These are the photographs that I have had made into a calendar for my family who all live away from Cornwall – in Munich, Germany; in Atlanta, Georgia; in Volcano, Hawaii; in Warsaw, Poland; in Exeter, Devon; in North Finchley, London; in Barcelona, Spain; in Dakar, Senegal and in Chilla, Devon.
Please click on any photo to reach the enlargement and to read the full caption. I have used the rectangular gallery setting but it won’t put the photos in chronological so I’ve given you them not in a gallery as well. Which do you prefer?
January 2012 – Walsingham Place, Truro, a beautiful curved Georgian terrace in Truro.
February 2012 – Godrevy Lighthouse from Hayle Towans
March 2012 – Daffodils in Trelissick Gardens
April 2012 – thrift on the cliffs at Chapelporth on the North Coast
May 2012 – Bluebells down the lane on the way to the Duchy Nurseries to buy a tree.
June 2012 – St Michael’s Mount from Mount’s Bay. The best ice creams in the world can be found in the tea-shop here!
July 2012 – From St Mawes looking over the water to the St Anthony Lighthouse. The annual regatta was in full sail.
August 2012- Looking out to Restronguet Creek from the pontoon of The Pandora Inn.
September 2012 – Kynance Cove, a favourite place for the family for many years.
October – Coming back into Cornwall over the Brunel Bridge over the Tamar, after our holiday in India and Nepal
November 2012 – Looking towards St Ives from Hayle Towans
December 2012 Pill Creek , where we first lived when we moved to Cornwall from Birmingham when I was 6 years old. Is it any wonder I fell in love with the County?
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February 2012 – Godrevy Lighthouse from Hayle Towans
March 2012 – Daffodils in Trelissick Gardens
April 2012 – thrift on the cliffs at Chapelporth on the North Coast
May 2012 – Bluebells down the lane on the way to the Duchy Nurseries to buy a tree.
July 2012 – From St Mawes looking over the water to the St Anthony Lighthouse. The annual regatta was in full sail.
August 2012- Looking out to Restronguet Creek from the pontoon of The Pandora Inn.
June 2012 – St Michael’s Mount from Mount’s Bay. The best ice creams in the worls can be found in the tea-shop here!
September 2012 – Kynance Cove, a favourite place for the family for many years.
December 2012 Pill Creek , where we first lived when we moved to Cornwall from Birmingham when I was just six years old. Is it any wonder I fell in love with the County?
October – Coming back into Cornwall over the Brunel Bridge over the Tamar, after our holiday in India and Nepal
January 2012 – Walsingham Place, Truro, a beautiful curved Georgian terrace in Truro.
November 2012 – Looking towards St Ives from Hayle Towans
1 Our twins were born 35 years ago, Daniel on 16th September and Lucy on 17th September. It was always my plan that they should have their own birthdays and I managed it! Daniel arrived a few minutes before midnight on his Great Granny’s birthday which delighted me and my Mum; Lucy just nine minutes later. We Skyped this morning with Daniel and Ami in Barcelona to sing Happy Birthday!
Daniel and Ami
2 The fuchsias in the garden are really beautiful just now. I sent this photo to Ami as she loves the colour (as you will have seen from her Wedding dress if you’ve been following long) If you would like to see photos of the wedding in Senegal and the very beautiful Ami in her fuchsia wedding dress, have a look here
Fuchsia in the garden with a bee
3 We have been eating vegetarian meals since P arrived for his holiday. Tonight I made the Vegetable Ring as on my Recipe page. I added fried onions to the mixture as I said I would but it made the mixture rather damp and it splatted in the baking. It tasted even better though!
Vegetable Ring before baking
Vegetable Ring, baked
When I sent the photo of our supper to Ami, she asked that I teach her how to make it when we visit them in Barcelona next weekend. It will be my pleasure! I hope I’ll learn how to make Lakh, a Senegalese dish we enjoyed when in Dakar for the wedding.
1 I can’t tell you how much I love singing! At Suitcases this morning we sang through our gig list for the event on Sunday when all three of Claire’s choirs, about a hundred of us, will sing together in the amphitheatre at Carn Marth.
Kurt Vonnegut – Sing in the shower!
2 Before the rain started this afternoon, I managed to get this beautiful picture of a Daisy against the Crocosmia.
Daisy with Crocosmia
3 Daniel and Ami Skyped together from Barcelona! For those of you who haven’t followed their story, Daniel, our son, and Ami were married in Senegal in April, see Daniel and Ami’s Wedding and they are only now, more than four months later, able to live together as it has taken this long time to get Ami’s Visa.
It was so beautiful to see them together, smiling so much, laughing and delighting in the fact that they had just gone supermarket shopping together for a meal together in their own place! The very word ‘together’ is beautiful!
1 Singing with The Suitcases this morning was the tonic I needed. It was so good to sing in beautiful harmony with good friends.
2 All that rain has made the garden lush! The beans we planted to go up the old pan-stand I showed you ( http://wp.me/p1Ypl6-H8 ) have almost reached the top. The broad beans are almost ready for picking and the nasturtiums are gorgeous (and good in salad!)
Pan-stand, beans and nasturtiums
The teapots at the top are from Senegal. Ami got them for us when were were there for the wedding in April. The old chimney pot is one from Mum and Dad’s garden. The new arbour is an early Sapphire Wedding Anniversary present to ourselves!
3 I find this colour combination of Crocosmia Lucifer and Verbena Bonariensis very beautiful.
1 After singing with Sophie and the Suitcases this morning, I took the Sally-boots that I made this week to a friend for her new baby boy, Declan.
Sally-boots for Declan
2 I have been reminded this afternoon by of a quotation that pleases me. Thank you, Usha Pisharody
Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.”
~Julius Henry “Groucho” Marx.
3 It’s been a long time since my last piano lesson but I have practised a lot since we came home from Senegal and today my lovely teacher said, with the first half of one piece, that I would have been given top marks if that had been the exam! Now I have to make the rest of the piece as good!
1 Portreath this morning was very fresh! The waves were reasonably big and I almost caught them in their high splashes.
Portreath
2 In the field belonging to Portreath Primary School, we spotted the enormous mosaic Lion made especially for the children by our neighbour sculptors. This was built in the front garden next door and we watched in delight and awe as it grew. Those lucky children!
Mosaic Lion made by Sue Hill and Pete Hill
3 I cannot bring myself to put my dress for Daniel and Ami’s Wedding inside the wardrobe! It smells of Senegal, it rustles as the beautiful women in Senegal rustle and it reminds me of the whole experience! Lucy has sent us some of her photos of the Wedding – I’m always behind the camera so am missing from most of our albums.
The top of my Senegalese two piece
Back detail
Daniel and Babacar
Us at the wedding
The Groom with his new Mother-in-law, his twin sister and his new daughter
1 Such a lovely thing – when I use my hairdryer, it blows out the beautiful incensey smell that was in our apartment in Pikine in Senegal bringing back all those lovely memories.
2 We’ve just bought a new shower curtain with the Tube map on it! Click on it to make it big enough to read.
London Underground Map on our new shower curtain
3 I’ve just come back from the run-through of tomorrow’s Baby Naming Ceremony, firstly a beautiful drive down to Potager Garden though lanes lined by ancient trees and then the words of the Ceremony which contain the following from Kahlil Gibran, words that Mr S and I love and the philosophy which we tried to keep in mind while bringing up our own four children:
“Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.”
1. In European dress we went to the Registry Office for the Civil Wedding. (Again, told mainly through photos – click on any to get the bigger picture) On the way there we were asked, “You do have your passports with you?” but we didn’t! The lovely Ousseynou took Lucy back to the apartment on his scooter and promised us he would look after her and drive carefully! The roads looked so precarious! They returned safely and the wedding could go ahead!
Pap and his son before the Civil Wedding
Me with Bebe Mgette before the Civil Wedding
Ami ready to go
Leaving the house
With Pap who is to be one of the witnesses
Walking up the road to get the taxi
Daniel and Ami together in the front seat
Ami and her best friend, come to witness the Civil Wedding
Daniel making sure Ousseynou will drive carefully!
Off they go to get the passports!
2. The Registrar, who had a delightful sense of humour, made sure we were following the marriage ceremony. (We were allowed to take photos but my battery ran out! I’m waiting for Lucy’s photos to arrive and will post them later.)
3. Last meal with the family, goodbyes and tears but also much laughter, warmth and happiness at such a beautiful week having been shared together and our two families becoming one.
It has been such a privilege to be here in Senegal with the family, to experience real life in Senegal rather than being a ‘tourist’ looking on. We owe so much to this beautiful family for welcoming us in, in this totally open and loving manner and for sharing their lives with us.
1 We all went by taxi into noisy, crowded and hectic Dakar to the British Consulate for Daniel to pick up his ‘Certificate of No Impediment’ so that he and Ami can have their Civil Wedding on Wednesday. It wasn’t ready! Ten minutes later, the Consulate called to say that it now was!!
2 We met Ami’s lovely parents in town for a ferry trip to Ile la Goree, a beautiful place with a shocking and disturbing history, it being a transit point for slaves to Europe in the 1800’s. It’s a Unesco World Heritage Site and a museum of tremendous importance. The baobab trees had lovely art work for sale attached to them.
3. Pap came into supper with his arms full of traditional outfits for us all and asked that we wear them at dinner that night. Pap, so lovely and thoughtful, also bought presents for KJ and M, our other daughters who couldn’t be with us in Senegal.
1. After a hectic few days, some resting time. I love the multi-coloured water containers, not kettles as I first thought as they could not stand heat underneath. I’ve brought two home to use for watering window boxes etc!
Multi-coloured kettle
2. Meals are served in one very big dish for all to share. Should anyone arrive while the family are eating, they will always be invited to join in the meal. Senegalese hospitality is all-embracing.
Rice and beans with fried fish
3. We Skyped home to KJ and family and Jake said ‘ Bonjour’ to Ndeye Marie and ‘You are my cousin!” That was a beautiful moment that was appreciated by all.
