Cornish Holiday - The Lizard

We discovered some lovely places which were new to us on our holiday in Cornwall, and headed down towards the Lizard on our last day. After a wet start it turned into one of those hot, sunny summer's days that you hope for on holiday. Dollar Cove was our first discovery, a wild place of shipwrecks and undiscovered Spanish treasure. Apparently scenes from 'Poldark' were filmed there I shall look out for them in the next series.

A few steps away is Gunwalloe Cove, a stunning place of soft sand, rugged rocks and crashing sea - my favourite kind of beach.

I did a bit of crochet whilst watching the body boarders, and some beachcombing too, 

watched by this fellow who hoped I'd brought a pasty with me.

But I was most distracted by the scenery. When I'm in places like this I find I just want to drink it all in, and charge up my batteries for the winter months. 

However, I can't tell you how thrilled I was to discover this - masses of sea holly growing on the beach. In my enthusiasm to take photos I managed to knock my coffee over. P of course is used to this plant-related excitement.

It was so silvery-blue in the sunlight, and incredibly (painfully) thorny.

Beautiful.

On the beach is the little 'Church of the Storms', St Winwaloe. Its windswept churchyard was very simple, and full of coastal beauty.

It has a detached bell-tower, something I've never seen before.

After delicious three-scoop ice-creams at an ice-cream farm (wild cherry, sea-salted caramel and pear and elderflower for me), we headed for another pretty place ...

Coverack. I love its name, which makes me think of seaweed.

Some beach exploring was in order, so we wandered and admired the serpentine rocks.

An evening stroll in Porthleven ended our day, a little fishing town which is very familiar to us.

I visited a favourite haunt of mine, the Salt Cellar Workshops. When I daydream about becoming a craftswoman living in Cornwall it's here that I imagine.

The workshops are occupied by a group of talented artists, and are an inspiring place to be, a hive of wonderful creativity.

A drink on the quayside finished a lovely day of seaside happiness, as we watched the little boats pootling in and out of the harbour.

Heaven.

The Week So Far

Hello all! I'm making the most of our half-term holiday here and am really enjoying writing posts for my blog. I've been posting a lot about plants and gardening lately, so I thought I'd show you what I've been up to so far this week in an (almost) flower-free post. Do you remember I was crocheting a bag based on Lucy's pattern at Attic 24? Well, I finished it recently and have been waiting for an opportunity to photograph it. I have made this bag a few times and decided to make one in vintagey, soft spring colours. I had fun choosing the matching buttons and making the flowers.

Here it is, and I've already used it a few times.

I lined it with an eau-de-nil Laura Ashley fabric which matches the cotton yarn perfectly.

I'm glad I finished it while it's still spring.

I recently repainted a little chest of drawers that used to belong to B and which now reside in my shed. When she was little I painted and stencilled them with fairies and flowers for her, but she outgrew them and donated them to me.

I painted them lilac and decorated them with a bluebell stamp, and am very pleased with their new look.

On Sunday evening it was very warm and bright and a fleet (is that the right collective noun?) of balloons flew over our garden as we were sitting outside eating our evening meal. They often take off in Bath and drift in our direction before landing in local fields. I can never resist waving.

The first roses are blooming in the front garden (I said it was an almost flower-free post).

On Monday we went to a fair in a local village. It was a warm, hazy day and we had a very leisurely wander about looking at the attractions and stalls. I have always loved country fairs and I may have purchased a few plants for the garden. We had a lunch of rolls, cakes and tea in the church, and even watched a ferret race which was surprisingly exciting.

I got up close to this beautiful barn owl,

enjoyed looking at these wonderful carnivorous plants on a stall which was in my opinion worthy of Chelsea Flower Show,

admired the church which I often don't look at closely enough,

took a good look at the beautiful stained glass windows and gargoyles,

remembered that the village is the home of the nursery rhyme 'Jack and Jill',

appreciated the lush, rolling hills,

spotted this old signpost (funny to see London on a signpost in a country village)

and noticed how beautiful the meadows look after the hay's been cut. I love this time of year.

Before I go I'll leave you with some pictures of Clover. She is a very sweet little friend and does make us smile. Here she is enjoying a patch of warm sunshine on our living room rug,

dozing on the newly-cut grass in the back garden one warm afternoon

and watching her favourite tv programme, 'Springwatch'. Badgers and birds are her favourite, and she has been known to climb up behind the tv looking for them. Funny creature.

Well, it's been a wet, windy and chilly couple of days here. I hope it's nicer weather where you are, and that you're having a good week (thank you for your good wishes for D who's in the middle of her GCSE exams - not long to go now).

See you soon x