Sunny Cornwall

During my 9 years living in the UK, I saw a LOT of Norfolk and Suffolk but only a fraction of the rest, as Ricardo and I were always working or in France (working too). This time seeing as I was on holiday, I was determined to see a bit more, and managed to talk my niece, the lovely Louisa into coming on a road trip. We decided on Cornwall and I'm so glad we did. The weather had been pretty dismal except for the 2 bank holidays (see previous post) but finally the sun shone. When the sun does shine, there's nowhere else on earth you'd rather be. 

This is the romantic B and B called Hill Farm we stayed at in a tiny hamlet called Hittisleigh on the northern edge of Dartmoor in Devon. The only reason we chose it was because it was half way to Cornwall but we couldn't have found a more beautiful place to wake up. 

The night was warm enough to leave the window open and the fragrance of wisteria floated in. 

I stood by the open window for ages with eyes closed thanking my lucky stars and wondering what was out there in the night.

 In the morning an exploration was in order but it took us a while on account of the pet factor!

But there was more to see further afield

 

 ... and so our next stop was Boscastle (after driving past incredibly close to Stone Henge.)

Look at the curve on this roof! There WAS no fish eye lens, the whole house was bowed.

Boscastle experienced a terrible flood in 2004, here is a photo from the CBBC website 

 but there was no sign of trauma on this perfect day.

 

It had to be done, the definitive Cornish Pastie was absolutely delicious.

Our walk began on this beautiful section of the Cornish coastal path; we were walking from Boscastle to Tintagel. A mere 6 mile stretch but it felt a lot further as I'm used to the East Anglian flat lands.

The scenery was breathtakingly beautiful and the weather perfect, with a slight breeze to cool you.

The "Early purple" orchid was out and the wildflowers were incredible.

Mile after glorious mile stretched out ahead and the air smelled of coconut from the gorse.

As we stopped on this herringboned wall and ate the cakes we'd bought in Boscastle, I looked back the way we had come and saw a man walking towards us with boots, backpack and hat and very little else. As he stepped over the style you can see in the photo below, I unfortunately turned again and copped an eyeful of his red g-string and all it contained. Pity I didn't manage to get a photo.

An indicator here that the weather may not always be so benign.

I've only really walked like this at Wilson's promontory National Park and it felt strange not to have to look out for snakes along the way.

Finally Tintagel came into sight.

and Merlin's cave.

and one of the best days of my life came to an end. Next time, I'd love to walk a LOT more of this spectacular pathway.

Golden phoenix cushions and ladybirds everywhere!

Ages ago I acquired the most beautiful vintage kimono and today I made it up into cushions and got some up on the website.

I loved the idea of the flaming lights continuing the theme of the fiery birds.
I backed some of them with this wonderful Manuel Canovas fabric that I've been keeping for just such cushions.
Even though I should have been sewing all day, it was so glorious I did goof off this morning to have morning tea with my friend Lizzie for her birthday.
The glorious weather has brought out all the birds and a wealth of flowers. Every year I forget about some flower or other. This year it's Forsythia. It took me ages to figure out what this plant was.
The other thing I always forget about is ladybirds. This year they are absolutely everywhere. I decided to see how many I could count out my back door. One on the back door step.Then one on the back door mat.
Another on the hose beside the back door.
This one I had to save from its watery home.
Lots on the washing.
and the pegs too.
Crikey, ladybirds everywhere. Too many to count.

Royal wedding

This morning at Church, I bumped into my lovely friend Chris Tagg. She stayed up last night until 2am reading the blog and I promised her a new post today about my Royal Wedding Day out a couple of Fridays ago. Here we are Chris, this ones for you....
I went to the village of Banham which is close by as they were having a party on the green. By the time I got to my friends' Kate and David's house at about 10.30, I was really excited. On the way over, I'd been listening to BBC radio 2 and they had had great music playing, culminating in the fabulous wedding anthem by that raucous soul belter, Yvonne Fair 'It should have been me'.
I'd been singing along so loudly that I didn't realise until I got out of the car that all six bells at Banham Church were ringing. (You'll just have to imagine the sound ... actually if you listen here you might be able to hear something similar). This is Banham Church where our friend David Hill is Rector.This is David with his son Cuthbert... Bertie has inherited his Father's love of dressing up.This is his beautiful wife Kate, standing with Cuthbert and I resplendant in our matching Union-Jack-tea-towel aprons. Banham had put on a wonderful show and this is what greeted us as we walked over to the Green.People had gone to a lot of trouble to dress up. There was a wonderful Queen Elizabeth the First, as well as this woman dressed as Emmeline Pankhurst who stayed in the role all day shouting "Votes for women" at frequent intervals.
Kate had gone to a lot of trouble to make a picnic with roast beef sandwiches and strawberries & cream. We drank champagne (it had its inevitable results of giving me an instant headache.)
Then back to the green for races. There weren't enough grown-ups to compete in the wheelbarrow races so this clown juggled instead!winning by a narrow margin...
Although the judge had imbibed a lot of Champagne by then!
The lovely Owen had organised his horse Kahn and cart (yes it's the one we had for Richard's funeral)
A grand day out indeed. It seems to have lifted everone's spirits to have some sunshine and a wedding.