Friday 9th July 2010

Three days of walking around the Helford River and the Lizard peninsula. So much to see so little time to show all the best bits.

In partnership with the Polurrian Hotel we planned and undertook our yearly Lizard excursion. We had six people staying at the hotel for five nights and using all the facilities including a wonderful leisure centre to pamper oneself after a day on the coastal paths and the Helford estuary.

The essence of the peninsula is its own particular uniqueness within what is a unique county. Nowhere else in the British Isles (with the exception of around Aberdeen, on the Shetlands and in tiny parts of Anglesey) will the rock of Serpentine feature. Indeed most of the line south of Polurrian Cove on the west and Porthallow on the east has this rock underlying the landscape. Schists (Hornblende and Mica), Gneiss, Gabbro and Basalt tell their own story (not here).

Unique rocks mean unique soils which heralds unique flora. The soil accommodates flowers that do not feature above Helston, let alone elsewhere on the British mainland. The Cornish flower Erica vagans (Cornish heath) is the standard bearer for this area. If you’re out at sea in a wreck and knock your head on the way to the safety of the shore and once on dry land you encounter serpentine, Cornish heath and some pink/grey Gneiss then you can almost guarantee to know where you are.

More on the uniqueness of the Lizard in later blogs.

Five of us went walking and we took in Kynance, Southernmost point, Housel bay and Church Cove; Manaccan, Gillan creek, Dennis Head, Helford and Frenchmans creek; Predannack Wollas, Mullion, Soapy Cove and Predannack airfield. Three lovely days of about 7 miles per day.

Join us next year for five nights and three days of walking the diversity of the Lizard peninsula. Geology, maritime heritage, myths, legends, fishing villages, literature and wonderful flora and fauna (seals, basking sharks and dolphins).

Saturday 3rd July 2010

We were four in all; Sabrina and Cliff from Calgary, Canada and David from (now) Dartmouth, England.

One can get blase about the weather especially as by July we encountered only three days of wet weather in our walking breaks (8 so far since May).

This week we encountered an actual day of mist and rain which, for our guests who lecture in Literature,  added to the romanticism created directly from so many authors who have experienced immersion in the landscape and history of the county. A diversity of moods, millenia of time, the effects of geological movement and weathering have all contributed to and spawned so many ideas, stories and myths.

Literary glitterati have imbibed on the Cornish sea, air and landscape for centuries and we tried to relive the origins of the spark of their genius.

A literary theme ran through the week in the places we visited. Tintagel (King Arthur and Thomas Hardy), Frenchmans Creek (DuMaurier via Q) and the Helford, The Minack Theatre and the Lost Lands of Lyonesse, Kynance Cove (Wordsworth, J C Trewin). To name but a few obvious and recognisable names.

Thursday 1st July 2010

Introducing Jess our principal guide.  How remiss of us not to mention “she who must be followed”.

Jess our cross gsd/lab has been with us for seven years. A softy who absolutely loves people and walking (and markies).

We rehoused her and renamed her (from Xena) when we got her from Molly Wyatts near Hayle. She is as playful and docile as they come and just loves leading walks all over Cornwall especially the Coast Path. She has nonchalantly dismissed sheep on Dartmoor, ponies on the Coast Path, Adders at the Southernmost Point and Cape Cornwall and enjoys meeting fellow four legged friends everywhere. She plays and moves on.

We don’t always take her on walks with groups. We ask first.

We are often asked if we can accommodate other dogs on our walks. It’s been a hard decision but I’m afraid we can’t.

We do have walkers who unfortunately have had a bad experience with a dog and feel inhibited if they encounter one. So we always ask if Jess can come along once we have walked with guests for a day. Sometimes we get a resounding yes and others we follow our guests wishes and leave Jess to roam the smallholding and protect our chickens and warn us of foxes, rabbits, pidgeons and magpies. Either way she is a happy individual.

Tuesday 22nd June 2010

“If a picture paints a thousand words” (lyrics courtesy of “If” by David Gates).

Here’s a sign I saw somewhere on the Roseland peninsula yesterday.

We won’t name and shame as it is meant to be humorous. Isn’t it?

Monday 14th June 2010 to Friday 18th June

Jo, Shelley, Jenny, Sabine, Eric and Ian arrived Saturday 12th. We talked, we laughed we enquired and we enjoyed.

Monday we went all out to show the best estuary, woodland and coastal walk on the Roseland. Froe Creek, Percuil River and St Anthony’s headland and Towan Beach.

Tuesday we were on the Lizard Peninsula from Cadgwith to Church Cove, inland to Grade Church to Poltesco and back to Cadgwith. Basking sharks, three of them between Cadgwith and Church Cove. Gentle giants!

Wednesday was a special day. The “Three beaches walk” at Nanjizal Bay with strawberries on the beach on a crystal blue sky aquamarine sea hot day. Then onto Porthgwarra and Porth Chapel before a tour of the Minack Theatre.

Thursday with Martin of Adventureline at the helm was a day on the Moors at Twelve Mans Moor and Kilmar Tor. I was off at the Tregenna Castle Hotel entertaining for Karla and Christian’s wedding. Music and walking eh? I’m just a pig in sh*!

Friday we were on the north coast from Trevone Bay around Stepper point to Padstow. Beautiful weather, a slight breeze and a week drawing to the close. Tide was out so we walked into Padstow for a couple of miles along the beach. Where else can you do this, I ask you? Answers on a postcard……

 7th June 2010

Bluebells in full splendour

Waning bluebells on the coast. 

So, a quick goodbye, nay, au revoir until next year to the harbingers of uplifting spring spirits.

As though they recognize their own performance the bluebells are now bending over

taking a bow, soaking up the deserved applause and promising an encore.

Oh how we want you back.

Yet additionally as though handing over the baton,

another adorable colour combination is the mix

of newly grown ferns and the waning bluebells.

That almost iridescent, pale green contrasting with the rich, metallic blue.

Birth and death in a beautiful conflagration of colour.

Bittersweet, inevitable but a vital almost symbiotic annual meeting.

Like a car crash it seems almost sacrosanct to look at it in the knowledge

that one of these participants is close to death.

But one only sees peace, serenity and another present

from natures unlimited toy shop of visual delights.

How does nature do it? Simultaneous joy and sadness in ones heart.

        Sunday 6^th June 2010

Shapes and symmetry of nature. The sycamore and the fern.

It’s not just the finished article that makes nature observation such a thrill. Trees, plants, birds in moult or as fledglings all have their evolving shapes and colours before they reach their apex of growth to become the recognizable shape of their intended creation.

Species identification becomes as fluid and as ever changing as the individual life we are observing at any one moment in the cycle of growth and decay.

It’s a challenge, as though nature is confidently saying “yes it’s a black backed gull, but tell me, 1st year or 2nd year juvenile?…go on make my day, punk”.

The coiled spring of a fern comes to mind, somehow caught taking breath before launching into the promised, exciting burst of activity to its ultimate profile. It’s a personal taste as to which is prettier.

Well a picture paints a thousand words. Look at the two photos of the young sycamore. I was stopped in my tracks, well actually all I did was get off the coach whilst waiting for the King Harry Ferry with the 16 members of the Budock Vean Hotel 2010 walking break group.

Over time and with a bit of experience which can be brought out in anyone, one gets a sense of what is around out of the corner of ones eye. I was aware of a prospective symmetry. On closer inspection there was the cross of the leaf stalks like 90 degree spokes. Then the four green leaves at the end of the spokes with two brownish red inner leaves. But now look closer at the two inner leaves and one can see opposing white star shaped veins with the spokes behind. In the Bible Ezekial saw a wheel within a wheel.

As a parable all I can say is that I saw symmetry within symmetry. Well potentially Nature can be a religious experience, which also hits you at the most unexpected times and places.

sycamore close up

sycamore symmetry

24^th- 28th May 2010

Walking break photos 24th May – 28th May.

Sheila, Michael and Jilly from the UK and Ellen from Maryland, USA

Some of the photos from our walks on the Roseland; Percuil River,

St Anthony’s Head to Porth, Nanjizal Bay, Lizard; Kynance,

Southernmost Point to Church Cove, Trevone Bay to Padstow.

Once again we had amazing walking weather.

Plants have burst forth in colour and at such speed following our delayed Spring.

Come walking with us in Cornwall on a walking holiday.

 10^th-14^th May 2010

Walking break photos 10^th May – 14^th May.

Penny and Mike from the USA and Helmut and Gerda from Germany.

Some of the photos from our walks at Nanjizal Bay, to Porthcurno via Porthgwarra, Portreath and Tehidy, Trevone Bay to Padstow, Gurnards Head and Botallack.

We had amazing weather and the colours vibrant.

Enjoy the photos.

      http://www.plantlives.com/docs/L/Lotus_corniculatus.pdf