Cornwall, Part 1

I would really like to share some of my favourite moments from our recent week in West Cornwall.  For us, holidays like this come once a year and are special - much anticipated before and savoured afterwards. I'll limit myself to two posts, with three days in each, and apologise now for the number of photos. In my defence it really is the most stunning corner of our country, wild and remote but buzzing with people and culture at the same time.

*****

Saturday: St Ives

The view as we walked from the station (we'd chosen to use the park and ride as parking is a nightmare) down into St Ives. It was an overcast, warm, hazy sort of day. You could tell it was going to be hot later.

Our visit to Tate St Ives, which happily coincided with a rain shower and made us feel smug about our (accidental) good timing. It's an excellent gallery, incredibly child friendly and small enough for us to feel we'd seen it properly without spending too long inside. 

A very nice lunch in the gallery cafe (a delicious crab salad open sandwich for me) and drinking beer at lunchtime which is allowed when you're on holiday.

Emerging from the gallery into bright sunshine and views of English summertime.

The way the palm trees and white sand made me feel as though we were really, properly, On Holiday.

Good shopping and massive, aggressive seagulls. I was constantly going back and forth between thinking how much I love the sound of seagulls, and how they are really a bloody menace.

*****

Sunday: Kynance Cove

I absolutely loved this information sign at the start of the path down to the beach, carved from wood. It was wonderfully warm and tactile, and was clearly designed to be touched as well as read.

The walk from the car park down to the beach. You can see the cafe there, nestled into the rock. Views everywhere you look.

We were glad we arrived at the cove so early, when it was relatively quiet because, by midday, you could not move. There was barely room to put down a towel or groundsheet. Kynance is certainly not a local secret anymore, but it's no less beautiful for that.

Watching these two chase the waves. Not quite brave enough to swim in the cold surf, they were instead content to spend most of the day running back and forth between shallows and shore, splashing and shrieking. 

*****

Monday: Godrevy Lighthouse and Trevaskis Farm

The wildness of the coastline here - just incredibly, bleakly beautiful, even on a grey day.

I love a lighthouse. There's just something about them.

 Rocks and pools and excellent rock pooling.

Angus insisting that he would wear socks with his Crocs, even though we were clearly on a beach. Strange, stubborn boy. Watching the kids enjoy being on the beach doing the exact same things that I did when I was a child.

Watching these two wade out into the water when is was frankly pretty nippy. Mad or brave, I'm not sure. Then making it back to the car just as the heavens opened and it absolutely poured with rain. We were again smug about our (accidental) good timing.

Lunch and a sunny afternoon at a really nice local farm. I was reminded again at how simple children's needs often are. After a morning spent peering in rock pools and drawing in the sand, they were content to spend the afternoon looking at animals. And I admired the sweet peas.

We picked strawberries that grew from those waist-high planters, a first for us.

Our local strawberry PYO is a squat in the field kind of get up, nothing like this. I think I'd rather be out in the open air than in a polytunnel though. 

They were very nice strawberries though. We had Eton Mess for pudding that night, and quite a few went in the Pimms.