Back in Cornwall. Is pretty much autumnal rather than springlike right now.
It was nice earlier, went to the Eden Project along with several thousand other people, and took lots and lots and lots of photos of tulips. And then discovered that I didn’t bring home the camera cable, and anyway, I don’t have lightroom on my laptop. So that’s what I’ll be doing when I get back to St Andrews next week, before heading to Rome…
Home is much the same. Ellie is already shorn of her hair for summer, since she had apparently managed to get it all knotted up. Therefore she looks like an overgrown poodle with a fringe and fluffy tail. I still love my barn, even if I have to sit in the window sill to pick up a very low wifi signal. My mother has hung new anti-squirrel bird feeders across the garden between the barn and the main house,which means that when I run from one to t’other in the rain and wind, head down, clutching laptop in carrier bag to chest, I am guaranteeably going to hit one of them with my head and concuss myself, and won’t that be delightful.
I have a wedding invitation for up the summer, a bunch of people to meet up with over the weekend, and some parents to introduce to the Daily Show. Byeee.
A friend of mine reminded me that it is the anniversary of the Penlee lifeboat disaster today. On 19 December 1981 the Union Star developed an engine fault off the Wolf Rock, the fuel supply became contaminated by sea water and the weather continued to worsen, driving the ship onto the rocks near Penlee Point. The Penlee Lifeboat the Solomon Browne was launched, manned by eight volunteers, and attempted to rescue the eight passengers and crew of tthe Union Star. The weather was so bad that the Royal Navy Sea King helicopter was unable to airlift the crew from the ship, but the Solomon Browne made repeated attempts to pull alongside.
The Solomon Browne’s last message was: “We’ve got four men off, hang on, we have got four at the moment. There’s two left on board…”, at which point the radio went dead and her lights disappeared. Lifeboats from Sennen Cove and St Marys on the Isles of Scilly attempted a search and rescue for survivors, but none were found.
The crew of Solomon Browne were: William Trevelyan Richards (Coxswain), James Madron (2nd Coxswain.), Nigel Brockman, John Blewett, Kevin Smith, Barrie Torrie, Charles Greenhaugh and Gary Wallis. Nigel Brockman’s son, Neil, still serves on the Penlee lifeboat. He volunteered for the 1981 ’shout’ but was sent back by Richards who did not want two members of the same family out in such conditions. Tonight, as every year, the world famous Christmas illuminations of Mousehole will be turned off at 8pm for an hour as an act of remembrance.
It may have rained for most of August, but today was just one of those days in which Cornwall proves that it can, in fact, beat the Mediterranean’s clubbing-happy little ass.
Today, after watching some of the barnstormingly loopy modern pentathalon (drawing lots for horses, wtf?), I stole the Maternal Unit’s car and free parking ticket for Land’s End and made a getaway for the coast for it was sunny. Sunny sunny sunny. Everyone else in the world seemed to be headed for Land’s End and Sennen too, but they were not doing what I was doing, no. They were going to sit on the beach, or go to the tacky exhibitions at Land’s End. I was going to park at Land’s End (free, lots of it), as opposed to Sennen (expensive, tiny amounts) and then walk myself along the coast path between the two to have lunch at the Sennen Beach Cafe and watch the surfers. It was lovely. There were a other people out on the coast path, but not enough to constitute serious traffic. There was an inshore breeze, smelling of salt, and the ferns were doing their nice sunshine-after-rain scenty thing, and there was a little bit of heather, and it was so so clear that you could not only see the Longships, but also the Wolf Rock and the Isles of Scilly out there on the horizon.
Sennen Beach was rammed with people and their windbreakers/deckchairs/tents (and when did people start taking so much stuff to the beach? I swear back in the day it was a towel and a book, and mebbe a flask of something to drink, I am so old, clearly), but the Beach cafe wasn’t too busy, so I got a seat out on the edge of the deck with a view over the beach, and ate fish with salsa and chips, and drank Cornish ale, and read a bit of We Need to Talk About Kevin in between watching the sandcastling going on below. After lunch I went for a paddle and took some photos of the surfers and skimboarders (regarding which, I totally want a skimboard now, it looks so much fun, and doesn’t require surf, so could be done in St Andrews). And then I wandered back, and had Roskillys (best ice cream ever, result of my definitive, world-wide survey).
It wasn’t blazingly hot, and the sun may not last more than one day, and there wasn’t any glamour or pavement cafes, and there won’t be any “fun” clubbing in the evening. But it was better than all of that. Yus. It was just simple and lovely.
