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Category Archives: Penryn

Reflections, Lunch and Truro Treats

28 Sep

I started and ended the day singing with friends and what more could one ask for? Firstly we were in Penryn for our weekly rehearsal. The tide was in and the water very still with just an occasional breeze rippling the water.

The Penryn River this morning.

Because we had a gig in Truro this evening, the lovely Mr Smith and I headed straight to the city and had a lovely lunch followed by a happy and relaxed afternoon shopping.

Lunch in the cake at Uneeka

Half way down the stairs in Uneeka where we had a delicious lunch

Beautiful windows in Uneeka

This feather floated down in front of me and landed on the pavement at my feet.

Shoes I fell in love with today. They didn’t have my size. I may have to go back and order them……

The evening ended with us all singing two of Claire’s song for the Hall for Cornwall and then to the Ale House for a very successful Shout.

 
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Posted by on September 28, 2017 in Beauty, Cornwall, Food, nature, Penryn, Photography, postaday2017

 

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Swans, Ukelele and Flowers with Sand

20 Jul

The Swan family on The Penryn River are growing up.

Family of 8

One of our friends has made this little ukelele for his four year old Grandson who added the paintwork.

Arlo’s ukelele

LiveWire 4 wanted to take home the wedding flowers she had collected from the beach so I tied them up ready to be taken after Marmite on toast for breakfast!

Sandy wedding flowers

 

 
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Posted by on July 20, 2017 in Beauty, nature, Penryn, Photography, postaday2017

 

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Eggs, Bird on the River, and Waiting

07 Jul

I love having lots of eggs from real chickens and it pleases me to see them on the egg rack with their bits of straw!

I’m not sure what this bird is, an Egret perhaps? I saw it on the Penryn River yesterday but have yet to identify it. (My son-out-law tells me it is a Little Egret. Thanks T)

Egret?

The table in the garden, waiting for chairs, another plateful and us!

Wine and sunshine

Summer supper in the garden

 
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Posted by on July 7, 2017 in Beauty, environment, garden, nature, Penryn, Photography, postaday2017

 

Low Tide, Swans and Louis MacNeice

06 Jul

I have never seen the Penryn  River mud looking so green at low tide.

The Penryn River at very low tide on a very hot morning

After singing I saw two swans with their cygnets, eight of them! I shall look forward to seeing them all on the river at some point.

family of swans

Swan family

I was looking in one of my favourite collections of poetry for one for today, Poem for the Day Two and there found, for yesterday, a poem that I used to teach and that I found very moving, Louis MacNeice’s ‘Prayer Before Birth’ which, it is speculated, was written as a father’s reaction to bring a child into a world at war. His daughter, Brigid Corinna, was born on 5th July 1943.

Prayer Before Birth

I am not yet born; O hear me.
Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the
club-footed ghoul come near me.

I am not yet born, console me.
I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,
with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,
on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.

I am not yet born; provide me
With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk
to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light
in the back of my mind to guide me.

I am not yet born; forgive me
For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words
when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me,
my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,
my life when they murder by means of my
hands, my death when they live me.

I am not yet born; rehearse me
In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when
old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains
frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white
waves call me to folly and the desert calls
me to doom and the beggar refuses
my gift and my children curse me.

I am not yet born; O hear me,
Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God
come near me.

I am not yet born; O fill me
With strength against those who would freeze my
humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,
would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with
one face, a thing, and against all those
who would dissipate my entirety, would
blow me like thistledown hither and
thither or hither and thither
like water held in the
hands would spill me.

Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.
Otherwise kill me.

Louis Macneice
 
 
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Posted by on July 6, 2017 in Beauty, Cornwall, environment, nature, Penryn, Photography, poetry, postaday2017

 

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Rear Window Box, Frida Kahlo and Sophie Hannah

29 Jun

Walking through Penryn this afternoon, I happened upon a treat – two window boxes on the back of a car! I smiled all the rest of the way to get my hair cut.

Lobelia and Primroses

Two window boxes

Here is another window from Studio 10 where the Frida Kahlo Exhibition opens on Sunday.

Studio 10, Bond Street, Redruth

Frida Kahlo

It is always hard to leave a place you love but more than that, it is the leaving behind of the people that you love. Sophie Hannah says that she wrote this poem when she was leaving Manchester for Cambridge and wanted to reassure a friend that her decision to leave did not mean that she no longer cared for them. The poem has a lovely rhythm about it and is easy to read aloud, giving me the feeling that she is speaking directly and in person to the one she is leaving.  The poem also makes me think of times when we are left by someone and it was not their intention at all……

Leaving and Leaving You

When I leave your postcode and your commuting station,
When I left undone all the things we planned to do
You may feel you have been left by association
But there is leaving and leaving you.

When I leave your town and the club that you belong to,
When I leave without much warning or much regret,
Remember, there’s doing wrong and there’s doing wrong to
You, which I’ll never do and I haven’t yet,

And when I have gone, remember that in weighing
Everything up, from love to a cheaper rent,
You were all the reasons I thought of staying,
And none of the reasons why I went

And although I leave your sight and I leave your setting,
And our separation is soon to be a fact,
Though you stand beside what I’m leaving and forgetting,
I’m not leaving you, not if motive makes the act.

Sophie Hannah
 
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Posted by on June 29, 2017 in art, Beauty, garden, Humour, Penryn, poetry, postaday2017

 

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Penryn, Preparations and First Night

18 May

Singing this morning with The Suitcases overlooking The Penryn River was, as always, beautiful.

First night went brilliantly. Here are some photos from the preparation but then it was all on, singing our songs four times as each group of visitors, 30 mins apart, went on this glorious story walk around St Euny Graveyard. Click on any photo for more detail.

Misri as Maria, our Guide
The Soldiers and pals
Warm up
Katie doing her daughter’s hair
Warm-up
Claire leading the warm-up

 

 
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Posted by on May 18, 2017 in Beauty, community, Cornwall, Happiness, Penryn, Perthi Kov, Photography, postaday2017, theatre

 

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Calm, Cushion and Ballet Rambert

23 Mar

I love the Penryn River in all its moods and love that I sing every week with the river in view.

We can all adjust our sails!

We have been to see Ballet Rambert tonight – three wonderful dances but Ghost Dances is the best ever. We first saw the dance sometime in the 1980s and loved it then. It is a most powerful piece that didn’t disappoint tonight. If you ever get the chance to see it, please do.

From the programme.

 
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Posted by on March 23, 2017 in Beauty, Cornwall, dance, embroidery, environment, Penryn, Photography, postaday2017

 

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