100. I'm not dead!

Saturday 29^th October.

I think cats can tell when people are soon to leave… Bruiser won’t leave me alone (not that I mind). Had a good cuddle with him on the floor for 25 minutes earlier (I got a very wet bum) and he got very comfy with my green corduroys & thick brown Icelandic sweater. Lots of dribble and lots of purring.
I do so hope that there’s a cat at Tregoss Barton farm… and a wood burner in my caravan. The combination of those two things would be top notch. Ohh it all seems so scarily close now! Going to go do something I’ve not done before! Well, not REALLY done!

I’m still having my nightly slumps, but I hope they’ll be sorted soon. I hope. For relief of any sort of stress I have, I got to skin & gut 4 pheasants earlier to prevent them from just getting chucked away; I saved their heart and lungs (to mash and add to red wine onion gravy) and packaged them up with them before putting them in the freezer like 4 small chickens. One for Rachel, one for Paul (since they were originally his!)? one for Phil, and… we’ll see what happens to the last one. Perhaps I’ll take two instead of one to Perranporth and keep one in the freezer for later use. Yes, maybe maybe.
Listening to Amy Macdonald (amongst other artists)… her songs have a habit of strengthening feelings, not necessarily of making sad SADDER but of making the sad a more concentrated sort of sad. Of course she also works the other way – making happy happier.

8.5 hours of paid work left.

Very almost Thursday 3^rd November.
Well, here I am again… back up on my (yes, I like to think of it as MY now) cliff top next to Perranporth YHA. Finished Golant (yay!) and everything I own which is in Cornwall is now right under my bed. And next to it. Fair load of stuff, really! But not as much as I had feared (it all still fits in, which is a plus!).

31^st October (Halloweeeen!) I managed to finally leave after packing everything up & Tetrising it in. Earlier that day I had driven over to Polperro (listening to Spice Girls on the car ferry over to Bodinnick) and picked up Lisa’s work from the gallery – although I’m pretty sure the chap there had met Lisa before, he seemed to think that I was actually Lisa! Not bad, I wouldn’t mind being able to create beautiful pictures of Cornish (and Lundy Island-ish) scenery out of rust and chemically rusted copper (makes the lovely turquoise green colour). Odd chap though, kept telling me right from the beginning to “STOP FLAPPING!”. It seemed to amuse him to tell me this… was I really flapping? I don’t think I was!

Lisa’s work can be found by looking for “Smythick Forge” on Goooogle to find her website (illustrations by yours truly).

Driving back to Falmouth was marginally worrying since there was a combination of:
-It was dark
-It was most definitely raining
-My van was rather very muchly laden
-There were HUGE PUDDLES across the roads in places

-Verging on rush hour.
But it was all fine in the end… the most challenging bit actually came when I drove up in to Lisa’s field to find that the rain had turned the entrance to a bit of a quagmire and made my wheels spin and spin and spin and me to stall… and stall… and stall. Thankfully I eventually got un-stuck and parked up in a slightly friendlier patch of grass before having to drag out Dave Wisdom to help me battle with Lisa’s water bloated front door. What a nice and friendly chap, is Dave Wisdom… shame he doesn’t eat meat, I could have supplied him with one of the skinned gutted frozen pheasants. But each to their own.

A night spent in Lisa’s field, slightly worried about her landlady Wendy coming out to tell me off (it got a little too late for me to go knock on the door and be honest), though had a good conversation with my old friend (etc) Red and watched some of “The Science of Sleep”. Phone battery ran out and so it was quite a miracle when I woke up on my own accord at just before 7am and made my escape from the field before anyone found me out…

Brief stop off at Sainsbury’s to buy the essential Lindt chilli chocolate and use their piss pots, then another brief stop off at B&Q to acquire some simple insulation (thankfully all these places are actually open at mental-o-clock) and then onwards! Onwards on the wonderful sunny morning, with loud semi-cheesy music blasting out and windows down (got to air the van out when it’s not raining). “Million Miles Away” by The Offspring was playing when I got my first sight of the sea at Perranporth, through a gap between two buildings; it was white and rolling, biggun’s too! I got that fantastic feeling where you grin and squeal and experience a perfect swell of happiness bubble up inside of you. Parking up, I watched the pure white foamy mess of the sea (not good for surfing, as there was so much froth that it looked like a foam party / snow) and studied the waves as the froth died off (sketching, of course). Phil popped up at some point, I helped with the hostel clean up (can’t get away from it! But only did the Hoovering…) before posting a couple of packages and then driving off to first Newquay harbour, then Gwithian, then the far end of Gwithian by Hawks Point to look at the surf. Hawks Point it was, we parked up.
I heard a yell.
I turned round.
Lukas Drinkwater!
What a nice surprise!

His van had broken down so he and his brother had gone for a surf and were then just hanging out in the back of the brother (Dan’s) van with Lukas’ girlfriend; she seems nice. We had a long brief natter and a good old Lukas hug, Luke seeming to already know Phil as “Mr Perranporth” and being apparently impressed by his McTavish longboard.

Wetsuits on, scamper off down the hill (not the comfiest experience ever with bare feet) and onto the sand before noticing that my glasses were still intact with my face and having to hide them safely on a rock.

The sea was good, the waves seemed big and powerful some of the time, the rest was just fun to bob up and down on so I got a decent amount of swimming in too (had to as there was a fair big current running this way then the next). Some kayakers were out in the waves too, they kindly tried mowing me down a couple of times but I managed to survive.
Sun still shining but I decided it was time to get out, so scurried back up the hill to warm up and eat a sneaky pack of white chocolate Maltesers (I wish they came in “multi race” packs, some milk and some white).

That evening I made a bolognaise and we ate it with Laura who also came round and nattered her feet off as per usual – we nodded and ahh’ed as usual.

A long day.
Today was far lazier, although not getting up terribly early I still managed to feel tired and have done so for the entire day, not done much (but done SOME stuff), supper was one of the pheasants – roasted with rosemary on the inside, butternut squash, parsnips, and potatoes. And some odd gravy invention made from the lungs and heart (not great, avoided most of it). For pudding I made an apple and rhubarb crumble, then we watched more Game of Thrones and I nodded off. And now I am in bed, and now it is twenty to one in the morn on the 3^rd November. Good night.

6^th November… well, I’m here now! At my new home for 3 months (ignoring the month away from it in the middle). A WWOOFing place called Tregoss Barton near St Keverne on The Lizard in Cornwall (bit of a mouthful of an explanation there!). Not too hard to find at all, and the drive down from Perranporth (where I watched dolphins) was beautiful as the weather has been gloriously blue all day, with the only cloud to be seen being the small cloud bank on the horizon over the sea. So yes… blinding, but beautiful sunset drive with the John Butler Trio as ear food. Am now here waiting for a chap called Anthony to appear, arrived just in time to get photos of a gypsy caravan and tree house with the bright red-orange sun behind it (it almost feels like a summers evening, but a fair bit chillier). As per usual with my current places to stay, all I can here is: …a plane somewhere in the far distance and a couple of birds. Wonderful…

So what have I been doing with myself these past few days up at Perranporth? Well, mostly getting in Phil’s way probably (helping to clean the hostel up after groups), but yesterday was really good. Woke up at 6:30am when Phil banged on my van and was in his van and leaving by 7am – of course, it’s still mostly dark at this point. Banana for breakfast. Arrive on the south coast just round the corner from St Michael’s Mount (Perranuthnoe) at roughly 7:30am, wetsuits on and in the sea by 35. The sun has just come up over a headland so whilst Phil surfs (theres a few others in the sea too, including Phil’s mate Su who had been in since 7am as she vanned in the car park overnight to allow time for a surf before work in the morning!). I drifted about in the water and had a good swim, the waves kept lifting me up high and dumping me down the other side so that my stomach flew out of my head and made me grin like a maniac, although I couldn’t body surf much as the water was a tad (rather very) “soupy” (seaweedy) in the depth that I’d need to be in… so I stayed out a little deeper. After about half an hour of floating and enjoying life and the rising sun I decided that I’d have to battle my slightly irrational fear of the seaweed and beat my way back to shore before the seaweed was in deeper water (more dangerous). It would have been fine if it was the see-through green seaweed which looks like soggy lettuce but it was the thick kelpy stuff which wraps round your ankles. Almost got dragged down in it when I tried to wallow over it, so had to give in and put my feet on the floor and tread through it. Yeeuuurgh! Dried off and sat in the sun eating breakfast of cereal & orange juice, grinning at a chap collecting driftwood, and briefly nattering to Su when she got out.

At about 10am Phil gets out and we drive to Lands End YHA via Tescos for some yummy things; there we meet manager Chris who’s first words were something along the lines of “Phil! I’m naked! Let me just put some clothes on…” and his other half Katie who is now noticeably pregnant. Sat in the sun for a while more, then took a stroll in to St Just to browse a couple of gallery shops and stretch our legs. The walk back was good, went to the top of a little hill and the weather was so clear that we could see all the way across the sea to the Isles of Scilly; get back and the four of us have a picnic lunch on the benches outside – fried Halloumi cheese, black olive bread sticks, Kalamata olives, rye bread, spicy soups, baby sweet corn, local brie, smoked cheddar, and houmus. And chilli chocolate for pudding. Having had this late lunch it is time for us to depart again, swooping back past the beach to see if Phil would surf again (too crowded by this time) and then back to Perranporth for a supper of spicy salmon cream cheese pasta with various vegetables, followed by the crumble of a few nights before with proper vanilla ice-cream (and two more episodes of Game of Thrones…).
(the evening at Perran)

A good day indeed!

(the sea at Perranporth earlier today. Isn't November lovely?)

And now, I hope I have a few good days also… lets see what is to come…
(this evening as I arrived, there is the treehouse & a rather SPOOKY looking rope)

UPDATE:
I’m now inside my WWOOFing place. I can sleep in the warm tree house or old Romany gypsy caravan if I like, but y’know… for now I might just sleep in my double bed with en-suite heated enough but not too much room with a view to the sea. Just for a little while… and a drawer full of chocolate? And a dog called Dogga? And friendly company? Well… I guess life is JUST ABOUT ok!!!

Other folks work:


Danielle Kroll

Melissa Castrillon

Anne Benjamin

Anna Aden

Amelia Bauer



Delicious food porn

Someone knit me these please? But different colours?

Beautiful beautiful beautiful jewellery... when I get a little more money...

99. Beer and wine, makes you feel... fine.

Well… that was a most excellent long weekend away… just got back… half annoyed at myself for going to bed so late so wasn’t able to fit in a surf before I came back (admittedly I still could have, but due to spring tides the water was still really low on the beach).

Friday night- get pretty pissed off when I’m told I should do writing on a big map I’m painting in YHA typeface (no way is that going to happen, it’s all serif!). So I still haven’t done that writing. I’ll do it when I can do it how I want to do it, since it is my project…

Get to Perranporth for roughly 9:20pm, it’s so very odd driving up there in the dark as you’re fully aware that there’s a very steep cliff one side of the track. There is a small group in, so I go “chillax” (sit in a pile being rather dazed) in Phil’s little staff house/room with the voluntary photographer Ally who has been skipping about the SW YHA’s these past few weeks – it was great to actually get to chat to her when not in work time, when I’m not constantly being reminded that I should be working and not talking to customers (or anyone else).

Saturday… wake up in the back of my van, the bed is a well and truly cosy bed now I’ve got a duvet on top AND underneath me, and then a hot water bottle to act as a cat… mmm. But yes, wake up, clothes on, open back doors… WHAT A VIEW. Right along the cliffs with the sea below, along in the direction of St Agnes. Yesss. A rap on the wall and Phil’s little surf bum face peers round the door – QUARRYATHON TIME!

The view out from position number 1 of my van on the cliff at Perranporth... mmmorning!

We make sure to stock our stomachs up with breakfast, black our faces up (with miners dust, of course…?!) and then the three of us drive off to near Falmouth (and very VERY near Lisa’s forge) to Bishops Forum / BF Adventure. There we met with two more YHA managers (Chris from Lands End and Paul from Penzance), blacked them up too, and marched to the start line pasties in hand (team name: YHA Dump Hole Demons, Cornish miners, of course!).
The course was fun, we had a go on a zip wire, canoes, archery… and a lot of running. Hauling Henry Hoover up and down two flights of YHA Golant stairs does NOT prepare you for the running I did, running up hills is tricky.
The weather was nice enough to hold out for the majority of the day, and after we finished running about like loons we drove off to the Helford to visit Phil’s friend Laura. Laura and doggalump Patch in tow, we go off for a walk along the river making a stop at the Ferryboat Inn for a drink and some chips (Phil and I getting a fair few strange looks due to our boiler suit garb & blackened skin). Rattler cider was drank, followed by a further walk to Trebah gardens where we (once again, for me) climbed up over the wall and onto the beach. More sea swimming was had (myself using the excuse of getting wet to scrub the black paint off of my face and arms) and I stayed in a good while longer than the others… apparently it was really rather cold? It seems I’m becoming immune!

Onwards walking, and we finish the circle and get back to Phil’s van where we say our goodbyes to Laura and Patch and returned to BF Adventure to find out where we came in the competition (4^th out of 16 or 17, I reckon it was 17. Not bad!). Driving back in a dazed silence, it had been a long day. Chicken korma for supper.

The next few days we most relaxing, Sunday was certainly the day of rest – we all lazed about the hostel for hours reading our books, only myself leaving to go down the hill/cliff in to town to pick up some fish fingers for Ally (her favourite food! I’m still not terribly sure what mine is… Norwegian “stick meat” (sheep ribs prepared and cooked in a certain way) is the only one which has ever made me pretty much cry with happiness, but then I do enjoy most other foods under the sun, too…).

The two days after this I went with Phil to Newquay to go surfing down by the harbour (nice clean waves). Since I’ve never ever actually SURFED (only windsurfed and body boarded) I decided not to take any board at all, just my black neoprene clad self, and leap up, down, and around through waves… it’s great feeling that freedom and not having to have anything attached to your arm or leg; and I caught some great waves in by putting my arms out in front of me and head down (face screwed up in the most attractive way ever) and going whoosh. I’d like to get more in to body surfing, maybe even get some flippers (sorry webbed feet, you DO help but you don’t quite get up to speed!).

Wednesday was a sad day, I said my goodbyes to Ally who was travelling up coast to Tintagel & Boscastle then slowly onwards back to her Brighton home, bye to Phil (though no doubt to see him again within the next week or so), and also to James (previously known as Mr Purple Pants, due to his purple trousers which I have been told had a sad death of ripping at the crotch and revealing man-hood). Back home to Golant I drove, although the drive itself was most pleasant indeed, and arrived back for my 2pm shift to find that I was to clean pretty much the entire hostel (94 beds… 12 toilets… 12 showers… 3 floors of hoovering…) by myself, and the group who had left that morning were REALLY DISGUSTING and even smeared blood on the walls of their dorm rooms. Bit of an extreme change, from wonderfully chilled out to madly stressed (poor fake Henry Hoover for the brunt of it).

Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday passed easily enough – hardly any guests in the hostel which lead to us doing oh so fun and exciting things such as deep cleaning (and finding out that you can get really good internet connection in one of the rooms)… funny how in mid-season when it’s really busy you wish to have nothing to do with any guests, but when it comes to the time of no guests you just wish for something to do which isn’t scrubbing black marks off of walls.

It is now Tuesday 18^th October and I’m sitting in my van at the forge where Dan and Lisa are doing blacksmith stuff.

Last night Mr Arnold cooked me a yummy rabbit stew, and this morning I sat on his balcony in sunshine eating toasted potato cakes (with plenty of salted butter!) and some salt beef, over looking Falmouth Harbour.

Once here at the forge I went clambering and exploring over rocks round the quarry pit pool, sunned myself on a large lump of granite, and found a secret path which I had never found before. Lunch was a brown bread sandwich with mature cheddar and some of Arnold’s chilli and garlic jam, followed by some apple & elderflower juice and yoghurt coated ginger. Nom nom nom.
Dan has just gone off to piss in a hedge.
Yup.

Sometimes it can be utterly wonderful doing nothing… I find that since I’m a “working person” (working 5 days a week for the YHA) I try to make sure that my 2 days off a week are filled with things – got to draw, got to explore, got to tidy my room… but I’d always forgotten to do the nothings. Sit around reading a book – haven’t read so much in ages except for last week at Perranporth, perching on a lump of granite in the sun just contemplating life… these times of effortless nothingness are much needed.

So that’s that for now, no doubt there will be more added to this entry before I post it up online (since I doubt I’ll have internet for a while). I can hear Dan bashing away at metal, Lisa listening to Fleet Foxes, the forge fire fan blowing, and someone with a chainsaw up on the hill. I can see gorse bushes with yellow flowers, 2 different colours of ivy growing up the sides of the forge, and sunshine coming in through my van window. I can smell… cow poo.

Ahh, Wednesday 19^th October, and guess what… I’m in Perranporth again! After shanty practise in Dave Wisdom’s shed last night I drove over here in time to go for a pint (and a half) at the cool and hip young persons bar/pub with Purple Pants James (because we are DEFINITELY cool and hip?). It felt like a very much needed pint and a half.
The night was pretty stormy – wind and rain battering my little van on the cliff, but waking up in the morning to cloud scattered blue sky and the sun catching on the top of waves. Phil waving very enthusiastically through a window, I went inside and had my breakfast and morning “bright mood” tea (happy tea). I swear I never used to drink this much tea, not even up until last week – I entirely blame Phil & Ally for the constant consumption of hot beverages. Had a morning natter whilst James tidied the hostel, then when he left a chap called Nik appeared – he used to work here. Happy tea number 2 was had (along with some chilli chocolate, nom nom nom) before a brief lunch and Nik & I drove off to Newquay to go leap in the sea.

The sea looked pretty nice, sadly it was far from as nice as it was last week as the cold wind made me cold if I were to be above water, and the frequent little splashy waves prevented me from being able to stay down in the water for long. Thankfully I caught a good few waves in on my front (still body surfing!) and stayed in for an hour and a half.

I’ve been nattering to Phil a little more about body surfing, I may look in to getting something like a hand board (a very small wooden board for holding on your hands as it keeps you skimming the waves better) and also some fins (to some they’d be called flippers, but they aren’t quite flippers as they’re more rubbery and smaller…). It’d help when the currents and such are stronger, and for when I want to go faster and better. Yes indeed. We shall see…
Good news is that I may be able to get a job here at PERRANPORTH next season if Coverack doesn’t want me, or if I just generally would prefer to be here in Perranporth (I would, even if it means far less hours… so long as I get enough hours to keep my stomach and van in order then I’m happy! Yay!).
But yes, we shall see. And Linda might not definitely be leaving anyway. Hum hum. We’ll see how the cookie crumbles…

Monday 24^th October, 11:28pm. Lying in bed in my van on the cliff at Perranporth, have been watching “The Hangover” whilst eating quadruple chocolate cookies… it is well and truly PISSING it down outside, so much so that I can’t actually hear the moooovie, so I’m writing this instead. My side doors are well and truly leaking… thankfully the bed is staying dry… that’s how much it is raining, I feel that I’m going to be a busy person for a few days, weather proofing this thing (that includes insulating it, as currently the roof is just the one sheet of metal which means that:
a) when it rains it’s MADLY LOUD.
b) when I sleep in here condensation forms on the ceiling, this then drips on me in the morning and makes me imagine that I’m outside and it’s raining).

So what on earth have I been doing for the past few days?!
Last time I wrote it was Wednesday and I’d jumped in the sea at Newquay with Nik and got very cold. That night I drank cider and such and watched stars and a boat out at sea, had the hostel all to myself as there were no guests and Phil had gone to some staff meeting… quite strange, really.

Thursday I felt a little worse for wear and so upon finally emerging from my van, I did mostly nothing until the evening when I drove back to Fal for another shanty practise – this one was far better! We were joined also by “Crazy Dave” Hart and a chap called Phil (another Phil) and so we sounded far better; not wanting a repeat of Tuesday nights one and a half pint requiring worries I drove back up to Perran again, always a friendly place.

Friday… what did happen Friday? Ah! Yes, walked along the cliff path to St Agnes with Nik; I’ve never actually bothered walking the entire way before, despite the fact that it’s only 4 miles… it’s a really rather nice walk (except for the hill at the end), and when we got there we tipped back a pint and a half at a place called Driftwood Spars (pub). Although this pint and a half made the 4 mile walk back far easier (though maybe not quicker) it did mean that we forgot that we could have just walked AROUND the first big hill on the beach, rather than climb up it then down it then up another… but oh well. 8 mile walk in the end, it’s good to do things, even if they’re just small things (it IS my holiday! I’m allowed to be a slob!).

Half way between Perranporth & St Agnes... colourful cliffs due to iron, tin, copper, and sulpher.

Showed Phil “Game of Thrones” in the eve, may have got another 2 people hooked (come on next series! PLEASE!).

Saturday? Again, not much. In fact, pretty much nothing! Felt rather in “100% hibernation mode” so just interwebbed it up a little and felt pretty crap.

Sunday? Gig at 3:25-45, then one in the evening also. How were they? I’m going to be completely honest and say that I think they were crap… our singing was good enough, but I felt that our band wasn’t our band – line up:
Dan O’Shea, Lisa Harrison, Martin Coote, Dave Hart, Dave Wisdom, the Phil chap, and myself.
Wisdom & Phil were having their first time with the band, they can both sing perfectly enough but perhaps didn’t know the lyrics 100% (this is a little off-putting when I’m sharing a mic with the two of them!). But yes, it didn’t seem like it should. Maybe this was because I’m judging everything on the fun we had at Aberfest back in April in Brittany? Maybe. And maybe it also wasn’t helped by the fact that I’ve been feeling pretty emotionally shoddy, but still.

And I missed my Norweg’s. Singing definitely isn’t the same without them.

After it all the Dave’s played a game of Pool (or was it Snooker? Same thing, different coloured balls) before we went up to the bar to drink some beverages and natter and what not (rum & Shrubs! Mmmm). Lots of Celtic people around in their national Celtic outfits, it was pleasant enough. It’s pretty funny how those who try the hardest to be Cornish and proper are generally the ones who are NOT Cornish, from Berkshire or something but fancied going the whole hog.

Walked back up the hill in the pissing rain (it hasn’t stopped since, it’s about 24 hours now… flood warnings in parts of Cornwall, even!).

Monday. That’s today. Yet another late wake up, a day filled with helping Phil clean and tidy the hostel after the group left, then nattering to him and… oh, her name still fails me… but she’s a nice girl woman. Surfs a lot.
With all this talk of surfing I really would like to try my hand (or foot, or other surf related part of body) at it… though it seems like it gets pricey (like any hobby I guess!).

Hum hum.

Anyway, I should probably now take a piddle out the side of my van (delightful) and go to sleep as I’ve asked Phil if he’ll kindly hammer on my van in the morning when he gets up.

But first, I shall listen to Dan’s first CD, with it’s 5 tracks. “Songs I Sing”. Good luck to Mr O’Shea on his travels round Europe! I wish he’d take a camera so I could see what he gets up to… or at least lives to tell me the tales.
Which he had better do, as he tells good stories.

G’night for now.

Hello again.

Friday 28^th October, yesturday my schwester Elk turned a whole 20! No longer a teenager. Quite strange, really.

Am counting down the days till there is no more Golant, I’ll miss aspects of it though.

The last few days have been… hmm, well the Perranporth ones were nice (got back to Golant Wednesday early afternoon ready for 2pm shift, nice sunny drive); sadly since getting back here my days have been rather miserable feeling – especially in the deep dark evenings – and I’m just hoping and would be praying if I was religious for some happier emotions.
Despite the fact that I’ve got Sam and Rachel to talk to at work (and Rachel at home, too… Duncan has left now) I’ve a horrible feeling of loneliness which can’t be shaken. It’s quite odd… you’re at uni for a few years with the same friends, they’re always there, you get really close… and then uni ends and everyone disburses. Of course there are still a few folks down here – there’s Lisa, Phil, sometimes Carl for a brief pint or hello, Rachel (good when we’re not in work), and there was Mr Arnold… I hope there still will be. But there’s no one quite like my Norwegian’s. With most folks I’ve just been feeling generally in the way, probably just me being silly though. Maybe it’s just the time of years fault as to why I’m feeling so awful and lonesome!

It’ll be fantabulous to get to Reigate in December and see all my old lot (in their non-old ages), and then to Norway for the Norweg’s.
I suppose this is the life I’ll have to get used to, being a wandering South Wester! Lack of permanence.

In the split between shifts today, Sam Rachel & I drove to St Austell so I could get a few things printed (I WILL miss those printers…), and for me to pick up some stuff for Hector (which Sam kindly later helped me with, phew! Hector will now remain alive again for a MUCH longer time as he’s got a big drink of oil. Om nom nom?!). Rachel & I cooked a late afternoon lunch for us all, a pork roast dinner with apple & plum sauce & all!

Tomorrow I will dedicate to getting more of my room sorted out ready to move, and get a few things done. Hurrah…

Over and out, and hopefully next time I’ll be a fair bit chirpier.

Things I’ve been listening to:
-Dan O’Shea’s new (and first) CD “Songs I Sing”
-John Butler Trio
-Bob Marley

98. All the yummy food I ate

I drew me a pheasant! Actually I drew it for mon grandmere... her geburtstag.

Ahh another week… admittedly in whole it went rather speedily, but day by day it dragged by sooo slooow… probably wasn’t helped by the fact that on one day I did too many sit ups from an odd angle, and too many hula-hoopings, and then got dead tired and run down so felt utterly caput (on a couple of days Sam had to keep prodding me to make sure I was alive). Thankfully there were a few days of the most superb weather! Indian summer, the radio said; so naturally we (myself, Duncan, Rachel, and Rachel’s Paul) drove off to Polridmouth beach and leapt in the sea. We floated about in the oddly shallow and muddy depths, giggling and staring up at the blue sky…

Interruption – a yellow ochre coloured moth has just landed next to me on the bed, the nosy parker…

…before chowing down on a lunch of Eden Project bread (really yummy) which had been left behind by someone, with salted butter, Marmite, and honey (not mixed together). That night we all sat in the living room eating a rather marvellous lasagne which was made from loads of random leftovers so every mouthful tasted different to the last; we drank drinks and played Uno. Mr Arnold appeared later that eve and more was drunk, more Uno was played, and sure enough I got a hangover the next day. This seems to be happening a fair load recently (more than usual, anyway). End of season “madness”, I guess… we’re all getting twitchy. The middle of the day was filled mostly with laying outside on the grass in the rather hot sunshine and having Dan & Kelsie comment on how I looked dead (I DID stay laying there for a fair long time in the end).

Sunday evening I drove with Mr Arnold back to Fal and on the Monday we had a relatively lazy day, brief trip in to Trago Mills (where I met Carl) to buy MANLY! things for Hector, then on to a green little tucked away valley near Lanner (the name of which fails me). I had been in a pretty grumpy mood all morning, but the woods certainly calmed me down, especially with the busy stream rushing down the centre of it.

That eve we ate a scrummy yummy beef roast cooked by Arnold (‘cept the Yorkshire puds, which I created), accompanied by red wine and followed up by lemon sorbet with frozen raspberries in bed with an eyeful of Downton Abbey and one hell of a lot of arse gas. Sometimes it’s good to have lazy days when not so much is done.

Today (this was written Tuesday eve) was a little less lazy, waking up at a reasonable time (8:30am) and driving off to Lisa’s field where I ate my breakfast in her little gypsy caravan and grinned at Dan when he woke up as he always looks like a boiled owl. We lazed and nattered for a while, Dave Wisdom emerged from his caravan across the field and came in for coffee (fresh & proper mint tea for me) and then at around 11 the three of us climbed in to Hector and drove off (the scenic way) to the Ferryboat Inn in North Helford.

The sun came out just in time for lunch, so we sat outside overlooking the river and drank our drinks (just a half of Rattler for me!) and got pestered by a drunken wasp. Lisa & I shared a big pot of garlic & white wine mussels, some bread, some proper hand cut (skins still on) chips, and a bowl of pan fried whole large prawns. This was followed up by a walk along the footpath, collecting sloe’s from the hedges for sloe gin, and breaking in over the wall to Trebah garden beach where upon Lisa & I leapt in to the clear, calm sea and swam in our underwear; naturally I stayed in longer than Lisa (a fair long while indeed, infact!) and floated and floated and floated. And swam. And helped Dan’s oyster shell boat with a ballast of flat stones to get out to sea… but then it was dragged under by a Kraken hidden in the depths of the seaweed jungle under a little rocky area. I went to dive for it, but seaweed Kraken’s really don’t appeal.

Getting back to Lisa’s caravan we sat on the sofa and warmed ourselves by the log burner (Dan dried & toasted my socks) before I drove back “home” to Golant.

All in all, a nice relaxed weekend.

This coming week is supposed to be a quiet one which will be nice, and on one of the days I may be joining the YHA team (myself, Penzance Paul, Lands End Chris, and Perranporth Phil) in a Quarryathon! It sounds exciting, if I do partake then I hope the weather remains good enough (though it seems the Indian Summer is over, and we’re returning to normal October weather).

I hope the gallery in Brighton get in contact with me again, they sent me an e-mail saying they’d like to feature some of my work there if I was interested – naturally I was and they seem like a really good place. BRIGHTON!

I must remember to continue eating food from out of my cupboards, I have rather a large amount to eat before I go, and to do things like make / finish a few peoples crocheted arm warmers and send some letters and cards and play with clay. Yes yes yes.

I hope I get everything done.

There you go! SLIGHTLY less lengthy update than per usual in recent times!

And here is a lovely piece by Anna Emma Laitinen...

97. I'll live near Porthleven

I'll start things off differently... here's some work I've done!

I've sent 3 new originals to the Relegacy Gallery in Barbican, Plymouth (since the Love Bunny was so popular). Indian ink, watercolour, and gouache... plus a lot of GIRLINESS.

Some experimental doodling, to go with this piece of writing which I did when half awake:

"A fair distance away from that which we call “civilisation” was a cave – perhaps more like the burrow of a furred creature than a cave, as it was a collection of tunnels which to an outsider would be most baffling; to she, however, it was a safe quiet place to live until any great disruption came along.
She was one of many years but apparently not much age, she had become at one with the earth and so was at par with its rhythms and ways; she would return to ground when the days became too dark and chill then restore herself to above when the snowdrops weaned their way upwards over the icy crunch… and so she would be renewed, refreshed, ready to restart the year like a new green shoot.
Life went on, as it had done for many a moon.
Of course, this had not always been the way – she had once been like you or I, a soul brought up amongst others whether it be in the terrifying automated rattle of a bustling city, or to the slow lull of village life; she had been born a babe, grown a girl, and formed a woman."

I LIKE IT. Though the picture isn't quite right, it seems.
A weird freaky owl bird, who would like to propose to you with some leaves.

Mmm… well, that was a nice Monday! After a lazy morning we passed by the Tywardreath butchers to grab a pasty and an egg & bacon pie before driving down to catch the car ferry over the river to Bodinnick; Hector had never been on a car ferry before! And he’s not being driven on to many more if they all cost £3.50 for a 2 minute/SECOND journey…! From Bodinnick we drove to Lansallos where I found some sheep under the trees next to the car park – the sort of sheep which look a little like angry dogs in the face department. After a look about the old gravestones in the churchyard and a snoop about the church (it’s a really rather nice one, the pews are really old and carved and they’ve recycled some headstones and are using them as the floor), we met a bat in the church porch and then a big 4 inch long bright green caterpillar with purple flashes on it’s back and a big black spike on it’s bum… naturally we disturbed it’s peaceful existence by picking it up on a stick to get a better look. Onwards! Down to the beach! But not before stopping in the woods to wee behind a tree, and then in a field overlooking the sea to eat our lunch (shock horror, not French bread and salted butter) and then FAINT! I had some odd sort of hiccup which was really rather painful and then lead on to me feeling dizzy from the pain, leaning sideways to stay vaguely upright, and blacking out! It’s never happened before, ever… it was pretty nasty really. Didn’t feel right for a short time afterwards. But I’m still alive now, so it’s all good because I really rather like life!

Anyway, away from talk of almost dying. Down on the beach the swell was rather mighty due to the significant breeze, and the sun couldn’t decide whether it was out or not. Sitting on a flat rock part way up the cliff was nice, and then wandering along the beach avoiding being washed away, picking up tiny green bits of sea glass. Sit on the cliff again (it’s my weekend, I’m allowed to sit down and be lazy!) before climbing the cliff hill where at the top we found an apple tree which had the most deliciously sweet apples – naturally the tree was climbed and some of the better apples were picked and put ironically into a plastic Tesco’s carrier bag. On we walked, through the fields and down a lane; lanes always make me want to sing, quite often in a ridiculous voice. Leaving the lane we went into the fields again where the footpath lead past a small rock post in the middle; on approach we saw a big white thing next to it which Will exclaimed to be a total whopper (we’re talking mushrooms, here – if you ever walk with the chap you will find the majority of conversation leads to “Oh! Another apple tree!” or “Ahh! Is it a field mushroom?”). Getting closer he reckoned that it was not actually a whopper of a mushroom, but actually just a white rock… on tapping this rock with his toe, he found that it was actually a giant puffball. Conversation then lead on to whether puffballs were edible or not, which we thought not but after managing not to throw it and see if it’d explode (it wouldn’t, it wasn’t old and saggy enough) we brought it along for the rest of the walk back up to the church by Lansallos. This whopper was roughly the side of someone’s brain and even had the brain stem area, and became Rock Bottom Owl’s dashboard buddy for the drive home. Getting home we did research in a couple of books (“Food For Free” pocket book, and hardback covered “A Greener Life”) and found that these giant puffballs were indeed edible in the pure white skinned state such as we had found it in; this caused great excitement and so I then sliced the beast into centimetre thick slices before removing unsavoury yellow areas (not many) and covering with whisked egg and bread crumbs then frying them in sausage fat and butter. Supper was green beans from the garden, the afore mentioned bread crumbed puffball slices, some of Will’s homemade apple chutney (yum!) and 3 rather tasty mustard and honey pork sausages… all in all, it was a blimmin’ great meal and I can’t wait for the next time I find a puffball in such good condition (I read that they can grow to about 4 foot wide in diameter, BLIMEY).

(The puffball & Mr Arnold).
I should now be well and truly asleep as I’m up at 6am to pick the Norwegian’s up from the station at 6:30ish, eeek! VERY VERY EXCITED! Good night for now.
Update: it is now 12:10 (midday). THE NORWEGIAN’S ARE HERE. They are resting their little Norwegian heads on my beds.

Wow… so today is now Wednesday 21^st September… where is the time going! I’ll write about the Norwegian’s stay after I have written how to make what I am currently eating, coz it is REALLY REALLY GOOD!!!

How to make Bex’s really good yummy stew which she is eating right this second:

Feeds an average of 4, depending on how hungry you are

Ingredients
A little oil (of the edible sort, any kind will do – I used extra virgin olive oil as that’s all I had)
2 onions (I used 1 red, 1 white – its what I had!)
Pork mince (big pack, the sort which might feed 4 people in a spag bog)
8 slices sliced up bacon (or there about, I used un-smoked but smoked could work too)

2 apples (any size, variety, the bigger the better I say)

1 tin sliced pineapple in juice

1 carrot (this should be roughly gratered)

1 tin chickpeas (drained)

Enough veggie stock (bouillon) to taste, 1 or 2 tbsp perhaps (with water, to mush)

1 tbsp turmeric powder (not too much, just enough to colour & slightly taste)

1 tbsp cumin (again, shouldn’t be overbearing taste wise)

1 tbsp dark or light brown sugar

A handful of chunkily chopped green beans (broad beans?)

50-100g blended / mushed / generally pummelled raisins

2 tbsp carob powder

3 tbsp ground nuts (brazils / cashews / almonds…)

1. Heat the oil in a relatively big metal pan, add roughly chopped onion and when it has started to soften add the pork mince.

2. Once mince had almost fully cooked (not many pink bits left to see) add in chunks of apple (whatever size you like) along with the tin of pineapple and all of it’s juice.

3. Throw in the rest of the ingredients along with enough water to let it all go a bit mushy. KEEP AN EYE ON THE BACON! Watch the bacon until you can see it is fully cooked, we don’t want any ill people on our hands (but don’t pre-cook it, we don’t want to be losing any of the juices!!).

4. The last 3 ingredients are to add a final bit of sweetness – I added them in the form of an experiment as I had some previously made “raw food cookies”. If you’d like to make the batch of raw food cookies and then eat some, add some to this stew mixture the recipe is:

¾ cup of nuts (I used mostly cashews and brazils)
¼ cup raw carob powder (looks a little like cocoa, find in “hippy” food shops)
1 cup raisins

Blend the above ingredients together, using one of those scary whooshing chopping blendy machines, add water until it forms together to make a sort of dough rather than a crumble. Make in to balls about the size of ping pong balls (although sometimes you’ll only want to eat an amount half the size of a ping pong ball, depending on how raisin friendly you are). They’re also quite nice when rolled in chopped / powdered almonds.

5. Leave the mush to contemplate life for a while, eat whenever you like. I didn’t eat any form of carbohydrate with my stew mush as I decided that amongst all those ingredients there was probably something carby anyway, and I was pretty full in the end anyway.

Enjoy!

Right… now TODAY is Monday 26^th September! I have 17 or 18 more working days at Golant YHA… holy shitcakes.

Anyway, I shall now update fully with my past two or three? Weeks happenings…
So the Norwegian’s got here, and after a morning (and early afternoon) of sleeping, snoozing, and being lazy around St Austell we decided to go off in the early evening to Fowey where we went for the second time to The Boathouse.
The Boathouse, as I may have mentioned before, is an Italian restaurant almost right on the estuary. Since the Norwegian’s decided it was too cold to sit outside (though it’s much colder in Norway) we sat inside, and ordered pizza’s and pasta; this time round I chose a seafood pizza which was topped with king prawns, squid, mussels, lemon, and possibly something else but I’m not too sure. After copious amounts of food we decided to nurse our food babies and watch the water go by – a friendly lady approached us and mentioned that we made a most excellent picture, and so I got her to take a photo (it IS nice).

Wednesday! Off to Boscastle I drive, again. Arrived roughly lunchtime to we wandered in to The Cobweb Inn for some face stuffing. The Cobweb is an age old place although the food is not terribly amazing – mostly just average pub grub (I had sweet chilli pork balls)… thankfully the aesthetics of the place make up for it’s food (and the pint of Stowfords Press helped too – I didn’t have to drive for another 4 hours!). The ceiling is covered with hanging bottles, tankards, mugs, and other container related items along with a thick layer of dust – if the YHA health and safety inspector chap (CMI) ever visited there, he might have a few hundred children. Admittedly the tables and actual “public” areas were all clean, it was just the characterful dusty ceiling. On the mention of characters, there was one sitting at the bar – long grey hair tied back in a ponytail, beard, baseball cap, black and white sports style jacket with world flags on it, flowery surf style shorts, and luminous pink knee high socks with neon green blue and yellow spots. And trainers. I love these sorts of people, they show me that not all people over a certain age are destined to wear purely only Marks & Spencers items.

Staggering on once again with food babies and a tad giggly due to the alcohol intake we wandered along the tourist avoiding cobbled street and a brief look in to the little gallery; onwards again I took them along the harbour wall which said “not a footpath, slippery when wet” which I had found with Mr Arnold. The tide was well and truly out this time but you could hear an impressive booming sound when the waves outside the harbour went in to the cliff walls. I went off, as I do, and lone scrambled up the cliff on to a footpath which took me on to the large lump of rock which blocks and protects Boscastle village from the outside sea, for some reason or another I hadn’t gone up there last time, but I’m glad I did. From the top it felt like I had an aerial view of the whole place and the Norwegian’s were just little specks sitting down on the jetty below; on the other side the sun shone on the sea, turning it’s colour a vivid turquoise.
(View from the top of the Boscastle bit).
I scampered down the hill again to try persuade the other two to come see, but failed and so after a brief leap in to the National Trust toilets (I forgot pints did that) we went to the Museum of Witchcraft (again!); this time I was armed with sketchbook & pencil.

Things I drew / wrote down:
-A chap called John William Waterhouse does nice paintings of witches and the like.

-A witch in some part of Britain used to display a clay hand in her window; if it was turned to face outwards with the red heart showing in it’s palm then she was open for business, if the heart was not on show then she was not open.
-Little wooden / stone carved charms of a ladies arm and hand with her thumb sandwiched between her fore and middle finger; protection from the evil eye and a powerful sign of feminism.

-The hand of Fatima (another charm) also protects from the evil eye.

-If your wife is out with “Mr Wonderful” and you’re a tad jealous and aren’t sure what her intentions are, then prick a needle in to the toe of one of her shoes; this will prick her conscious and make sure she doesn’t do anything “bad”. Apparently.

-Black Doris; can’t quite remember what she had to do, but she owned a red ladies shoe in which she had encased a dead (frozen naturally) sparrow in bee’s wax.

-Harm (and care) can be done with the use of “poppets”. These are human shaped dolls / similar which are personal to that person in some way (they may look like them, and the spell accuracy can be improved by knitting their hair in to the poppet or something similar) (pubes seem popular it seems!). Basically, voodoo dolls.

-It was traditionally an Easter HARE, not rabbit.

-Witches often change in to the form of a hare, so legend has it (on this note – I do like to believe some aspects of all this witchcraft stuff but I don’t quite believe that a being can change shape and turn in to a hare or any other creature for that matter).

-The staffs / sticks that witches often carry are called “stangs”. They must have V ends (not just straight). If nothing else, the V place is a good thumb rest.

-Dew is very good for healing, back in the day many folk could be seen collecting it carefully in the mornings. This could be done by placing a clean piece of fabric over a patch of grass and then squeezing the moisture out of it (that’d be the dew, unless it had rained – then it’d be rain).

-“No pisky could hurt a man if his coat was inside out”. Good to know.

-There is witchcraft used in Christianity; votive body parts made out of wax are left in front of saints and shrines and such, like if you have a broken arm perhaps you’d leave a wax arm there.

-I learnt how to properly draw labyrinths, they can put you in to a trance and are often found in south west England (I remember finding one on the Isles of Scilly).

-Rowan berry charms should be on a red thread and made in a circle, then worn or hung above the door.

-To curse someone, one way is to get a black lemon (gone off?) and to tie it up with black thread and stick pins in to it. This should be hidden in the curse victims home.

-If you tie a hag stone (stone with a natural hole in it) to your keys then you will never lose them and your home will remain safe when locked.

-Serpents / dragons drawn / made in a circle are a sign of eternity and the cyclic nature of existence.

-Black or dark mirrors help to see and / or contact spirits. This is called scrying.

-People originally put horse brasses on their horses to deflect bad luck and evil spirits. Some used to have pentacles and such like on them although these days they are mostly less spiritual images it seems.

-Mounted horse tails (not attached to the horse, but detached from a hopefully dead horse) bring long life, strength, and health to horses.

-Old Nick is a funny half-human half-goat creature…

-I took a 2p tarot card reading thing (I doubt it’s accurate!) and I got the card “temperance” (Naín). Although their reading said something different with that card, my cards say “The spirit of the mother of Sichen gave him comfort and help during his trip: care”.

-I’d like to do some research in to a character called Cernunnos… I remember Imy painting him on to the side of Alasdair’s van up in Scotland.

-Some charms: an anchor = hope, a cross = faith, a heart = charity. Rabbit’s feet and cats (especially black ones) are also good.

-When wearing coral, one cannot be cursed or “overlooked”.

-If you wear a bag of moles feet round your neck you will be cured from toothache & cramp.

Wasn’t that interesting? Heh. To ME it was! Anyhoo, on from there we did as I did before and went via the lovely local ice-cream place (lavender & honey… as before) and then tootled off home to Golant where I found my parents who had travelled down from Reigate for my graduation.
That night we all (myself, the Norwegians & parents) went off to Fowey to eat out again! It was most odd being driven about, for one I wasn’t the one driving, for two I was on the passenger side, and for three I was in the back. WEIRD. So I sat up like a Meer cat the entire journey trying to see where we were going. We ate at a place two doors down from The Boathouse, Food For Thought. From the outside it seems like a fairly normal place, it’s nothing showy, looks very harbour side… but I’d heard good reviews, and since the (one and only) vegetarian option was halloumi cheese rather than something crap like a veggie burger or the normal – feta cheese parcels, it must be good.
IT WAS.
We walked in and instantly felt a little under dressed as I had underestimated the dress code (well, I say code… there wasn’t really one but everyone else was more dressed up) and then were seated where we at once had napkins placed OVER our laps, not just left for us to do with what we pleased.

Menus were given out – my dad last, ladies go first! And a wine list was given to us… since I drink most wines if they don’t taste of acid I let the Norwegians choose. The wine was brought to us and offered to my dad, since he was paying (how they knew that who knows). He doesn’t drink really so he said no and they poured a little in to my glass. Just a little. A while after, after they had been hovering over me Silje decided to remind me that I was meant to be TRYING the wine before anyone else could have some! I can safely say that has NEVER happened to me before. So I tried it and pretty much said it was fine before it touched my lips, it’s wine! It’ll be fine! Especially if it’s of THAT price!! Perhaps when I get older I’ll get a proper taste for things.

My meal was most delicious, and if it had been half the size and half the price it would have been PERFECT as I (sadly) was unable to finish my main course.
We were given warm rolls and butter as the pre-starter bits, and then for starters I had raw, yes, RAW scallops with a very artistic pile of salad on top and some mango goo and some sweet chilli sauce (spread artistically around the plate). I was a little concerned by the fact that the scallops were raw, I’ve only ever had them cooked but I supposed that since they were raw it’d mean that they were well and truly FRESH. They tasted delicious. Not as good as the cooked ones in The Wheelhouse in Falmouth but still really rather tasty, and the texture was surprisingly pleasant! For mains we all shared a bowl of petite pois and some buttery green beans, and I chose a beef steak -

27^th September, 1:02am HOLY SHIT I JUST SAW A RATHER LARGE BAT FLY INTO MY ROOM, never seem them come IN before, just go out… its funny to think that they can’t see us, just hear us… a blind thing flying about!! Interlude over…

Which came with an artful pile of the chunkiest chips on earth (about 6 of them) a big mushroom, and a big half tomato. I tried and I tried to finish my meal, and even swapped chunks of meat with Silje (she had a huge bit of pork with crackling all along the back… mmm!) but no… I physically couldn’t fit any more in my belly even though the puddings looked REALLY yummy.

I hope to go back there some day. Maybe at the end of Golant. Back home we then went, and I went to bed in my van again (where I slept as the Norweg’s had my room).

Next day. Graduation! As per usual, I looked like a scruff bag compared to everyone else, but that is fine. Drove down to Falmouth with the parents in convoy behind and walked in to town for a pasty on the quay, and a couple of photos (upon where my mother pinched my bum. She is not meant to do this).
(Rarr, Squidget & I looking special on the quay).
To Princess Pavilions we went where we were all dressed up in our silly hats and mad gowns, fun was had with these and photos were taken of us in funny poses (not a single hat throwing photo!). Students led into the hall and ceremony done – I got to sit next to Mr Will Bovill which was nice as he’s a good chap and I’ve never really spoken to him much due to my habit of being an unsociable sod. I reckon we could natter for a fair while. I felt like I was on stage shaking hands and the like for literally a second, it was funny to think that on that same stage I’ve watched good bands play and walked on at a Spiritual and Mystic fayre. The resulting photo of me being an ill at ease person in front of large amounts of other people is that my official hand-shaking photo actually looks like I’m about to Dosie Doe with the woman (who was she?). The motherly one, finding this rather amusing, decided to buy the photo. Forcing myself to be sociable rather than run off to my van and drive to the forge to see Lisa I stood about sort of talking to fellow classmates before a small group of us went to the beach to eat ice-cream (orange & mascarpone Roskillys) and then go back in to town to The Front to drink (Pepsi for me… hmpf!) and eat Balti Curries curry. Om nom nom.

Official graduation stuff over, the Friday I (grumpily) drove the Norweg’s to their storage unit near Perranporth, and then (less grumpily) drove all the way to Perranporth where I parked up on the cliff by the hostel and showed the Norweg’s the mining caves, had a brief natter to Phil, and ran off down the cliff to the beach where we made a pact to all jump into the sea (the weather was most pleasant).
I’m so glad I jumped in the sea, even if it was in my underwear. So good rolling about in the waves, it makes you feel more alive; it amused me to see everyone else garbed in tight black neoprene. Drove back to Golant just in time to get back on shift for the evening, all nice and salt water encrusted.

The Norweg’s left on Sunday, and then my next Monday Tuesday were just lazy and monging about in Falmouth for a slight change in scenery. It is nice having lazy weekends, though I did need to pick up a couple of things such as proper squishy ear plugs for the next time I’m sleeping in my van and it starts raining… it’s thunderous.

The past week has been mostly uneventful except for a meeting with a lovely lass from a hostel in the North York’s for which name I can’t remember. She being staff, I invited her to the staff house for the evening for a drink or two… between herself, Duncan & I we finished off a bottle of red wine, one of rose, a fair chunk of ginger wine, a little amount of Duncan’s homemade mead, and some 8.3% cider… I can safely say that the next day I was NOT feeling top notch.

Today, or rather as it is now YESTURDAY, I woke up nice and late due to a 2:30am disruption of a fire alarm and then spent the day round about Lanhydrock National Trust property with Mr Arnold.

Parking up a short distance away from the big house, we snaked our way through the woods next to the river at the bottom of the hill; the trees there are brilliant, many covered with a coat of moss and throwing their limbs across the path. As per usual, Arnold was on the look out for fish (trout, mostly) in the river, after a while of looking and finally sitting down by the river we finally saw one! It leapt right out of the water! It was most exciting, and probably a rainbow trout rather than a brown one. We also saw a couple of flashes of golden yellow as a Goldfinch flew about, but apparently the fish was way more amazing.
The leaves on the trees haven’t yet got to the point of which they look as if they’re created from rust, however it’s soon approaching. Field which have been harvested are now full of almost fully grown pheasants and it’s almost to the season of shooting… contemplating a few ways of acquiring a pheasant or two for myself without having to shoot (due to lack of gun…). Heavily alcoholic raisins? Could work. Get ‘em drunk, then pounce and snap their necks! Sorry, but I’d rather kill my own meat (although due to lack of knowledge of how and other reasons, I eat shop brought).

(This is how close I got to the pheasants... no zoom on this one!).
Unable to get in to Lanhydrock house in the end as it turned out it’s not open on Mondays, we wandered about the gardens and found huge leaves, black leaves with bright yellow flowers, and some more very tame pheasants which I turned to stalking through the bushes.

Today (Tuesday 27^th) has been a lazy day, I’ve eaten far too much, and am now making up for that by sitting outside in the back garden (even though the sunlight has all gone from this area, and the ground is damp). The weather is still warm for the time of night due to the Indian summer which has decided to appear, and I’m listening to Bonobo with a bottle of Weston’s Vintage 8.2%. Mmm. I’m glad it’s still on offer in Co-Op.

A wood pigeon has just flown past and I heard the brief cry of seagulls, and the swoosh of a breeze in the trees. Somewhere a little distance away cows are making their mooing noises and in the field below me a pheasant has just started to make it’s racket. There goes a couple of seagulls flying through the cloud dotted blue evening sky and a wood pigeon cooing in a tree. I should finish this soon, it’s over 4000 words long… I guess it IS an update for a few weeks of failing to do so…

Conkers on the tree,
Swallows all gone,

Yellowing clouds.

5632 words.

P.S. Do I really look older than 22?? Phil asked if I was over 26, and Duncan thought I was around 24!

96. A Mars and a Twix

This is my desktop background wot I did make, yeah.

Aggggh… so busy! Though perhaps by the time I have finished typing this up the busy spell will be over with.
Leaves have definitely started falling off of trees (and into our courtyard), and swallows and such are starting to disappear off to their warmer winter homes abroad… but this does not mean that summer is not still here! After a month of autumn in August, summer has returned for the past two days with lovely foggy mornings to start it.
It is a warm night here in Golant (9pm), just like it was a warm day. Duncan, Rachel & I sat outside on the grass and ate BLT’s with slightly past it beans (resulting in GAS!!!) and jalapeño peppers. Mmm. Hula hooping was done, nattering was had, and some most excellent clouds were watched (the clouds which look like tigers with elephantitis of the leg, and skeletons reading books).

Now it is the 10^th September, which means I haven’t updated this blarg in a while… the weather has definitely changed since I wrote the bit above, it feels like autumn. Yesterday it was white fog all day with that moist stuff coming out of the sky; today the mist has cleared however there is a breeze and a certain chill to the air. There is only the occasional swallow who still nests by the catering kitchen door now, and due to the darker mornings I often pass it when going in at 6:55am on the breakfast shift (I insist on talking to it, and calling it a lazy bones as it is usually still there at 7:30am). I think Bruiser the cat has a bit of a cold – I hope it’s nothing worse! He’s been coming up to me on the path a fair lot recently, probably hoping I have some food on me (fat chance Bruiser, I’m opt out now!!) and demanding attention; I’ve then been stroking and tickling him and he’s been purring like a steam engine – prrrrrr prrrrrrrr prrrrr… but then afterwards he can’t seem to calm his purring down properly, and so ends up sneeze / coughing loads! Oh dear. Maybe he’s just got a rogue fur ball.

On my latest weekends I’ve been going away and sleeping in my van Hector. The “weekend” before last we took advantage of the sun and the fact that Treyarnon Bay YHA have a big camping field; co-worker & fellow lunatic Rachel and her bloke Paul were also there, but we didn’t see much of them. The now traditional weekend lunch of crusty (preferably sesame seed encased) French stick was eaten, complete with salted butter (naturally), yummy peppery rocket, and cold chicken breast… it was a relatively speedy lunch as we noticed that the tide was coming in at a rate of knots and our barnacle and mussel caked big lump of rock was most definitely turning into an island which would at some point be covered over by the big blue. As the sun set later than day we slurped on some of Mr Arnolds homemade elderflower wine and afterwards filled our bellies with asparagus, 3 bean salad with a minty dressing, tomato salsa and olive pork sausages, and some spinach; a most excellent meal indeed.

After a full nights undisturbed sleep, breakfast, and then a nap (I’m allowed to be lazy on my weekends!) Hector departed his pretty hedge side spot and skipped of to near Bedruthan Steps and went for a walk along the cliff and down the many rather steep steps to the beach where, yet again, we were almost consumed by the sea. Walking back up we giggled at large penises which people had drawn on the sand before the waves washed them away (the penises, that is… I don’t recall any screams of folks being dragged under by the Kraken) and passed by an island rock which looked very much indeed like the bust of a vaguely elderly gentleman with a bent nose. Almost back at the van we passed a field of cows that included a well-endowed bull that reminded me of further back in the year (all the way back in June!) when I had the most excellent time at the Royal Cornwall Show with Silje & Vera (as well as visiting the smelly blacksmiths).

In the week I made a speedy trip to Plymouth and back in-between shifts; although definitely a possible thing to do if only wishing to spend a short time in the “big southwest smoke”, it was made rather terrifying by the fact that A) it’s a city. I don’t like cities at the best of times, especially not when I have become accustomed to living in the middle of nowhere in Golant. B) I arrived by train as I decided this was the cheapest mode of travel (couldn’t find my broomstick). The train journey was pleasant enough, I’m pretty sure I snoozed most of it… upon getting OFF the train however I felt lost and worried by the things of the city, thankfully despite my concerns I managed to find the Relegacy gallery pretty easily on New Street (my sister tells me this is a very good place to have my work!) in the Barbican area (the only nice area in Plymouth, probably). The girl running the place (and her mum) were lovely though in a bit of a rush (probably my fault, for not sending much warning) and I’m happy to have my work up there… apparently I’ve sold a couple of pieces already and the opening night was only a couple of days ago on the 8^th September, blimey! I’ll send through the postcards I’ve just got printed soon, and I MUST remember to redo my website!

The “weekend” after that of the north coast my good friend Imy came down to visit. On the Monday we bundled into Hector again and drove off down to Penzance where there was a little sunshine and again a breeze. We had a pretty much spontaneous (only slightly planned spontaneity!) to the piercing shop DV8 (highly recommended to anyone wanting more piercings with not much pain) and got more metal shoved through ourselves. The piercing chap there is really good, he tells you to leave for half an hour whilst he sterilizes the specially picked jewellery, makes sure you sign forms properly, talks you through everything, and makes you feel entirely safe and comfortable. After Penzance we trawled a short distance along the coast, past the aesthetically pleasing Newlyn harbour (dozens and dozens of little fishing boats and such bundled together in one place, with flashes of bright coral where there were buoys) to Mousehole. I told Imy all about the tale of the Mousehole Cat – a wonderfully illustrated children’s book, and we meandered along the harbour beach (for once not getting eaten up by the sea) finding crabs heads and small fragments of pottery in pleasing colours. I loved seeing stacks of lobster pots lined up on the harbour wall, and of course the beautiful colours of yellow lichen and red rusted metal work.
Arriving at Lands End YHA later that evening – we took the scenic route – we said our hello’s to Richard and Chris and then walked out into the darkening evening to St Just… the Star Inn, of course! Folk night was in full swing and it seemed busier than usual (I wouldn’t have noticed myself, but I heard a bunch of locals “where’s all these people come from! Arr, yup! Arr! Righton!”. I am glad it was folk night, I enjoyed showing Imy the sort of music I prefer to indulge in down here in the nutty toe of Britain, she seemed to enjoy it enough and so we sat outside on the benches where it was less crowded, drinking our pints of apple Rattler (cider). Finished off the night with a rum and shrub, to which an old man with a red pimpled nose said “I ‘ent seen nobody order one o’ those in 20 years! And I ‘ent had one since I was jus’ 21 years old! Drank too much, see… ‘ere, lemme have a sniff, tha’s not rum and shrub!” It was indeed rum and shrub, the silly fool, perhaps his senses had failed him in his old age… locals are excellent, sometimes, do you not agree? We walked back down the hill to the hostel in the dark (only really needing the torch for the footpath which has a rock in the middle of it – it hurts to walk into that), and then climbed into Hector for a good nights sleep (only really disturbed by the 5am thunderous heavy rain on the metal van roof, it got LOUD).

Come the REAL morning we climbed out of the van, breakfasted ourselves and set out on a tour of half of the north coast starting with St Just again (getting in the pasties for the lunch! Om nom). From St Just I took the normal road – the beautiful one which goes from St Just to St Ives, first stop being Pendeen lighthouse. The cliffs by the beacon of light are most wonderful, you can stand back from them and not hear a thing but the wind, then just by moving forwards a few metres you’ll hear the noisy crash of waves on the rocks below and see oodles of white spray swooshing about. It was still quite misty at this point, so the view along the coast towards Lands End was very dramatic, and it felt really rather daring to even stand up on the rocks on the cliff due to the wind!
On from the lighthouse we passed the roadside decrepit engine houses where we walked down to the coast to see the jagged rocks; two buzzards called and circled above us as we walked.
Onwards! Zennor! Quick look at the church (Imy makes a GREAT preacher), and then a walk down to the sea to eat our pasties on a rock (on the bench a couple of bee’s took too much of an interest in us).
After a delightful pasty and a meeting with a cute little field mouse we then zoomed off, past St Ives, got caught in REALLY BORING traffic jams in Hayle, and then on to Perranporth where we vaguely “explored” the mining hole caves before having tea and biscuits with Phil (Perranporth YHA manager). Fennell and peppermint tea – nom. Good natter about Iceland and such. Driving back to Golant, and home. Ahhh… that was a lot of driving… but it was good, as LISA HARRISON appeared! It was lovely to have both her and Imy there… after they left the house felt very quiet.

Anyhoo, since then we have just had a fair load of rain. I’ve heard that I’ve already sold stuff at the gallery, and I’m VERY MUCH looking forwards to the arrival of my beloved Norwegians Silje & Vera on Tuesday morning. WAHOOOOOO!!
As you can see, the quality of this blog post has deteriorated as I am super duper tired and still got 25 minutes left here. Ahh… bonne nuite!

Have some pictures:
I love that Peter Rabbit's bum looks so saggy, like a beanbag. Ahhhh Beatrix Potter...

By Vienna Textiles, it just took my liking...

LolaGC on Flickr. Looks a tad like Eva Green. Mmmmm.

Joe Waldron, you are most excellent. Especially your subtle colour difference for the mountain vs sky.

As much as I love bark, I also love crocheted trees (keeps them cozy!). DMC blog.

Andrea Kalfas, your colours clash so terribly! I rather like it! And look at that hair... mmm.

Katie Harnett. I will look as happy as that when I am in SNOWY SNOWY NORWAY at x-mas.

P.S. Oh dear, I'm grinding my teeth again :(

95. How will I survive

Currently sat in reception at the hostel, using up the internet on my Sunday evening... I'm surrounded by blokes in shirt & bow tie, and girls in dresses & heels. I think they're a rather posh orchestra sort of group since I heard music earlier.
Today the weather is that heavy sweaty grey sort, dotted with small rainish showers... the sort of weather which makes you feel as if you have a very cotton wool filled hangover. Yesturday was much nice!

Drove to Boswinger & then down the hill to Hemmick beach where we wriggled into a parking space before staring at the sea and going "I WANT TO JUMP IN...". The weather was host & sunny, see. We (Mr Arnold & I) then proceded to stomp up the coast path towards Dodman point (big stone cross... although I swear it was FAR bigger all those years ago when my family (Scruffy the bear included) walked & whinged our ways up there * to eat a Cornish Pasty lunch and sang a Scruffy bear song "I'm a Scruffy bear and I don't care, I look up peoples underwear!").
After a lunch of, guess what... white French bread with salted butter, some sliced pork, orange juice with juicy bits, and mini cheesecakes (passion fruit!) from reduced price jackpot. Wandered about on top of the hill for a while, watched the sea, spied on some shags / cormorants on a rock, and listened to a conversation between a young girl and her aunt "Aunt, I think I'm going to fart". Who on earth announces that?! Just fart! Nothing can go wrong! Much...
Deciding to go back to Hemmick beach rather than to go any further, I happily noticed that the underwear I was wearing was covering and decent enough to leap in the sea in, and did so. The sea is good. I floated about on my back for a while as it was mostly calm, staring at the blue cloud spotted sky, and feeling warm early evening sunshine on my face. Yes yes yes.

Today as I said before, the weather has not been so great. I did however manage to sit outside on the grass with Duncan for lunch (he made some speedy mackerel pate stuff which we spread on some of his homemade bread with some fancy butter we got from the kitchen. Etc etc. And some jalapaeno peppers. Mmm.
On the mention of food, I'm hungry.

Hmm, I reckon that's everything. The rest of the week has been relatively un-eventful, and I haven't any work to show you.

Au revouir!

*Around this point my manager Paul handed a bunch of white grapes to me, they come from the glass house which we're not allowed in due to the fact that a) the roof is collapsing, and b) it's highly dirty floored due to a drain exploding around new years time. One grape is about to drip mouldy liquid however, and a woodlouse just crawled off of them...


EDIT:
How good does this place look?? Oh to have a hostel like that! I wonder what can be arranged with Perranporth Phil...

Becca Stadtlander did this. Noice!