Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

While the TV is telling us that there is no snow in the West ... I beg to differ. We were supposed to be off to Heligan today, but the snow has scuppered that. The first picture was taken at 8.30 this morning. Then later when we took the dogs out for a run the sun broke through.

As you can see, Stan LOVES the snow!

St Just Feast

Taking place on the first weekend after the 31st October, St Just's Feast is a very popular traditional local celebration.

With its roots firmly in the past, the weekend consists of a church service and Mayor's procession on the Sunday, and a meeting of the hunt on the Monday - with lots of drinking and entertainment in between.

As far as I can gather, Feast celebrates a dedication of the church, but has its roots in pre-Tudor England. I read in a letter in The Cornishman this week that when Henry VIII wanted to destroy the icons of the Roman Catholic Church, including the celebration of feasts, he sent a Cornishman based in Bristol, Sir John Tregonwell, to carry out his orders. Unfortunately, but fortunately for the continuing tradition of Feast, reports of plague in the area meant he did not travel to this part of the South West and Feast survived. Fascinating.

Back to the present, with the Cornish Flag flying above the church, on Sunday Pendeen Band and the bells of the church rang out clear across the sunny town, and today, Monday, the hunt milled around the Market Square ready for their Feast day hunt with the band playing them off.

Sennen Cove

What a busy summer we have had. Finally things are starting to calm down and we are getting a few chances to enjoy the beautiful weather.

While Simon was dropping off some of our glass to the Roundhouse gallery in Sennen, I took the opportunity to take a few snaps of the wonderfully clear view to Cape Cornwall. There are still plenty of people around, and amazing to have it so warm and clear in October, I almost wanted to have a paddle!

Lafrowda Festival, St Just

This weekend was the culmination of two weeks of workshops and festivities with Lafrowda Day in St Just.

Market stalls and entertainment filled the streets. The theme for the day was Viva Lafrowda and the procession in the afternoon was thrilling as always with some great mobiles lead by Elvis who also appeared in the evening lantern procession.

For details of Tom Henderson Smith's Viva Lafrowda benefit auction click here

Wildlife

We saw Stan staring out the window yesterday evening - and this is what he was watching.

Simon managed to snap what he thinks is a horseshoe bat in flight by just standing at the back door - not something we will do very often as taking an odd picture of a bat with a flash is okay, but the last thing we want to do is disturb their flight patterns as we get a great display of bats swooping around the garden each evening.

Godrevy

Back to Godrevy again at the weekend on our travels - what a lovely day.

Clear blue skies, so being a Sunday, it was packed with people enjoying the gorgeous weather. However, as you can see from these pictures, packed means gallons of sea and yards of sand for everyone!

This view is looking back towards Hayle at the golden sands and surf that stretch right round the bay towards Lelant and St Ives.

Sennen Cove

What a glorious day. The cold wind has finally dropped and the sky and sea were very blue, so we stopped off for a coffee at The Beach Restaurant and listened to the waves lapping on the shore. It is a lovely place to sit and pass the afternoon. We didn't get a chance to have one today, but we both love the pizzas there which are thin and crispy and very tasty.

Unfortunately Simon and I couldn't stay for long. We were busy visiting businesses in Sennen to round up members for the local Chamber of Commerce who are producing a leaflet about the shops, arts & crafts, activities, services and eating & drinking in the St Just and Land's End area. It is taking up a lot of our time at the moment, but it will be worth it to show people, visitors and locals alike, what this lovely area has to offer.

Our guests in the holiday cottage this week have never even been to Cornwall before, but they are already asking about booking for next year.

Once you find the St Just area, it seems you can't keep away.

Godrevy

Doing some essential research today on where you can find a good Sunday breakfast, so off to Godrevy Cafe with Simon and Molly. Simon had the full english and unsuprisingly cleared his plate so I had to pursuade him to keep a few bits of his bacon for Molly. I had the poached eggs which come with field mushrooms, tomatoes, hash browns, spinach and toast - it was delicious.

The area is owned by the National Trust so parking is free if you are a member. Dogs are not allowed on the beach at this time of year, but there is still plenty of area to walk and views right across to St Ives. If you continue up the hill towards the lighthouse you can look down to the beach and see the seals resting out of the water (looking a little like slugs!)

Porthleven

Yesterday we had no holiday cottage changeovers so we set off to deliver some of our glass to Heather and Dave at The Customs House Gallery in Porthleven. Their dog Howard the ridgeback can usually found lying on their sofa in the back gallery. The gallery was featured in the June edition of Cornwall Today and we were glad to see some of our glass in the pictures.

It was raining when we left St Just, but by the time we got to Porthleven the sun was shining so we were glad we took the camera with us. As you can see it was a very calm day. It was even warm enough to sit outside the cafe Naughty But Ice and have a coffee and slice of cake ... yummy and always a treat when we visit this lovely harbour.

Land's End

Now that we have our pass to get in to the car park at Land's End (locals get in free, visitors pay £4) it is lovely to take a quick visit down to the most westerly point in England for some fresh air on this sunny but windy day.

There is plenty to do for families at the Land's End Experience, and the place seemed busy on this May Bank Holiday weekend, but we prefer just to go for a walk along the paths. The sea, with its white horses was a beautiful turquoise and blue and the granite cliffs were glowing in the spring sunshine.

Picture above is from the tip of Land's End looking back towards Cape Cornwall.

Geevor & Pendeen Rally

Today was Pendeen Rally up at Geevor, just a couple of miles from St Just on the coast road to St Ives.

Beautiful views, lots of stalls, lovely old bikes, tractors and cars, a dog show, band and lots of local colour. Afterwards we took a wander around the old mine workings, where the egg yolk yellow gorse was in full bloom, and to cap it all, it was a gorgeous sunny day, if a little windy.

Picture above is of Geevor Mine and picture below is of Pendeen Lighthouse from Geevor showing the patchwork of fields.

Sennen Cove

What a beautiful day in Sennen Cove today.

The sun was shining, the waves were gently rolling in from the Atlantic and to make the day perfect we were delighted to find that the chip shop was open so we could stroll along with a sunday lunch of sausage and chips!

If you haven't been to Sennen Cove before, it is a couple of miles from St Just and quite close to Land's End.

As you can see it has glorious golden sands, with good waves for surfing or swimming, gift shops including The Roundhouse which sells local arts and crafts, food and drinks from The Beach Cafe and the Blue Lagoon chip shop.

Dogs are allowed on all the beach in the winter, and in the season you can take dogs on any part of the beach early morning and evening, or to Gwenver beach (in the background on the video) during the daytime.

Stan Rolling in the Snow

This was a couple of days ago. All the snow has melted and we are enjoying sunny and warm days, but still cold nights. You can see the agility equipment in the background lying idle, which it has been since Christmas. So Stan was making the most of the small amount of snow we had in our fields to have some fun. He just loved to roll, and roll and roll. How he didn't end up with brain freeze I really don't know. Enjoy!

Agility Stan

Here's a bit of fun. Stan, our lurcher, just loves agility which we do in the fields next to our house. He especially loves those weaves. Enjoy!