Cornwall Piskies, Pasties and Penzance (original Beatrice pic)

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The Blogger host is not liking the upgrade to explorer8 so this month's WETHERBY blog will only get its full complement of imbedded photos if Blogger gets its upgrade act together. The user complaint log is full of angry folk so hopefully it will resolve itself soon.

I have put a # sign where a photo should be and loaded the shots referred to onto flickr (at bottom of the right hand column --> ) so you can click on the first picture under the flickr.com line then hit the (browse) key under the next picture that will come up on the right of it, browse to the Cornwall shots from the slide show. use browser return key to get back to the blog... Yeah, it's a pain. In the mean time I'll use gail's PC which I have not loaded Explorer8 on to and it still works a dream so next months blogs should have pics in order.))))))))

A quick June overview. We have been telling you for the past few months that we were heading off to the southern reaches of mainland UK and I can now report that we had a great time seeing just a little bit of the Cornish county and enjoyed every bit of the little bit we saw.

Because we did take the camera and occasionally remembered to use it I will set this month's adventure blog up below as a photo dialogue style report. (because of the Blogger site problem I have put # where the photo will be imbedded later, they are in Flickr to the right.)

This shot is of St Michaels Mount at Marazion, near Penzance.

Before I get into the detail of Cornwall trip , the rest of June info is a bit scarce as we have been rather socially uneventful,

We did manage some day trips, I took myself off for a day to the Harewood House annual Classic Motor Show (http://www.harewood.org/ events). The show attracted tens of thousands of people... petrol heads, families and various enthusiasts with the result our little local county roads were stuffed full with traffic. It was father's day, it was a Sunday, it was a rare warm, clear sunny day , so of course every mum and kid decided it would be just the greatest thing to convince dad to have a drive in the country to see old and new dream cars, ..... The faces on the families stopped for hours on the roads as I walked past on my way there and back gave testament to the fact that this would indeed be a father's day to remember for many of them. Initially I had hopped into a cab but decided it would be quicker to get out and walk. 3 miles there and 6 miles back. I had a great time while there though, spoke to all the Jaguar MkII owners, was shown over some wonderful examples of perfectly restored Rolls, Ferrari, and many English classics. I dreamed on as I sat in all the exotic new car displays, those I could fit in,,, watched the main arena motor shows, gawped at the stunt events and extravaganzas and thoroughly enjoyed the day, being as I was, unconstrained by my beautiful but mechanically uninterested wife.

We also went to look at Sheffield's southern suburbs around the Peak District. Sheffield was interesting, it is Yorkshire's southern most city, right on the border of Derbyshire and is the next city targeted for re-generation. It is of course having to re-invent following the downturn of steel/metal production in the UK. I can't make a judgement on a place after one day's visit but the little we saw was enough to encourage us to return and see other parts with a bit more of a focus on the city centre and attractions.

So, on to

Cornwall This shot is of Constantine Bay on the West Coast and is just down the road from Clare's home and holiday place but more of that later. You should know that Cornwall and Yorkshire are a LONG way from each other. Some 680kms, granted on mainly good highways, but with a lot of wiggley wobbly little roads, towns and roundabouts and heaps of traffic. As we had been invited by Peter and Ann to join them on their holiday we decided to break the journey and meet them at their home, stay overnight with them in and leave in the morning.. Good plan as it turned out. As you can see they live in a charming cottage with a nice sunny back yard. Their home is next door to a nice little pub and right in the heart of Winchcombe, a very pleasant Cotswold's town which happily is half way on the 10 hours total travel time from Wetherby to Mullion.

Up and away early the next morning we started to learn some cornish pronunciation, the gateway in the photo is in the town of Launceston (as in Tasmania) and we passed Mousehole (as in kitchen) these are pronounced Lawnston and Mowzle and both have wonderful histories and folklore I will cover only if asked. We stopped off in Launceston for a cornish cream tea. Then headed off to meet up with and stay with Clare in Constantine Bay, near Padstow on the West coast for a couple of nights.

The skinny picture just under the Cornwall heading above is the bay where she lives and she provides holiday accommodation and parking for folk wanting to enjoy it. (click the photo as it looks better big)

That night after our very first Pimms , consumed appropriatly in the Cornish sunshine, Clare took us to a wonderful local restaurant (with Rick Stein trained Chef) just up the road. Here you can see, from left to right are Greg, Peter, (some bloke at the next table) Ann, Gail and Clare, all looking ready for a party. The food was great, company better, and the sunset on Constantine bay that night was a pearler. Gail and I went for a twilight stroll after everyone was tucked up in bed.

Next day I took a walk around the holiday setup and saw the gypsy caravan # Clare uses as the fee collection station for cars entering the land she has set out for parking. A most impressive operation and part of a great lifestyle. I also strolled around to Treyarnon cove ## just around the corner to see it in the day as Gail and I had walked to it in the dusk before going to bed the night before. I returned to find the awake folk in the Kitchen with Ann talking to Clare and Peter about something I can't recall but was obviously engrossing.# Clare not only runs the holiday homes and parking business, she also has a bespoke printing business with a few franchises dotted around the world. http://www.mynamelabel.com/ She spends her UK summer time in Cornwall and summers again in Australia, which is of course where we met her a couple of years ago over cheese and champagne. Long story, again I will tell only on request. Later that same morning, while Clare was attending to her business duties the rest of us drove down the coast to Newquay and on our return stopped off at Watergate Bay # where Jamie Oliver has one of his "fifteen" restaurants. We didn't go in but had coffee at the surf cafe. Quite a nice place, the colours of the day were magnificent. # When I say we had coffee, Ann tried a pear cider, Peter and I chose coffee, Gail ordered a hot chocolate special which on delivery # she asked everyone to help her consume. Left with no takers she did manage to scoff the lot.... .

Picking up Clare on our return we went to the (http://www.bonsainursury.com/ ) Japanese Garden # which was a lovely calm place right near the Falcon Inn where chat, lunch and a pint or two were enjoyed. Due to a slight misunderstanding of UK health care protocol I ended up spending the night at Truro courtesy of the NHS (again the details on request) while Gail, Peter and Ann enjoyed a home cooked meal by Clare and next day went to Padstow. # Rick Stein has made Padstow famous in recent years through his TV cooking shows. He owns three or four eating places in the old fishing town and by all accounts they are quite special. # Gail Ann and Peter bought some Stein pasties for lunch which were consumed with various levels of pleasure. Gail being determined to find a perhaps tastier pastie as a mission of the holiday. It was then a farewell to Clare , while Peter and Ann set off to Mullion on the Lizard Peninsular, England's most southerly point, Gail drove to Truro to rescue me from the gentle clutches of the NHS and we joined our hosts in Mullion. For those of you into trivia, Land's End is the furthest point West, and in case you are interested the South point on Lizard is only about 25 miles from Land's End. We visited both. On arrival at the cottage in Mullion, we unpacked and set off to find a pub, # which was not too hard. Mullion is a sweet little village close to lots of fine coastal walks and served by a good group of shops, some churches were handy for Peter and Ann # and there were enough restaurants and food houses to limit the home cooking required for the week. After our pick-me-up at the pub we set off on a walk from the house to Poldhu Cove # #, along the coast past the Marconi Monument which we didn't see, # and on to Mullion Cove.# The Marconi monument is placed to mark where the first radio transmission across the Atlantic was made by young Guglielmo in December 1901. (The message was just the letter S in Morse code ... more on http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?id=7109&action=tdihArticleCategory ) Quite a beautiful spot but it would have been a cold windswept old day # in the middle of winter I would have thought..... It was chosen because of angles of transmission, atmospherics, dense air etc. You will see from the photos in this blog that the coves and ports of Cornwall are mostly protected by sea walls creating little harbours. The tidal range is wide and the weather rarely friendly. Most of these ports, contrary to the pirate legends, earned their keep by what is known as Day fishing. Some smuggling of course, even today no doubt. Day fishing is where the catch is landed to shore the same day it is caught and auctioned off and trucked to buyers immediately. There is a resurgence of fish sales in these ports now as the selective European market calls for more and more fresh fish which has not been iced or frozen by the large ocean trawlers which stay at sea for days, weeks or months at a time. There is a happy coincidence of nature around the storm ravaged coast of Cornwall that the coastal fisheries cannot be harvested by large trawlers due to the reefs and weather and the smaller boats cannot catch too many due to their size. This means that the coast is perhaps less over-fished than many other areas around the UK. There is a lot of controversy around the EU quotas and how much of the by-catch has to be returned dead to the sea. A point I will expand on but only if asked.

At the end of a not too strenuous walk we found the required warm pub # after having to walk through a coastal rain event and tried the second Pimms of our lives. Peter walked back to Mullion via the roadway to fetch Ann in the car so we could all go and visit the local chocolate factory and art galleries. LIZARD POINT We were there on a most auspicious day, it was the Volvo Yacht race and the rare, thought to be extinct Cornish rooks had returned to nest so there was a gathering of twitchers and yachties all with cameras and binoculars trained on different things, all getting in each others way and generally having a ball. There were helicopters filming the boats noisily, birdy folk calling for quiet, and everybody finally settling in to the cafe for tea and cakes. A fine morning out all in all as you can see. # # # # From there it was off to Cadgwith, # another charming little day fishing port where we had a great seafood lunch in the old mackerel packing yard, now a cafe.

The next day Gail and I set off to see Penzance and Lands End. # # What a miserable day. The only really wet day of the holiday but it was chucking it down. The day was not a complete loss with a happy lunch in a nice Penzance cafe # overlooking the carpark # and the island castle of St Michael's Mount. We returned home to a very nice local meal prepared by a nearby Mullion restaurant where the single dish menu is decided by the catch of the day and you get it how chef decides, makes it easy, . Meal was memorable for a lot of reasons but the food was quite good. Home smoked fish smoked on the front step of the shop, walk in customers were turned away as it was reservations only so he didn't have more fish than he had orders for.... sort of like visiting a strange uncle who is trying to supliment his pension.... The Tuesday saw us all heading off in Peter's car (Gail's Mini is not big enough to carrying me and three others), destination Pendennis Fort at Falmouth. This historic Port was a rival to London in years long gone when trading ships used it to offload goods which then went quicker by road to the UK markets than sailing them to London and ports north. The port has been heavily defended right up to the Second world war by the fort which was de-commissioned only in the 1970s. Great old fort # with black powder cannons in place and a great animated display of soldiers of an era long past manning a defensive response. Lunch was had at The Chain Locker, # a pub Peter had frequented occasionally on one of his recent coastal sailing adventures. # Local ale is caled Doom Bar and is a meaty drop of some note. Doom Bar is the name of the reef sand spit blocking the mouth of a port near Padstow which causes navigational trials and large surf. A simillar Bar called Cribbar off Newquay (according to a Doom Bar beer mat) attracted a group of Aussie surfers back in 1966 by it's 30ft waves. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/04/uk_the_cribbar/html/1.stm Since then Bar surfing, in season (early December, sometimes), has been a popular if dangerous adventure for those made immune to the cold waters by the volume of adrenalin in their bodies. Imagine contemplating falling down the face of these monster waves, like sliding down the face of a 4 storey ice building which happens to be travelling at up to 30kph. I'm quietly proud of my bold, brave or balmy countrymen for starting the trend. Having failed once at visiting Penzance and St Michael's mount, http://www.stmichaelsmount.co.uk/aelsmount.co.uk/ Gail and I set off the next day with the plan of catching a boat over to the island, climbing to the top of the castle, and walking back over the stone walkway which is submerged at high tide. # # # The plan worked perfectly, the weather held off until we were off the island and despite our boat being the last to leave and almost getting grounded, we ticked every box. It is not permitted to take photos inside the castle but we did get a few roof shots. # # # The place has for generations been occupied as it is today by the StAubyn family but it has myths and a history as a French Monestary, a fortress, and a port going back to the C495 legend of a sighting by fishermen of the archangle St Michael. Yeah, right. The web site above will give you a better idea of the wonder but our shots are nice too. # # # As the weather was obviously going to close out on our morning # # we decided to risk driving to St Ives on the other side of the Cornwall Peninsular and hope the storm was past. It had. # # # # St Ives is now an artist town having lost it's fishing industry due to regulation and other more complex matters which I won't bore you with. One of the surprises we had was to learn the Tate Gallery had a building there and that Barbara Hepworth, http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/hepworth/ the famous Yorkshire modernist sculptor had her studio and garden there.# # Margaret died in 1975 but as her works are in every large city of the world you will probably recognise her style. I was keen to have a look, they have retained her studio and it is interesting to see works in plan, prototype and in progress at the time of her death. She died in a house fire at the height of her fame and had many commission going in the works. We had coffee high up in the Tate Gallery # which in itself is high up on a hill aove the town and while sipping we saw some fishing boats come in with their attendant cloud of seagulls. # After another walk through the streets and along the beach we selected a restaurant from the many fine looking menues along the beach, # sat outside and enjoyed a wonderful meal. # # St Ives is a lovely port, # the galleries are fantastic, the food supurb and the opportunity to stroll ancient streets, walk in the sand and generally soak up the coastal life, was a great end of the day. We returned to Mullion and enjoyed an extended night with Ann and Peter playing cards and chatting over wines till early hours. The next day was spent boodling around the countryside again in Peter's car, visiting remote little fishing coves, hidden hamlets and wonderful back lanes and narow tracks,,,, yeah okay, you are right, we were lost. Not so badly lost we didn't get to the seal sanctury where we saw # # seals and otters # on Gail's request, we also had time to end our Cornwall experience together by re-visiting Mallham Cove # for a stroll and a pint at the pub. Because I had left Clare's place in Constantine Bay without saying good-bye in person, Gail and I headed back there via, you won't believe this, a famous Cornish winery (Camel Valley http://www.camelvalley.com/ ) well, famous to Cornwall I guess. It is well hidden with no road signs to help # but the product is very good. Bought a bottle of bubbles for Clare and a couple of bottles of white for us.... As the French won't let anyone use the Champagne name for simillar wines not of that hallowed region, Camel Valley calls their bubblie "Cornwall". I don't think that will catch on but the drink is great. It was nice to see Clare again and as we headed off to the Cotwolds and Peter and Ann's for our final night together we felt like the planned attempt at 'doing' Cornwall had been mainly acheived. We have not covered all the places we saw (e.g. http://www.minack.com/ ) but I hope you have managed to wade throgh this rather long-winded report and enjoy the photo tour . July brings my lovely sister Noeline to stay with us for as long as she likes and while we will be out and about in this beautiful part of the planet I have no idea where those out and abouts will take us. We are really looking forward to her being our first summer visitor this year. The guest room has been rather under utilised ..

Oh, before I sign off....... # This is a picture of a commissioned cow called Beatrice. One of the things I haven't included in the blog for the past year has been Gail's search in every gallery and art store, furnishing shop and hardware and gardenning outlet, any place that might have a thing, any thing, the same colour of the feature wall she had me paint in our front room at Wetherby...... It is a blue/green sort of greyish teal. Anyway, Gail and I went back to Padstow one day without Peter and Ann. There was a lovely lady selling cow paintings. And piglet paintings, but I digress. Caroline Walker is an accomplished and recognised portrait and life artist who has recently taken to painting cow pics... Farmers of dairy cows have commissioned her.... Yeah, I know. Gail was walking by and saw this cow... Beatrice... loved her... wrong colour. Gees I'm a good bloke.... In I walked and started chatting to Caroline, had a few laughs, asked if she could paint Beatrice again with a different colour behind, a green/blue sort of greyish teal.... Gail pulls a colour swatch of the paint from her bag with a flourish.... No wurries says Caroline... Caroline had been given a commission to paint cows as the backdrop to the artists performing at Glastonbury this year, cows with a background of the flags of the countries each performer came from....Bruce Springsteen got a cow with the stars and stripes background for example... Yeah, I know. Seems the organisers wanted to acknowledge the fact that Glastonbury is held on a cow field and all the cows had to give up their pasture for the two week set up of what is one of the world's biggest open air rock festivals. To acknowledge the cow's displacement symbolically in artworks ... Yeah, I know. Anyway,,,, Caroline, not being adverse to accepting commissions had taken on the challenge not only of Glastonbury but now also the McInnes front room trust. Upon it's arrival in Wetherby I will dedicate a blog page to Beatrice in Blue. As long as the Blogger site gets its photo handling act together C ya.

P.S. piskies are the wee little cornish folk who make majic and other things happen. (we have seen one of them..........)