Wonderful Wildlife

While wandering around our fields yesterday, Simon and I were talking about the diversity of plants and wildlife that we have on the land right outside our door in St Just.

Yellow gorse, beautiful pink foxgloves and bluebells pop up in the hedges along with a few unwelcome roots of ragwort that I am gradually getting to grips with. A couple of years ago I collected all the grass seed heads and found over 15 different types in just an acre.

View of our cleared granite wall, fields and rolling hills beyond

The ivy on our wall has been cleared at a great effort, some roots are hanging on in there, but I am hoping that the more we clear, the better chance there is for some more interesting seeds to find their way to the light.

Wildlife on the ground includes foxes, badgers, voles, rabbits and weasels. When it has been snowing the prints on the new snow are fascinating.

We have a resident hedgehog in the garden which finally our lurcher, Stan, is finding a little less fascinating when he meets it in the garden late at night. We found the hedgehog snoring under the pampas grass last February ... so sweet. Since he has arrived there are surely less slugs in the garden so we hope he stays for a while.

In the summer I have seen sunbathing adders up at Botallack, but not in our own fields as the ground and conditions are not so good for them.

In the air, amongst other things we have buzzards, kestrels, bats and the biggest owl I have ever seen sitting on the gable of the cottage one night last year.

And finally at the coast, seals can often be seen bobbing away in the water, and particularly pop up to Godrevy or the Seal Sancuary at Gweek for a real treat. June usually brings pods of basking sharks to Sennen and Land's End which is spectacular seen from up on the cliffs on a clear sunny day.

West Cornwall is a such wonderful place.

St Just with the Atlantic behind.

View from the Visitor Book

As we rapidly approach Easter and the real start of the holiday season, it occurred to me that I often write about my views and experiences of St Just and the Land's End peninsula.

So, for a change, rather than me telling you how wonderful West Cornwall can be, I grabbed the visitor book for our holiday cottage and rummaged through last year's comments. They were remakably similar whatever time of year - good welcome, good food, stunning scenery and lovely beaches.

If you haven't booked your holiday in St Just yet, then this is what you are missing:

St Just is lovely – so clean and tidy and so many options for food - March 2011

Been on Sennen beach every day and visited all the usual haunts - April 2011

The food in the local pubs is still as good as ever - April 2011

Godrevy was breath taking and to see the seals there was lovely - June 2011

We got out and about as much as possible (Longrock, Kynance Cove, Lizard, Gwithian, Sennen, Land’s End, Porthcurno, Priests Cove, etc). All very beautiful places – July 2011

A warm welcome was received everywhere in St Just - August 2011

Lovely people, lovely cottage and Cornwall is very beautiful - October 2011

Great weather, great time … how lucky we have been - November 2011

To keep the balance, the only complaint in the visitor book ... don't want to go home!

Happy Easter from St Just

www.stjustholidaycottages.co.uk

November Sun

It has been the warmest November since I have lived in Cornwall, the grass is still growing and the flowers have been fooled into budding and blooming again. This view is from the churchyard in St Just across Kenidjack Valley on a sunny November afternoon. This time last year we were blanketed in snow ... what a difference!

However, the month is ending with gale force winds and driving rain, so even in Cornwall we don't have it all our own way.

The town is gearing up for Christmas, our neighbours have already pinned up the lights on the outside of their house and a few of the shops have already put up their Christmas decorations. There is plenty to see and do in St Just so if you are in the area, or passing through, park up and stop for a visit.

And on the subject of parking up, for those who are keeping up with the car parking situation in the town (Cornwall Council trying to charge for our car parks in Pendeen and St Just - our Town Council trying to take them over and keep them free) according to The Cornishman this week, discussions are ongoing but far from concluding 

Other news, The Kings Arms is under new management, welcome to Neil and Angie, we are looking forward to popping in for a pint and a meal very soon. They are keeping the pub very dog friendly so that's good news for many of our holiday cottage guests.

Getting back to the festivities, the main light switch on is on the evening of 16 December so here's hoping for some good weather for some great carol singing in the Market Square. Lots of different events are happening from advent fairs to Christmas markets to visits from Santa himself, and you can find our more on the local Chamber website www.landsendchamber.co.uk in the What's On section.

June News

The season advances and we come to the end of June with a week of sun, fog, sun, fog and now sun again.

Despite the odd morning of fog, St Just is warming up in many ways.

It is warm enough to sit outside the pub for a beer in the evening, but with a lovely breeze that means we rarely experience the intense heat that we used to living in the South East. The town is beginning to buzz with early season visitors and queues in the Co-op are getting longer with purchases of burgers for barbeques and beer to wash it all down.

There is a new gallery due to open in July next to the Cook Book in Cape Cornwall Street, you can now buy ice creams from the shop next to Just Fine Art and, after a short break, the Chinese takeway is back open again.

With Lafrowda just around the corner, the main festival day on 16th July, the programme is now on the website http://www.lafrowda-festival.co.uk/. After years of guests leaving and arriving on Saturdays, we have switched to Friday changovers so that we can enjoy the carnival day and relax like everyone else.

And finally the new leaflets that the Chamber of Commerce is producing to promote the traders and the accommodation in the area are due to arrive any minute and will hopefully encourage even more visitors to our lovely corner of Cornwall. The picture is taken at Cape Cornwall and has been used in one of the leaflets.

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.

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