Cornwall III The Eden Project.

I've wanted to go to the Eden Project for as long as I have heard about it in the media.
Lots of friends and family have already been and drooled over the amazing concept that it is.
Thanks a lot ...I want to see it for myself. [ little pout!]
So off we set from Looe on the Monday morning. All three cars. All eleven people.
I don't quite know what I expected, but I was blown away by the sheer size of the place.
That was one big quarry in it's day and goodness how it's changed.
From bare stone to lush and full planting!

I thought about what we had done those 30 years before at the Potters House, when we took what had become an unofficial rubbish tip for the local neighbourhood. That was a mere drop in a big ocean compared to this.

To have the vision and to, "put your money where your mouth is", needs long term commitment to the land and the people who will support you.

Being in the equatorial dome reminded me of my school and college days when I regularly walked through the Botanic Gardens in Belfast.

We often had a meander through the glass houses  on the way home  after school. They were some of the earliest to be constructed in the British Isles. Sadly they got smashed in the years of the Troubles, but more recently they have been completely renovated and restored to their original splendour.

The favorite place however was the den building tent.

Not many children got a look in there!

Serious constructing went on with fathers and grand fathers and mothers and children were consigned to being goofers!

Den building has gone on even since we all came back up north. This is the real thing folks!

Nuts to you!

We were sitting up the field having a lovely afternoon cup of tea and a wee bit of cake, Alan's best chocolate, when we noticed at our feet a collection of empty hazel nut cases! Nooooo! This is the first year that we have had any good harvest on the hazel tree. There are three in the hedges that surround us and this one where we have a seat is the most mature. We had great excitment a few weeks earlier when we realised that there would be a nut harvest this year. It seems that the family of squirrels thought so to! So no sooner seen than down came the branches and we gathered the lot. Well I say the lot, I'm sure that the squirrels will find that we have missed some and anyway there are two more trees that they can feast on. It's not as if there aren't two chestnut trees available you squirrels so go bark at yourselves somewhere other that our best hazel nut tree!

A Poem for Thursday

                           Blackbirds

Three blackbirds sat

in the rowan tree,

They wiped their beaks

and sang to me.

" There's nothing left for you to see.

The fruit was ours

and the fruit was free."

Three blackbirds sat

in an old fig tree.

Each winked an eye

and sang to me.

" The fattest figs all belong to me,

The fruit is mine

and the fruit is free".

Three blackbirds sat

in the damson tree,

And they were as fat

as fat could be.

They'd eaten as much as they could see.

For the fruit was fine 

and the fruit was free.

 

Three blackbirds sat

In an apple tree,

And each kept a beady eye on me.

But I clapped my hands

for I couldn't agree

To let them think

that this fruit was free!

Give us a break blackbirds!

Cornwall II The Church Fete.

There is nothing that we like more, we Potters House people, than a good local fete and on the Sunday, the son managed to find a great one close to Looe at a church which is associated with a local convent. Tents and marquees and stalls full of goodies. Food cooked by a wandering Frenchman. Plants from the convent gardens and other lovely gardeners...you know the kind of thing that I mean!
I bought a little silver ring. The lady, and I think she probably was, informed me that it had been her daughters and she wanted £10 for it . I think she saw the look in my eyes as she very quickly reduced it to £5.
I gave it to Kate. It fitted her finger exactly!

I bought a plant that the nuns had grown. It was 12inches high. I paid my £1 and then the salesman said, "it will grow to 10 feet high". Gulp!  Never mind, let's have a go and see how long we can keep it alive up north. I can't remember what its called, just that it will get very BIG.


We try to hold a fete ourselves at The Potters House each year although with all that has gone on, we didn't manage it this summer. We usually do it and split the takings between The Jennifer Trust for SMA sufferers and their families and Francis House Hospice for Children in Didsbury.These are pictures from last summer.

                                       It's a time for neighbours

A time for families

A time for music and laughter

This is the main man

He can play what you ask!

It's fantastic fun and all the locals look forward to it and are disapppointed when it doesn't come off.


 But back to Cornwall and the fabulous food.
And the potter is wearing that sweater again!

                       Food is always a big part of any fete.
                        Don't you love how photos lie!
                       The potter looks like a midget next to the son!

the daughter has her purse open again...

don't miss a bargain!

daughter-in-law samples the savouries

and always the seagull waiting to clean up what we drop!

Cornwall

We are just back from a week in Cornwall. We,that  is all eleven of us, and we  got on fine!
We stayed in Looe, at least up the hill from Looe, and did as much as we could do without getting too wet from the rain! On Wednesday the local weather forecaster commented that, "It has been the heaviest day of rain in August for many years". The water under the bridges in Polperro was a mere 12 to 18 inches from the underside. But we did a lot because that's who we are!
So I think that I shall put up a kind of diary of our doings through the week. Mostly for myself as a sort of memory as it was 37 years since Alan and myself were there.  it was also quite a  special  time as it brought  back the doings of our youth! But if you know Cornwall, as I'm sure so many do, then maybe it will give you a reminder of all that  there is to enjoy.

The grown-ups sit and shelter from the rain

while

children gather treasure

and yachtsmen ignore the weather

even when they can see very little!

every where the signs say "don't feed the gulls"

but the gulls ignore the signs

and wait until we have finished our fish and chips

 and bring their young ones to the feast.

and Kate and I decide to do some drawing

down the jetty

as the fishermen go out

on the high tide.

then

Kate just wants to gaze at the sea

it's that way when you live inland

it has that effect on you. 

The Poetry Bus

Here's a recurring nightmare!
I was ever a dreamer.

The School Bus

I am dawdling
And the mother's voice
Cries out
The old refrain.
"Have you got your beret,
Got your satchel,
Got your homework diary?"

I am waiting
At the bus stop,
And it's just begun
To rain.
There's no shelter
And as usual
I'm not exactly early.

Bus is crowded
Full of children
So I'm
Standing up again.
Getting glances
Some smug glances
From a seated
Little girlie!

Still, I'm first off.
And I'm running
Through the gardens
Through the pain.
For the prefects
For the mistresses
The masters
Will be surly

If I reach
The gates of High School
Of the rugby-playing
Fame.
And I'm late there
For the roll call
For the class room-
Where's the class room?
What's the subject?
Who's the teacher?

Ah I'm dreaming once again!