Folklore Links

A selection of recent finds:

Boscastle Museum of Witchcraft blog - "since the flood in Boscastle in August 2004 we have kept a diary of our reconstruction. We now just want to keep people up to date with what's happening in the Museum."

The Endicott Studio for Mythic Arts - "news, reviews, and random musings on arts inspried by myth, folklore and fairy tales"

TrollMoon blog - "dedicated to preserving the Scandinavian Troll in Folklore and Art."

The Duirwaigh Gallery - "The Art of Enchantment - Faeries, Mermaids, Angels, Fantasy."

The Watermill

Was down Hayle way the other evening, visiting a friend in hospital, and a few of us went to The Watermill to eat afterwards. An 18th century corn mill and now a public house, you can see the working waterwheel up close and personal (through glass) as you go in the door.

There's a restaurant upstairs, but we sat in the 'informal' dining area downstairs, and ate from the bar menu. It's standard pub choice fare (and apparently never changes - even the specials!), but the cod in beer batter with chips and garden peas that I had was fabulous, really good quality fish, just the right amount and a very reasonable price (more so since we were treated by our dining companions - ahem!). Completed with a couple of pints of good local ale, (and despite VERY long waiting times at the bar) a jolly good time was had by all. Would like to go back again, and if it was a similar evening, to sit outside in the beer garden.

Unexpected Nectar

Unexpected bonus - doing the weekly shop in Sainsbury's, asked if I had any reward points I could take off my bill. Turns out, I had 10 - £25 worth!

I can hereby recommend registering your card with your energy supplier....!


Update: plus, random £60 backdated cost of living allowance added to payslip. Hurrah!

Raindrops On Roses & Whiskers On Kittens

Two recent photos:



Deep Secret, a hybrid tea rose recently acquired with a garden centre voucher that we got as a wedding present. The most-est glorious-est deep scent.

Molly on the prrrrowl...

First Sweetpea of the Year

Finally - weeks after everyone else I know - I have a bloom!

Jack Sparrow. Captain. Jack Sparrow.

Saw Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest last night. Deeply silly and marvelously enjoyable. (Plot largely irrelevant when you've got Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom AND Jack Davenport, anyway).

Was vaguely surprised to see Mr Burke from Taggart captaining a ship, what would his superiors say...

Oh, and Keira Knightley gets to swash some definite buckle, hurrah!

Er, work related. Absolutely.

OK, what's more embarrassing than one of your managers appearing behind you in the office when you're having a crafty read of a Dr Who forum in a quiet moment? Maybe having them appear when you've just scrolled past an unexpected posting of that picture of Katy Manning and a dalek? Yeah, that'd do it...

To The Lighthouse

Photos from a barbeque on Godrevy beach last night, and a rare example of actually getting round to the sort of idealised living that people who don't live in Cornwall imagine you spend your whole existence in, when in actual fact, being surrounded by heavenly beaches, you rarely bother venturing onto them...

Chyreen Fruit Farm

Went to Chyreen Pick-Your-Own Fruit Farm in Carnon Downs this afternoon for the first time - picked masses of lovely blackcurrants and strawberries. Very peaceful picking fruit in blazing sun in a field far from the traffic noise, with a view stretching miles to Carn Brea and Carn Marth. They also have local honey and eggs available in the shop, as well as courgettes, rhubarb, potatoes, gooseberries...

Da Vinci Code

Finally got round to seeing the Da Vinci Code last week. It was better than I was expecting, almost exactly as I pictured it. Other than the presence of Tom Hanks, obviously (wrong Wrong WRONG!!). I had to keep mentally inserting Timothy Hutton. As it were. Oh dear, I think the heat's getting to me.

Much touted in these parts, was the fact that a little girl from Falmouth was in it as the young Sophie (got the part in applaudable Cornish fashion by blatantly lying about the fact that she could speak French). Spotting her in the film was made more difficult by the fact there were about 4 "young Sophies" and I didn't know how old she was. Anyway, there's an article here.

Top Tip

Don't try and defrost frozen chillis in the microwave. Turns out, they explode.

Duloe

Duloe
Originally uploaded by CornishRambler.

On the way home from Cotehele, we went to find Duloe stone circle, on the road from Liskeard to Looe. Never been there before, and it's a beautiful little spot. The smallest (diameter) circle in Cornwall, but the stones are bigger than most in circles down here.

Cotehele - Dovecote

Cotehele - Dovecote
Originally uploaded by CornishRambler.

For some reason Blogger won't let me add pictures to the previous post - click the image to see a couple more on Flickr.

Cotehele

Went to Cotehele House yesterday - two hour drive to nearly Devon (eek). Definitely worth it, lovely old medieval manor house, with most rooms draped in floor to ceiling tapestries, and a great hall full of armour and interesting weapons of various provenance, including Chinese bows, Persian helmet with spike, swords that fit on the end of your arm, not just in your hand, Zulu spears and shields, a proper blunderbuss...fab! It's got a tower with a spiral staircase, more four posters than you can shake a stick at, there's no electric light in the house, and each room has a stack of laminated sheets showing you info on every object there - ideal, if, like me, you prefer to mooch about on your own without being bothered by guides.

Wandered through the formal(ish) part of the garden - all soft cottage-garden-y borders in pink, white and purple - then down through the increasingly steep lower part, which is wilder with bigger trees and shrubs. Passed waterlilies on a pond, a thatched summerhouse and the medieval dovecote, before coming out onto the public track down by the river, and a chapel built by the house's founder, supposedly on the spot he escaped from soldiers by making them think he'd drowned.

Along the path to Cotehele Quay, where we had lunch in The Long Room, above the Edgecumbe Arms. Not a large choice, if you're not big on flans, but I had a passable jacket potato and beans (£1 extra for the beans, ooh, this must be a National Trust cafe) and side salad (very nice homemade coleslaw, but mainly undressed shredded iceberg) and Chris has a bowl of minted pea soup, which he liked. The lady who brought it said "ooh, excuse the slop love, but with such a big portion it only takes a tiny slip". Why not buy some bigger bowls then missus? For all of the 5 paces you had to take from kitchen to our table.

From there we walked on through the woods to Cotehele Mill, where a working waterwheel grinds their own flour for sale. They have other workshops set up showing a range of tools that would have been used on the manorial estate - a blacksmith's, saddler's, carpenter's and wheelwright's. All blessedly empty, apart from the mill, whose attendant was desperately trying to strike up a conversation, while I just wanted him to go away. He wanted us to watch the film about the mill, and the last thing I want to do in these places is sit on a small plastic chair and look at a blurry video with badly punctuated subtitles. So I smiled and nodded politely until he gave up and wandered off. Sorry mate.

Back through the woods for 3/4 mile to the house for a poke about in the gift shop and an overpriced tub of ice cream(nice though) before leaving.

All in all a fantastic place to visit (lot of walking though if you want to see house, quay and mill), and somewhere I would definitely recommend.

Snapshot

On the way back from work, passed two people, identically dressed (beige trousers and orange T-shirts), taking a picture of themselves in front of a spectacular view down over the cathedral city of Truro bathed in evening sunlight. Only, they were facing the view, so the background of their picture will be the main road....

What's In A Name?

It's amazing really, how wrong people can get a four letter name. The variations I get at work are bizarre, considering that these are in emails people are replying to, from me, that have Izzy spelled out at the bottom. They must have read it to know the name to reply to, so why do I get, in the last working day, variously Issy, Issey, Issie, and best of all, just now, Liz.

It's entirely possible only one person will get this post...

Especially for Dave, a pre-inaugural-match snap of me taking position as cheerleader for Bowl Movement CC , complete with pom pom.