13 Aug

We made a pinhole camera for the eclipse yesterday and it worked well to see the changing shape of the sun but it was a very small image. Blue Peter skills came in handy here. We were glad of the colander!

Such a strange cloud a day or two ago, not a vapour trail and unlike any we had spotted before.

Perhaps there is a nephophile out there who can explain.

I’ve just started a new book, the new ShelterBox bookclub choice that arrived in the post on Monday. It’s a very powerful read that I am finding hard to put down.

It’s less of a story that a collective diary, written by twenty-one women who are each recording their experiences in Kabul as the Taliban take over again in August 2021. I’ll tell you more when I’m done. I’m just 80 some pages in.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on August 13, 2026 in Cornwall, craft, environment, nature, Postaday 2026, ShelterBox, sky

Tags: My Dear Kabul, nephophile, ShelterBox book club

Another Christmas Gig

16 Dec

As we are about to start singing

On display

Just finished singing The Twelve Days of Christmas with audience participation

One of the beautiful horses

Lights across the Trehaddle Valley on zoom

No zoom

ShelterBox Concert, Truro Cathedral and River Birds

04 Dec

Just home from singing with my choirs at the ShelterBox Christmas Concert. .I hope some of you managed to follow the livestream.

Truro Cathedral at the end of tonight’s concert

This morning before our rehearsal, I was watching a couple of Swans and then realised there was a Grey Heron nearby and a Curlew. I didn’t identify the smaller birds.

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 4, 2025 in Christmas, community, Cornwall, nature, Postaday2025, ShelterBox, Uncategorized

New Book, A Poem and A Reminder

03 Dec

I have just started reading the latest book from the ShelterBox Book Club which arrived on Saturday. The opening pages are drawing me right in and I’m looking forward to finding time to read.

I found this poem very moving and hope you do too.

Just a reminder about tomorrow’s Christmas Concert for ShelterBox that you can livestream if you’d like to. Here’s the link https://shelterbox.org/carolconcert/

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 3, 2025 in community, ShelterBox, Uncategorized

Tags: Edenglassie, Gaza, Gaza Poets Society, Haneen Abo Ghrara, If I Must Vanish, Melissa Lucashenko

Happiness Calendar, Knitting and Flowers

01 Dec

I have had the loveliest afternoon, first singing where we rehearsed for our part in Thursday evening for the ShelterBox Christmas concert in Truro Cathdral followed by a couple of hours with a delightful young friend who has asked for help as she learns to knit.

She brought me a very pretty little bunch of flowers as a thank you.

The Christmas concert we were rehearsing for this afternoonwill be livestreamed around the world ,so if you would like to join us, you can register here.

Please do tell me if you register to watch. It would be lovely to know that some of you might be ‘with’ us.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 1, 2025 in Christmas, community, Cornwall, craft, Postaday2025, ShelterBox, Truro, Uncategorized

Cake, Krowji and Earrings

28 Nov

I baked a cake for the Christmas Lights Switch-on market and put white stars and gold spray on to make it Christmassy.

My choir had our first Christmas gig this evening at the opening night of Krowji Christmas Open Studios in Redruth. We were collecting for our charities, Penhaligon’s Friends and ShelterBox. There is some wonderful work in the studios. If you are local, it’s a brilliant place to find presents and lovely cards.

I gave my new Christmas tree earrings an outing.

Crocheted earrings

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 28, 2025 in art, baking, community, Cornwall, crochet, Penhaligon's Friends, Postaday2025, Redruth, ShelterBox, Uncategorized

Tags: Krowji arts studios

Doves of Peace

24 Nov

I was back at singing this afternoon! Joy! A friend at choir brought in some `Christmas cards to sell, made by his partner and they are really beautiful. I thought you might like to see his words on the back too.

This is one of four lovely designs.

20% of each card sold will go to ShelterBox

Concert, Charities and A Badge

20 Oct

For the song we were singing, Sithi Malweni, when this photo was taken at the concert last night at the Eco Park, I had left the tenors and moved to the sopranos as I love their part and it’s not too high for me.

We were collecting for our charities last night, ShelterBox, Penhaligon’s Friends and we raised an amazing £931! What a wonderfully generous audience and choir. We also collected items for the local food bank. These trollies are full of what we collected.

Here are the flowers, card and special badge that we gave Claire. The stitching on the badge, ‘Lead in love’ is from one of our songs, “We Shall be Known” and is the way our wonderful leader, Claire, leads at all times.

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on October 20, 2025 in community, Cornwall, CPR Foodbank, craft, Food Bank, Penhaligon's Friends, Postaday2025, ShelterBox

Plume Moth and A Good Read

23 Aug

I saw my second Plume Moth today. They are remarkably delicate creatures.

I’ve just finished reading the latest book from the ShelterBox Book Club and loved it. It’s a story of love and tensions within a family, motherhood over generations and the abundance of Gujarati food shared at all the family gatherings. The writer draws you right into the family and their distress when they learn that their mother, the narrator, has a terminal diagnosis and examines their differing reactions as the months go by. The online discussions will be interesting and I really look forward to the Q&A with the author Amit Majmudar who, we are told, “is a diagnostic nuclear radiologist as well as a poet and author. ” As it says on the cover, this story is “heartbreakingly lovely.”