No trip to the farthest part of the Cornwall peninsula would be complete without a visit to St Ives. It has a beautiful, wide, sandy beach, great sea views, pretty shops and galleries, national art galleries and collections and eateries of all kinds.
A couple of years ago I read the late Helen Dunmore’s fictional account of the time D.H.Lawrence and his wife Frieda spent in Cornwall during the First World War. “Zennor in Darkness“. Thus I was intrigued to visit this village : to walk to Zennor Head and back and take in the cottages at Lower Tregerthen both a mile or so out of the village in different directions. The bus service in winter runs roughly every three hours but I found arriving at 12.08 and leaving at 14.52 gave me sufficient time to do both walks there and back; to visit the pub The Tinners Arms for fresh crab sandwiches and local apple cider and to call in at the church to see the famous mermaid carving which I had also read about.
Along the way from Botallack to Levant there were still many signs of the former mining industry but also I admired the many beautiful walls filled with wild flowers along the way.
Right at the very end of Cornwall, just to the north of Lands End, lies The Tin Coast a seven mile stretch of coast with a rich mining history. It’s part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, inscribed in 2006, UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Whilst at Penzance, staying at The Second Floor Flat at The Egyptian House on Chapel Street, I chose to read from the Library Lucinda Lambton’s ‘An Album of Curious Houses’ . I wasn’t surprised to see The Egyptian House featured. It’s certainly a curiosity amongst the other buildings of Chapel Street.
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The next day, before heading off on the train to Penzance, I spent the morning walking round the bay again. I had been intrigued by a small white building, on what turned out to be a headland, on the opposite side of the bay.
You can just about see it on the green hump in the middle of the picture
From the moment I first arrived in Newquay two Sundays ago I was mesmerised by the view. I’d booked a week’s stay in Penzance (Monday to Monday) but flew down from Leeds on the Sunday before staying the night at Fistral Beach. I’d never visited Newquay before. I certainly saw it at its best with this beautiful weather. I stayed overnight again the following Monday – same place, same views. On both occasions my timings meant that I had over 24 hours for each stay and plenty of time to investigate the cliff paths and seafoods and ice creams on offer.
It’s been some time since I last here, about a month by my reckoning. I’ve been busy not going away but, amongst other things, planning future excursions which take me way beyond next year, to 2020, in fact. Now it’s time to catch up with my most recent travels, including where I went after my day at Bedford Art Gallery. I spent 4 nights at Alwalton in late February before moving on to Norwich and beating the so-called “Beast from the East” back up to Leeds. Much of March disappeared under a blanket of snow but I did get down to London for a couple of nights last week.
The week before last, en route to Clare in Suffolk, where I stayed for a few days, I broke my journey at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire.
Woolsthorpe was the birthplace of polymath and ‘Renaissance man’ Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727).
But only for an hour!
However, with help from the enthusiastic team of volunteers I managed to fill the hour between 3.30pm and 4.30pm last Sunday without leaving Hull Paragon Station (as we knew it in my student days in the 1970s).
The City has had a changing programme of events throughout the year and I was lucky to catch a day full back in August.
miladysboudoir 