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Category Archives: Cornwall

Cones, Bush Cricket and Another Creature

We find lovely things in the strangest places. We were at the dump taking more prunings, this time from the overgrown Jasmine, when I spotted pine cones at the top of the tree against a beautiful blue sky.

I think what we found on the Jasmine was a Speckled Bush Cricket but it might be a Short Winged Cone Head!

The next creature, looking like a twig or a bit of Autumn leaf on our newly painted trellis, I can’t identify. It didn’t move while we were watching. It’s about 1″ tip to tip. Can any UK readers help?

PS 26th September 2020
I sent a photo to the Royal Entomological Society yesterday and this is my reply today. Thank you Professor Hardie!

Hi

It’s a plume moth, family Pterophoridae, and we have some 45 species in UK. This one looks like a common or brown plume moth, Emmelina monodactyla.

Best wishes and take care

Jim Hardie

Professor Jim Hardie,

Director of Science, Royal Entomological Society,

8 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on September 25, 2020 in Cornwall, insects, nature, Photography, Postaday2020, Uncategorized

Tags: Professor Jim Hardie, Royal Entomological Society, Short Winged Cone Head, Speckled Bush Cricket

Town Twinning, Breakfast and A Poem

24 Sep

YesterdayI learned from a friend that our town, Redruth, is twinned with Mineral Point in Wisconsin, USA! We knew that many Cornish hard rock miners emigrated to the states to take their much needed skills and I did a lot of research into that when I was part of the Perthi Kov team putting together our stories from St Euny graveyard for Until the Day Break. I think Wisconsin will have to be on our next US trip, whenever that can be. I wonder if any of my dear Readers are in Wisconsin. That would be really cool!

Our supermarket delivery came tonight. We have croissants for tomorrow’s breakfast!

I am not alone among my friends in having the odd wobble emotionally during this strange period in all our lives and I send my love out there to any of my readers also feeling the strangeness. The following poem of Mary Oliver’s captures the essence of what we all need to do. Go out and sing!

I Worried by Mary Oliver

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on September 24, 2020 in America, Cornwall, Food, Photography, poetry, Postaday2020, Redruth

Tags: Mineral Point, Wisconsin

Thali, Fire and A Rainbow

23 Sep

It’s been a busy day – friends for coffee in the front garden (very cold) this morning, friends for tea and cake in the back garden (cold and wet!) in the afternoon and another meal out this evening! We all decided that we need to invest in some thermal and waterproof clothing so that we can continue to meet in our gardens over the winter. The vegan Thali at the Wilder Allotment Kitchen at the Mount Pleasant Eco Park was scrumptious and the music from the six gathered musicians a delight. A storm was coming as we left and a chunk of rainbow lit the darkening sky.

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on September 23, 2020 in Cornwall, Eating out, friendship, Photography, Postaday2020, Uncategorized

Tags: Mount Pleasant Eco Park, vegan feast

New Border, Village Clock and A Treat

22 Sep

The wall garden is nearly planted – Conifers, Clematis, heathers and 100+ bulbs hiding under the soil! Just the Winter Flowering Pansies to add for winter colour.

So much stuff to take to the dump! I took this photo on our way back through the village of St Day.

We decided to treat ourselves after working so hard for the last few days so I booked us a table at The Penventon Hotel, just a ten minute walk away. What a delightful evening we had with extra treats of dessert!

A little bit of history

Dessert menu

Tiramisu

Creme brûlée

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on September 22, 2020 in Celebration, Cornwall, Eating out, environment, garden, Photography, Postaday2020, Redruth, Uncategorized

Tags: Creme brûlée, Pascoe family, The Penventon Hotel, Tiramisu

A Poem, The Trellis and WildWorks

20 Sep

The following poem by Maya Angelou came my way today in remembrance and honour of Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died two days ago. She will be so greatly missed.

When Great Trees Fall – Maya Angelou

When great trees fall, 
rocks on distant hills shudder, 
lions hunker down 
in tall grasses, 
and even elephants 
lumber after safety.  

When great trees fall 
in forests, 
small things recoil into silence, 
their senses 
eroded beyond fear.  

When great souls die, 
the air around us becomes 
light, rare, sterile. 
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly, 
see with 
a hurtful clarity. 
Our memory, suddenly sharpened, 
examines, 
gnaws on kind words 
unsaid, 
promised walks 
never taken. 

Great souls die and 
our reality, bound to 
them, takes leave of us. 
Our souls, 
dependent upon their 
nurture, 
now shrink, wizened. 
Our minds, formed 
and informed by their 
radiance,  fall away. 
We are not so much maddened 
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance  of
dark, cold 
caves.  

And when great souls die, 
after a period peace blooms, 
slowly and always 
irregularly. Spaces fill 
with a kind of 
soothing electric vibration. 
Our senses, restored, never 
to be the same, whisper to us:
They existed. They existed. 
We can be. Be and be 
better. For they existed.

We have finished the painting and have put the trellis back in place. Next comes the planting after we have replaced all the soil.

We had tickets tonight for the latest WildWorks show, Meet me at the Edge, to be played out, socially distanced at Botallack. Sadly, it was cancelled on Friday as new Covid rules came into play that the National Trust have to abide by. Instead, the whole wonderful thing was live-streamed and we watched from home. It was so moving and beautifully done. You can watch if you’d like to. I recommend it if you can find an hour.

More from our Mini Holiday

18 Sep

Some more pictures from our mini holiday in Mousehole (pronounced Mowzzle) and Tremenheere. Stone sculptures are being made on all stony beaches and some are very cleverly balanced. The ones in Tremenheere are from a workshop held some time ago.
Holiday Home by Richard Woods is a disturbing piece of art, blank, blind windows and very unattractive. These are the words from the Tremenheere literature, “Plays on the idea of sought-after locations and the booming market for second homes, amid a crisis of housing supply.”
I found this very moving and all the more disturbing having just come from Mousehole, where so many homes are now blind and empty second homes or places for rental and not homes for those who so desperately need a place of their own.

A window in Mousehole

Stone sculptures on Mousehole beach

Holiday Home by Richard Woods

Holiday Home tucked away

Stone sculptures in Tremenheere

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on September 18, 2020 in art, Cornwall, environment, Photography, Postaday2020, sculpture

Tags: Holiday Home by Richard Woods, homelessness, Mousehole, Richard Woods, second home, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens

The Minack, Mousehole and Tremenheere

16 Sep

We’ve just returned from our first holiday in 2020 – one night away in a lovely hotel, The Old Coastguard Hotel in Mousehole. We started with drinks on the lawn watching the boats go by, followed with a Minack theatre experience in the evening and after a splendid breakfast, a walk around Mousehole and then lunch and a walk around the sculpture gardens at Tremenheere. A perfect mini break! Join us in seeing some of these treats in the gallery. Click on any photo for the detail.

A delicious wine whose name I missed

From the garden across the bay

On our way to our seats at The Minack

Picnic pie at the Minack

Delicious breakfast menu

Sun rise on the horizon

St Michael’s Mount in early morning mist

Duck Lane in Mousehole

The Fitzroy barometer

info on The Fitzroy barometer

Grenfell Street. Read info in next photo

Grenfell Street info

14th century building. See next photo for info

History of 14th Century building

I love these wiggly roof-tops

Baby Sparrows, just three of the ten or so

Interesting clock tower

On the drive to Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens

Winter Heliotrope by Sheila Williams

The Garden Pagoda

Black Mound by David Nash

Garden walk

St Michael’s Mount from the gardens

14 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on September 16, 2020 in art, Cornwall, environment, nature, Photography, Postaday2020, sculpture, St Michael's Mount, Uncategorized

Tags: Black Mound by David Nash, Cornwall Hugs Grenfell, Michael Chaikin, Perspex wind sculptures, Winter Heliotrope by Sheila Williams

National Cheese Toast Day 15th September

16 Sep

A busy day so just lunch as part of our celebration of National Cheese on Toast day.

Mini pizza

1 Comment

Posted by mybeautfulthings on September 16, 2020 in art, Cornwall, environment, nature, Photography, Postaday2020, sculpture, St Michael's Mount, Uncategorized

Tags: Black Mound by David Nash, Cornwall Hugs Grenfell, Michael Chaikin, Perspex wind sculptures, Winter Heliotrope by Sheila Williams

Lunch, A Booking and Sunflowers

13 Sep

It has been the most glorious Autumnal day and we had lunch in the garden.

We’ve made a booking to go to the Minack Theatre to see The Last Five Years – very excited!

Minack theatre

Next door’s Sunflowers are pleasing us day after day.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on September 13, 2020 in Cornwall, Food, garden, nature, Photography, Postaday2020

Tags: The Last Five Years, The Minack Theatre

Masks, Wild Blooms and a Surprise.

09 Sep

Our town has a novel way of encouraging us to wear our masks.There are lots , one on almost every lamp-post.I’ll show you more later. On the path up from town is a self-seeded Passion flower, still blooming.