Halloween

 Happy Hall🎃ween

Halloween wasn't a thing here in the UK when my girls were little. I used to join in with

trick or treat around the village with my grandson, but I don't participate now. 

This year the village theme is Harry Potter. I took a few photos on my walk with Rufus. 

I spotted these crops of tiny fungi, the brown ones at the bottom,

and the even tinier white ones in amongst the greenery at the top

The clue is lines saying "I must not tell lies"

The head of the Malfoy family

The clue is: This character was once described by Hermione "........... is like ....... snow", said Hermione quietly, her gaze absent and distracted. "It's cold and cruel to begin with, but somehow beautiful, and you miss it when it's not there. And if you hold it in your hands close enough and long enough, it changes. It melts"

I don't understand this one, I know the lady who did it so I can

ask her when I see her, but if you get it please let me know.

I haven't been round the whole village, I'm sure there are a lot more.

∼ Be safe and well ∼ 

Polly x

A Jewel, Pirates And Smugglers

Our next day out took us to St Ives and Penzance.

M and I like coach trips because we're not fond of long distance driving any more.

But the downside to that is that we don't have control of how long we stay at each destination.

We would have liked a whole day in St Ives.

With a maze of cobbled streets, independent shops, beautiful beaches, The Tate Gallery

and the Barbara Hepworth Museum St Ives is rightly described as the dazzling jewel in Cornwall's crown. A truly picturesque fishing harbour and seaside town voted best family holiday destination and one of TripAdvisor's top 10 European beaches.

First stop was a charity shop where I saw this. I didn't buy it

because I already have lots of jigsaws, but I wish I had now!

The famous Sloop Inn, thought to date back to 1312. I used a postcard

photo because there were just so many people getting in the way!

I was so dissapointed we didn't find the Tate Gallery, we found the Hepworth Museum but had no time to visit. I didn't realise until much later that I could have used Google maps on my phone!! duh. Had we had more time we would also have liked to take the boat trip to Seal Island.

After St Ives we went to Penzance, which quite a few of us said was a waste of time. I did visit one interesting place though. 

 

Jubilee salt water bathing pool

The UK's biggest and most celebrated art deco sea water lido. Originally opened in 1935, Jubilee Pool is one of only a handful of surviving Lidos in the UK, and the first to have a geothermally heated pool.

The system operates by extracting warm water from a geothermal well (410m deep – the height of one and a half Eiffel Towers!!), taking heat out of that water using heat pumps and distributing it to the pool via a heat exchanger, before re-injecting the cooler water back into the ground. This combined system means that the temperature of the pool can be sustained with a very low carbon footprint.

Energenic swimmers use the larger pool at the back

whilst bathers can relax and unwind in the smaller natural salt water pool

heated to between 30-35 degrees all year round. That's my kind of pool.

An interested bystander no doubt looking for food from the cafe.

St Michaels Mount

Taken from a long way away, windy weather and I couldn't see anything clearly on my phone screen. I knew it was pointing in the right direction so I just clicked a few times and hoped for the best. I'm pleased with this.

Leaving Penzance we headed for Land's End, the legendary Cornish destination that has inspired people since ancient Greek times when it was referred to as ‘Belerion’ – Place of the Sun. It is the most westerly point in mainland England and the most visited outdoor tourist attraction in Cornwall.

The iconic signpost giving distances to far away places.

Beautiful rugged coastline

On our last day we visited Newquay and St Austell. I'm sure there are

some nice parts of Newquay but the town wasn't inviting.

The beach was lovely though

with lots of surfers enjoying the waves

This house on the island looked interesting.

And on to St Austell.

The town itself has little to offer the visitor, in fact we thought it was pretty grim! 

But it does have this very pretty church, and some of the loveliest beaches in Cornwall, the coast is often referred to as the Cornish Riviera. We didn't visit the beach because our coach driver wanted to take us to where the drama series Poldark was filmed. Poldark is a British historical drama TV series based on the novels of the same name by Winston Graham.

starring the delicioulsy, broody, oh so handsome Aidan Turner in the lead role.

Charlestown where most of the programme was filmed

It's a lovely place but we couldn't stay long because

there were no parking places for coaches

This coastline was once home to smugglers, pirates and tin mining,

oh and mermaids 😊

∼ Be safe and well ∼ 

Polly x

St Agnes, A Jail And Doc Martin

Cornwall, rugged and beautiful. At the beginning of October my friend M and I enjoyed a Crusader holiday in the lovely little village of St Agnes. 

We had good weather and good excursions but my hotel room was disappointing, actually it was horrible. Room 24 should be put into Room 101. It was like being back in the 70’s. The furniture was dark pine, the ceiling was pine clad and the carpet was old fashioned. It had two windows so it should be a light room, but with three grey walls, grey window sills, grey (and grubby) door to the en-suite, grey curtains and dim lighting it was a very depressing room. There was no mirror on the dressing table, to do my hair I had to move the stool from the dressing table to the fixed mirror on the opposite wall. The only nod to modernity was the hotel type faux headboard and bed linen. The bed was very comfortable and the room was warm though. I managed to see a few other rooms which were quite nice, I was just unlucky to be allocated probably the worst room in the hotel. We were out every day so I didn't spend a lot of time in it.

The first day we visited Truro and Falmouth

Truro Cathedral

One of the many charity shops we visited in Falmouth. This is the only photo I took,

I can't remember if we were very impressed with Falmouth!

The next day we visited Bodmin jail and "Doc Martin" country.

Bodmin Jail was built in 1779 and closed in 1927. Much of it fell into ruin, but parts of it have

been turned into a tourist attraction, and more recently a large part was converted into a hotel.

Reception

It's very modern and minimalist. I wish I had taken a photo of the room we had a look in.

It was beautiful, cream walls blended with honeycomb brick walls, a super huge bed, sofa,

table and lamps, and a sumptious bathroom with a huge bath and a large shower enclosure.

When we got out of prison!

We had coffee in the restaurant and a look in the shop, and then travelled to see where

"Doc Martin" (a British comedy drama about a grumpy brilliant doctor) was married. 

St Nonna’s Church, in Altarnun on Bodmin Moor

It was difficult to see the photos from the show because of the reflections from various lights.

The pews had very sturdy carvings. Our guide for that day

told us that there were some rude ones, but we didn't find them!

"Doc Martin" is set in the fictional seaside village of Portwenn and filmed on location

in the lovely village of Port Isaac, with most interior scenes shot in a converted local barn. 

This cottage is used as the home and surgery of Doctor Martin Ellingham, to give him his correct title. The villagers prefer to call him Doc Martin, and no matter how many times he corrects them they continue with Doc Martin. The show has some lovely quirky characters, Mrs Tishell the pharmacist, the dim-witted PC Joseph Penhale, Bert Large and his son Al.

We ended the afternoon with a delicious cream tea.

Wednesday was a free day so M and I explored St Agnes.

Our coach driver had been given the wrong directions to the hotel, and we arrived at this awkward bend, we couldn't go back or turn around, there was only way - forward. 

He did a great job, literally inch by inch.

I couldn't get a full photo of the pretty church because a huge delivery

lorry was in the way. I think he was delivering to the whole village!

There was a delicious smell coming from the bakery,

but we resisted because we hadn't long had breakfast.

The famous Stippy Stappy, a steep terrace of cottages 

We passed lots of lovely properties

 many of which we thought were holiday lets

Trevaunance Cove is the main beach at St Agnes, it's beautiful. We had coffee overlooking the beach. The weather was mild and a few hardy people were enjoying the beach and sea. M had chips, I had a small cornish pasty on the way back, it was delicious.

Up next: A Jewel, Pirates And Smugglers

∼ Be safe and well ∼ 

Polly x