Such a lovely bright day today so off we went to Mount’s Bay where the wind was blowing a hoolie and it was very cold but it was also very beautiful! There were others walking on the beach, a windsurfer having fun on the water and a freight ship in the distance
The Mount was looking particularly lovely in the sunshine.
The local supermarket is all geared up for the visit in August of our Grandbaby twins!
We are having Christmas lunch on Sunday so I have been preparing the brining mixture for the turkey – gloriously coloured and scented fruit, spices and vegetables. Late afternoon took us to Chapelporth where the waves were huge and the tide racing in at a speed that I have never seen before. It was an utterly exhilarating walk along the beach with the roar of the breakers and then up the cliff walk to Wheal Coates. There was some gorse in flower but the best things were the seed heads lit by the fading sun.  Click on any photo for the caption and to see it in its full glory!
What a delightful evening of words and music, a shared meal and friendship at The Mylor Mix last night with an emphasis on working for Peace in whatever way we can.
We were in Falmouth for a good friend’s birthday lunch today with wild winds and seas and discovered in the gardens of the Princess Pavilions, the trees all ready for the Christmas Tree festival later this evening.The labels tell you which community group made the decorations, all on the theme of Cinderella.
Somewhat spaced from the 22 hours travelling and and 8 hour time difference, we have enjoyed a quiet day, checking out the garden, catching up over tea with our lovely neighbour and an evening stroll to one of our favourite haunts. Click on any photo for captions and enlargements and if you missed any of our amazing road trip in Arizona to The Grand Canyon and Sedona, please feel free to look around!
Today is Shakespeare’s birthday and, as it happens the 400th anniversary of his death.   Some beautiful commemorative stamps have been issued in his honour and I just had to have a complete set of them.
Beautiful commemorative stamps
On Monday we start our journey to America for a family visit and then a road trip from Atlanta through the Appalachian Mountains along the Blue Ridge  Parkway into the Shenandoah Valley and then on to Washington. Am I excited? Oh yes!  You can travel along with us through my blog if you would like to though I doubt I will be posting every day.  So, today we had to go to the sea as we won’t be seeing the sea for three weeks.
I used to tell my dubious  teenagers that love at first sight, or love at first sonnet as here, is really possible. It happened to us across a crowded room in October 1966 and we have been together ever since. I love how Romeo and Juliet begin to intertwine their words as their first love engulfs them.
| ROMEO | [To JULIET] If I profane with my unworthiest hand | |
| Â | This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: | |
| Â | My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand | |
| Â | To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. | |
| JULIET | Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, | |
| Â | Which mannerly devotion shows in this; | |
| Â | For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, | |
| Â | And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss. | |
| ROMEO | Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? | |
| JULIET | Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. | |
| ROMEO | O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; | |
| Â | They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. | |
| JULIET | Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake. | |
| ROMEO | Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take. |
My Sister-in-law sent me Shakespeare’s Obituary which was in The New York Times today. It is very entertaining. Thanks V.
One of our favourite walks is from Chapel Porth up the cliffs to Wheal Coates. It was so wild and windy that we only made it to the top and down again. The waves were wonderful, crashing and crossing in the bay. As the sun began going down, the effects were quite spectacular. The paths up had been made into gullies by the month’s torrential rain and new stones were exposed. Click on any photo for more detail. I think the effect in the last photo is called Bokeh but I don’t know how I achieved it! Perhaps it was the salt spray getting on the lens.
Sun
In the distance on the drive home is an old engine house (I’m not sure which one. I will look it up and come back) and the sky behind made it a ‘must stop the car and take a photo’ moment!
Wheal ? with setting sun clouds
The last day with most of the family here and we went to see wild waves at Portreath, spent some time drawing, packed up the Birthday Crown and began to clear up a bit after the best four days ever with the family together for my birthday bash!  Click on any photo for more detail.
Full Cornish breakfasts were on offer for anyone who wanted to turn up this Christmas morning at Gweal An Top in Redruth. There were lots of volunteers cooking, serving and washing up. A full Cornish breakfast has – eggs, bacon and sausages, fried bread and beans, mushrooms and tomato, fried potato and Hog’s Pudding, a Cornish speciality – an amazing spread! What a kind and beautiful thing to do for people who are perhaps alone or those for whom a Christmas dinner is not on the menu. Well done to the organisers and all the lovely volunteers.
A Full Cornish Breakfast
A Christmas Day tradition for our family and many others is to go to the beach on Christmas Day, whatever the weather and so we did in wild, wild winds! A number of my dear friends are among those for whom the tradition is to swim in the sea on Christmas Day! Some of them were off to Carbis Bay to swim today but I haven’t yet heard how they got on.
Wild seas at Porthtowan
Yet another beautiful day and we headed off to Porthtowan for sunset. We were not disappointed.
As we arrived
Sliding into the sea
Half an hour and a glass of red later
The sea in these pictures is the same still sea that we visited yesterday but in a very different mood. Today the waves – and the surfers – were back in Chapel Porth.
We also watched a family having a lovely time in the gentler surf at the edge of the water. I was pleased to catch their reflections in the retreating water.
Our special friend N came to spend several hours with me today so that the lovely Mr S and Daughter No 1 could go out for a sail. That was a very pleasing morning and our lunch of homegrown Watercress soup, delicious.
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