a very windy day

We took a walk on the prom yesterday, it was so windy!!  But we saw the starlings coming in to roost around the church tower, a truly amazing sight, the whole group swooping and curving round gathering more and more birds as they go.  Teague managed to capture a little bit of it on video.  But if you have starlings near you it's really worth going to watch them roost.

On the way back we took the sheltered route to avoid the wind and popped into Penlee Memorial Garden, one of our favourite places for flowers.  We're thinking of going back in the week, on a less wild day, to do some drawing.  But this time Teague took some lovely photos of what's blooming at the moment

we have no idea what this tree is, the fruit are actually quite small, smaller than apricots so if anyone knows...

folksy friday dance

Today I've listed a ballet dancer pouch so I thought dance would be a nice theme

here are my dance beauties

I couldn't resist this flora dance painting by artbymimi as we go to the flora dance most years and love it

this lovely wooden ballet dancer brooch is by gossamer wings

this delicate dancer bookmark and lavender heart are by sykesssillysite

I'm not sure which I love more the cute baby or the electric blue tutu from eccentric ella

I have always loved wrap around cardigans, every dancer needs at least one pink one with satin ribbons, this lovely is from Buzybee

This beautifully appliqued pink towel is by sweet pea embroideries

a trip to the lizard and a new embroidery pattern

We took a wintry trip to Kynance cove on the Lizard last week because I have only been once at high tide (there is no beach at all at high tide, so a pointless trip really!).  Of course we packed our camera for this gorgeousness but did we check the batteries?  Of course not.  So these strange photos were taken on Jason's phone.  The light is very strange in them, it was actually a bright sunny day but I think I like these photos more, they make me think of  memories fading.

that hat is not mine!  But my ears were cold.

this is the walk over to Lizard Point (which for some reason was never photographed).  The ponies are sort of wild ponies brought in over the winter to graze.  This is to encourage the choughs that have been reintroduced here, and judging by how many choughs we saw it's working well.  I do love choughs.

It really is a very beautiful walk, one we will be doing again.

And I have also managed (being a superwoman and all that!) to finish a pattern and list it in my folksy and etsy shops.  Considering my unpredictable laptop and an essay to write and hand in (my first in two years) I think I'm quite on top of things!

Anyway the pattern consists of cute little boy and girl rabbits with umbrella, kite and balloon.  It can be found here and here

more autumn

just when I think it's time to cosy up and start the bookish learning the sun comes out.  After years of living in Cornwall I have learned that if it's dry we must leave the house because there are no guarantees that it won't start raining tomorrow (and not stop until next spring!)

So off to Trevaylor woods today

Teague and Annis love the woods and could happily spend all day there.  They take penknives, camera and sketchbooks (we rarely actually take the sketchbooks out but we could!) and everything else they need is in the woods

today such strange mushrooms, again we're assuming they're not edible.

and leaves to swish our feet through

and a stream for pooh sticks (which I never win)

and I'm messing with my template, can't seem to make up my mind but it's fun so maybe a new one every day?!

Botallack

It was an absolutely beautiful day yesterday but, instead of the beach we crossed the peninsula to have a saunter around Botallack.  This is my favourite stretch of coast, it's so dramatic and I love the remnants of industry.  I think they remind me that nature always takes over again in the end.

these are old mine workings

this is the arsenic labrynth where arsenic was collected (from roasting the tin), apparently Victorian women used to eat it and rub it into their faces and arms to make their skin look paler so they didn't look as though they worked in the fields!  But it seems to have had a myriad of uses, including fly papers and eczema medecine.  The poor man who had to collect the arsenic would (ironically) cover his face and arms with clay to protect them and stuff cotton wool up his nose. 

These are the engine houses and there is the most stunning sheltered spot down there to enjoy the sun and watch birds.  Yesterday we saw a peregrine falcon (we don't see too many of those), two choughs (which I love) and a raven.

I wish I knew more about mushrooms or, at least in this case, toadstools.  I could guess that these examples might be poisonous!

and relaxing in the sun enjoying the beauty of it all.

Stuff we're enjoying right now

Every year around this time we seem to get a lot more reading and bookish learning done.  Today in particular it has turned colder so we don't mind staying in and cosying up with a good cd

and this is a great one, it's entertaining and informative enough to make us want to find out more.  Today we listened to the piece about Galileo and it has inspired us to look for a galileo telescope kit so if anyone knows of a good one please let me know

I have begun my Open University course and am back to reading and then reading again, oh and then reading in a bit more detail!  But I'm enjoying Chekhov ( I can't say I have ever read or seen his plays before).

and Annis has bought a fabulous Julie West embroidery pattern from Sublime Stitching that is so cool and funky, that coupled with gold thread... who could resist.

oh and there's nothing I like to see more than a teenage reader.  The oldest (now at college) enjoyed reading but it's been a bit more of a struggle with this one.  Percy Jackson and the lightening thief seems to be doing the trick though.

and Annis has been crafting all by herself (poor thing) with her autumn finds from a lovely walk this morning in Morrab Gardens.

What are you finding to do now it's getting colder?

We love this book

J read the adult version of this book and recommended it, he even tried to read bits to the children but, even though it was funny, they couldn't really engage with it.  Then I saw this children's version of it in Smiths.

We've only just started it but we love it!  Even I understand it.  Bill Bryson is a funny man.

He begins by talking about a school text book he was given as a child which he thought was going to be amazing because of this image (he does admit it was because he imagined cars driving over the edge of the removed wedge and crashing into the burning inner core!)

but when he got the book home he was utterly disappointed because it was dull and didn't answer any of the questions he wanted answering (he now knows that they didn't know the answers then but being a school text book they didn't let on that they didn't know). 

His enthusiasm bursts out of the book, I feel that he is just as excited now about the idea that there is a burning ball in the centre of the earth as he was when he was ten.  This is perfect for my thirteen year old who is going through an 'I'm not interested in anything except sleep' phase at the moment.

The book is Bill Bryson's A Really Short History of Nearly Everything and we thoroughly recommend it to other science phobics (like myself rather than my children!)

A Rainy Folksy Friday

I've been working on a rainy day embroidery

she's getting there.. and in the mean time I've been browsing folksy with rain on my mind.  So here is my Folksy Friday

 some lovely rain inspired goodies, I couldn't choose between the tshirts! 

Glasses

My books were getting further and further from my eyes, my embroidery was making my eyes sore so I had to give in!  I had my eyes tested.  I still actually thought they would tell me I didn't need glasses yet, even though I couldn't actually hold the book any further away... clearly they told me I did need glasses.

A helped me choose them, while she laughed her socks off!  I'm pretty sure most of the ones she asked me to try on were for her own entertainment but we found some lovely purple ones that didn't make me look too pale or too yellow

I do still have to read and sew in secret on my own because every time I look up from a book I catch J laughing at me, he hasn't been for an eye test yet so we'll see if he's still laughing next week.  Despite the entertainment value of glasses I have to admit they are wonderful, the text in books has gone back to being the size it used to be and my eyes don't stream after ten minutes of sewing so I have accepted the inevitability of aging and am enjoying seeing properly again.

The party's over

Well it was the longest journey we've ever had on Friday but we got there for the party.

Middle sister is 40

fancy dress was worn by most

and tears were shed when littlest sister returned to America at 5 o'clock this morning