Cornwall - Late Summer September 2018

Below are some pictures of our recent brief stay in West Cornwall.
I think we were lucky with the weather, that is until Cornwall faced
some of the after effects of those recent American tropical storms.
But a good relaxing time was had by all. Just wish we were there
for a bit longer.
Of course this year I was hoping to do less photos and more videos
instead. But unfortunately my trusted old regular phone broke
and I didn't really get time to get used to my new one. So more
pictures I'm afraid.

Above:  Holidaymakers and visitors queuing up on the small jetty near the harbour
waiting for some more small boats to come in for boat trips around the Bay.

Above is the single small road called The Digey which takes you from the main Fore Street in Town
to the ever popular Porthmeor surfing beach. And just to the left and out of shot is the quaintly named
Bumbles Tea Room.

We were hoping to ride the new GWR high speed train down to
Cornwall now that they're finally in operation. But our booked
journey gave us one of the old still used Inter City 125's going
and coming back.
Perhaps not a bad thing as the new GWR trains are still having
teething technical problems. And while we were staying in Cornwall
there was a huge train breakdown that made all the news when
nearly 400 passengers were stranded near Exeter Devon for
almost 6 hours! Can you believe that some had to endure an eleven
hour journey from Plymouth to Paddington.
It normally takes around 5 hours to get from Paddington to
St Ives.


TRAIN NIGHTMARE FOR STRANDED PASSENGERS
(via BBC News)

Below is a short video filmed around Porthmeor Beach. It's nothing really that exceptional as I was
using a brand new phone and had but just a few hours to get acquainted with it after having an accident
with my regular phone. Sadly it fell in some water and never recovered. That was a bit of a shame as I
had planned to do lots more filming this year. And thankfully this new phone has a stabiliser option for 
correcting wobbly shaky videos.
The new phone is also too big to fit into a special housing I made that shades the direct
sunlight onto the phone screen so you can actually see what you're filming. But I
plan on adjusting the housing which I carry around on a steady monopod.

Interestingly many Youtube users are up in arms and protesting against Youtube who have very unwisely
removed their own stabilising option, a vital facility for youtube phone video uploaders.

Towards the end of the video you'll see walking into shot (1:50) local globe trotting surfer Harry De Roth 
working in his day job at The St Ives Surf School.

Above:  The St Ives Tate Gallery overlooking Porthmeor Beach.

Porthminster Beach and the refreshments area.

Above: The guest's private balcony at The Pedn-Olva Hotel. The Hotel on the rocks which
overlooks Porthminster Beach.

Below:  Porthminster Beach

Bus routes and timetables can often change by the year. So we were
pleased to find this new 'open top' bus route to Penzance,
although we got off early at one of our favourite spots at Lelant.
It's a very brief journey by bus but the walk back to St Ives
via the coast path took a lot longer.

Below: A good view of Porthminster Beach and the Railway
Station from the top of the open top bus.

Above: The main shopping street, Fore Street St Ives.

I love these little wooden storage boxes placed outside the Kudos shop in Fore Street.
They do sell lots of dinky little nik-nacks for the home.
Although at £25 each, those wooden boxes don't come cheap.
But if I did get one it would have to be the St Ives lobster box.

And just a few shops away from Kudos with a novel name is a little
store called 'Cheese on Coast.'
  

Above: The wonderful Shell Shop in Fore Street, almost next to the Harbour.
And looking at the goods on the shelves in this picture, I can see a few
nik nacks and goodies that are are now in my bathroom back home.

Being that St Ives is a thriving art colony, I'm always surprised when looking through
some of the galleries that local artists seem to prefer capturing scenes of the Harbour,
the beaches and general scenes from around the coastline. But I think that the little
white washed cottages around the back streets are somewhat neglected. They deserve
to be put on to canvas like this image above of The Digey, that little back street road
that approaches Porthmeor surfing beach.


Below I've adjusted my image of The Digey through my paintshop and tried
to imagine it as a painting. 

Above: The Tate Gallery St Ives.

I was pleased to hear that this year The Tate won the award for being the best museum
in Britain. The win has a lot to do with the Tate's recent extensions with more galleries
and more exhibits. And although the town has many art galleries, The Tate is considered
as the central hub of art in St Ives.

It would seem that despite the big competition victory, their budget hasn't stretched
far enough for repairs to the exterior frontage which seems to be taking quite a battering
from the storms and other weather elements coming in off Porthmeor Beach.

On the Saturday we arrived, the start of The St Ives September Festival, a gathering
of musicians took place in the small circular amphitheatre by the entrance.
But it's good to see the Gallery back and open for business  after a long delayed closure.
 

The Society of Artists galleries is a place I often pop into
whenever I'm in town. Formed back as far as 1927, it's main gallery
is a former Church and houses some wonderful paintings by
local artists.

Well seemingly nothing has happened. The house is still standing there right
opposite The Tate Gallery just by Porthmeor Beach. Clearly the idle rich are
in no hurry to either knock it down or refurbish it. At least not yet.

Odd isn't it, we were in St Ives this time last year when the house sold at
a local auction and I bought an extra couple of lottery tickets in the hope of
winning and out bidding the eventual buyer. Ha, some hope.
But what a dream it is, to own that house looking over my favourite Beach.
And being situated for a perfect view of the evening sunsets, the property
is actually called Sunset House. I wonder if the new owners will keep the name?

We can never resist a walk up to the top of Rosewall Hill just outside of
the town. And it's the whole of the town and The St Ives Bay that you get
to see from the summit.
I first discovered Rosewall Hill when I saw a picture of artist
Barbara Hepworth sitting up there drawing stones. That's where she
got a lot of her inspiration from. And I thought that if Barbara Hepworth
can get to the top of that hill, then so can I.

And not far from Rosewall is another hill that actually looks much steeper.
Not sure of the name of that hill, but I was once told that the S.A.S use it
sometimes for military training.
But this whole hilly area is quite magical and when I'm here I always feel
like I'm in the real wild Cornwall.

Above: Large rocks at the top of Rosewall. Actually when I saw
this photo it slightly reminded me of an album cover by
Irish group Clannad. I think it was called 'Magical Ring.'
It has that haunting tune 'The Theme from Harry's Game.'

Above and below are a few images taken at St Uny's Old Churchyard at Lelant.

St Uny's Church Lelant.

Above is an early evening shot of The Island and small Chapel on the hill on Porthmeor Beach.
And it was just a few years ago that we were lucky enough to rent a beach side property by
the sea. In fact you can see the grey building where a a group of people are sitting on the
beach. That's exactly where we stayed. I think we were there slightly out of season in early May.
But it was still expensive. But what a thrill it was to have the sea just outside our balcony.
And we didn't need to rush across town from our usual rented properties to check out the evening
sunset, as the evening sun sets right there on Porthmeor Beach.