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Category Archives: Cornwall

Scarlet, Yellow and Rain

The flowers on the first stem of the Amaryllis have finished and the second stem is so top heavy we’ve had to put it on the floor to lean against the arm of the chair! It is still remarkably lovely six weeks after planting. I’m hoping there’s at least another week of loveliness in it.

The Tête à Tête miniature daffodils are appearing all over the garden. I love the ones in the monkey planter.

Photo from 2018

I’ve been browsing again through an old paperback about life in Cornwall 100 years ago and was amused by the description of the wet weather in Cornwall – plus ça change!

From “Exploring Cornwall 100 Years Ago” Selected and Edited by Stuart D. Ludlum

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on February 16, 2026 in art, Cornwall, flowers, garden, nature, Postaday 2026, sculpture, Uncategorized

Tags: Exploring Cornwall 100 Years Ago, Stuart Ludlum

Cormorant, Sail and Primulas

12 Feb

The sun shone today as we sang with a view of the Penryn River. A cormorant (or maybe a shag) stayed on the buoy for the whole time we were singing.

A beautiful old sailing boat went by.

These vibrant primulas were on sale near our bread shop.

Today, my Dear Friend Kath, to whom I dedicate my blog, would have been 76. Started writing in November 2011 when she died and still think of her every day.

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on February 12, 2026 in Cornwall, environment, nature, Penryn, Postaday 2026

Jigsaw, Cathedral and A Film

11 Feb

We finished the streets of London jigsaw. It was hard but was lovely to remember walking those streets in the early days of our being together . We even found the street where we came upon a junk shop and there in the window was a painting of Truro Cathedral! How serendipitous was that, it being my home city? We had met at the end of October, found the painting while I was with my lovely Mr S in early January and then we agreed to be married on January 4th, just ten weeks after meeting!

We are just home from watching a fascinating film, The Lost Boys of Carbis Bay, about a group of men who explore and climb around in the old tin mines of Cornwall, incredibly dangerous but obviously very fulfilling for those involved.

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on February 11, 2026 in antiques, art, Cornwall, Happiness, painting, Postaday 2026, Uncategorized

Tags: F. Robson

Seedlings, Ingenuity and A Mantra

10 Feb

We have hundreds of onion seedlings at Roots and they will be ready for transplanting next week.

Today we transplanted 200+ baby lettuce and pak choi plants and they are now in one of the big poly tunnels as there is no room in the smaller prop tunnel where the propagating takes place. The ingenuity comes in the suspended racks to create more room for the baby plants.

We are ten days into February so it’s a bit late to share this month’s mantra from The 2026 Almanac but I like it so here it is:

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on February 10, 2026 in community, Cornwall, environment, growing, nature, Postaday 2026

Tags: community roots, Lia Leendertz

Tree Planting, Singing, Community

08 Feb

What a wonderful day as two of my communities came together, The Roots gang to plant an orchard and the Ingleheart Singers to entertain the crowd and then to sing Wassail to welcome the trees to their new home! Enjoy the gallery. Click on any photo for a bigger version and the caption.

Early instructions from Matty

Fruit trees will go where the blue squares are markedAll setting off to find a place to dig

Setting off to choose a spot

Us digging a hole for our tree

Busy diggers

Our plum tree is in. Now to go home to change ready to sing this afternoon.

As we leave, there’s a rainbow!

Choir singing the Newdigate Wassail

Trees all in and mulched.

Children giving bread and cider to the trees

Reasons for Offering Bread/Toast:

Symbolic Offering: The toast represents a gift to the spirits inhabiting the orchard, specifically the “Apple Tree Man” or tree spirits, ensuring they are well-fed and inclined to bring a good harvest.
Attracting Guardians: The bread attracts robins, which were historically considered guardian spirits of the orchard.
Fertility Ritual: The act is part of a wider fertility ritual that includes pouring cider on the roots and making noise to wake the trees from hibernation.
Representing Abundance: The bread symbolizes the previous year’s harvest and acts as a pledge for a fruitful return in the following autumn.

The ceremony is rooted in ancient pagan customs to ensure the health of the trees (from the Old English “waes hael” meaning “be in good health”).

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on February 8, 2026 in Celebration, community, Cornwall, environment, friendship, Happiness, nature, Postaday 2026, Uncategorized

Baking, A Treat and Music

07 Feb

I spent the day baking for tonight and tomorrow. One cake was for this evening when we joined friends and others for an open mic evening with a pot luck supper. The other cake and the bread buns are for tomorrow when we have a Tree Planting event at Community Roots and will need to feed the volunteers and the choir.

There is always an interesting spread at a pot luck supper and tonight there was a special treat – utterly delicious ba bao fan, Eight Treasures Rice.

One of the ‘turns’ was a wonderful player of an accordion.

The evening was in aid of Children of Peace.

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on February 7, 2026 in Children of Peace, community, Cornwall, friendship, Postaday 2026, Uncategorized

Singing in Solidarity, Sunshine and Fish

05 Feb

Today at our choir rehearsal, The Suitcase Singers sang in solidarity with the people of Minnesota. With our singing we send love from Penryn, Cornwall to you all. Thank you so much Heidi Wilson for writing such a brilliant song, to Katy Rose Bennet and Sarina Partridge for inspiring our leader, Claire Ingleheart to teach it to us. Do click on the link and share the solidarity. The first video is us and the second one, the singing in Minneapolis.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17nRsPprFT/

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1C6dfJFRNF/

The sun was shining on the far side of the river lighting up the coloured houses.

After singing on Thursdays, I go to the local fish shop.The beautiful arrangement of the Red Mullet caught my eye.

Salad Crops, Daffodils and A Jigsaw

03 Feb

In between jobs at Community Roots today, I walked around all the poly tunnels to see what was growing.

I love seeing random daffodils growing on the verges.

We have just finished one of the jigsaws given to us for Christmas. It was quite a challenge and very satisfying to complete.

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on February 3, 2026 in art, community, Cornwall, environment, growing, nature, Postaday 2026, puzzles, Uncategorized

Tags: community roots

Happiness Calendar, Sea, Sun and Moon

01 Feb

Here is this month’s Happiness Calendar, all about being friendly.

Our eldest daughter came to visit for my lovely Mr S’s birthday so we went to the Blue Bar at Porthtowan for lunch and M walked down to the sea.

Our walk in the afternoon was nearer to home and I was caught by the sunbeams behind Carn Brea.

Tonight it’s the Snow moon and the clouds passing by have given us haloes around and beside the full moon.

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on February 1, 2026 in Carn Brea, Cornwall, friendship, nature, Porthtowan, Postaday 2026, Uncategorized

Cathedral, Project and Supper

28 Jan

Here’s a different view of Truro Cathedral, taken from the window of the coffee shop where we had excellent coffee and a toasted tea-cake. I was pleased to catch the gull in my photo just before it took off. Just look at that lovely blue sky as we are between storms, another due tomorrow. .