Sometimes a short trip fills me up even more than a longer one. My late summer walks took in miles over moors and coast, and I took bus trips to Penzance, Sennen, St. Ives, and Morvah. Storm Agnes blew quickly through mid-week with high winds, dark clouds and rain behind. Good day for cosy projectsContinue reading “All Over the West in September”
Author Archives: Jane
Through the Eyes of a Child
And in July I took him for his first trip to Cornwall. With some trepidation, just him and me, a long way from home for him. It was fabulous. Some walks, some bus rides, sunshine and Moomaid’s ice cream, and the Lafrowda Festival to top things off.
Walking
There’s a meditative quality of walking in west Penwith that always heals me and fills me again. My walks this May were sometimes on my own, sometimes with a sister or two, sometimes with the whole gang. They were filled with wildflowers and big blue skies. The ocean churned beneath me, so far away downContinue reading “Walking”
Fabulous Family
This trip stretched our Teyr-Delen capacity, with suitcases and backpacks and pillows and duvets rolling in every direction. Sisters and nephews joined me, overlapping with cousins from Tyne and Wear. Six asleep meant folk stretched out on the bench in the big bay window and tucked in odd corners on our camp mattresses. It wasContinue reading “Fabulous Family”
Chysauster
There are two magnificent and well-preserved courtyard house settlements in West Penwith: Carn Euny and Chysauster. Courtyard houses are only found in this area and the Isles of Scilly and are notable for their arrangements of multiple rooms (originally with thatched roofs) surrounding a central courtyard. The houses lined streets – at Chysauster nine housesContinue reading “Chysauster”
Caer Bran to Sancreed
Another section of the family tour of ancient sites in West Penwith. It’s an easy walk from the road by Grumbla up to the Iron Age (800 BC – 410 AD) hill fort of Caer Bran. It’s not as easy making out the described two concentric lines of ramparts and their ditches and the interiorContinue reading “Caer Bran to Sancreed”
Boscawen-ûn Stone Circle
One of Cornwall’s finest stone circles, the ‘Nine Maidens’ site dates from late Neolithic-early Bronze Age (2500-1500 BC). Nineteen upright stones form an ellipse, with a leaning central stone about 8 feet high. All of the stones are granite except one pure quartz stone – quartz is believed to have had healing significance for theContinue reading “Boscawen-ûn Stone Circle”
Isles of Scilly
The archipelago of the roughly 150 isles (and islets) of Scilly lies about 25 miles south-west of Cornwall. When the oceans were lower they were a single land mass called Ennor, flooded as recently as c. 400 AD and perhaps part of the source of the myth of the drowned lands of Lyonnesse. Five ofContinue reading “Isles of Scilly”
March
Early spring in West Penwith… some good walks and sunny days in between more unsettled wet weather. Saw some wonderful wildlife – soaring buzzards (Buteo buteo), kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), seals and oystercatchers, the peacock butterfly (Aglais io) and miner bees on dandelions. Did quite a bit at the flat, as well, including more plants andContinue reading “March”
October
Bivalent booster on board, I stretched my wings for long-awaited movies at the Newlyn Filmhouse and a play at the Acorn Theatre. I soaked up the autumn sunshine on long walks, took a day trip to Falmouth to meet up with an American friend who happened to be there, and enjoyed tending the courtyard. AsContinue reading “October”
Flat Two 