Return to Tintagel

In my last post I mentioned that I had recently taken a short trip to Cornwall.  So here I am back again to share some of the pictures...
We started off driving down via the north coast as I wanted to visit a favourite spot. Tintagel  The last trip was in 2011,  so it was definitely time to say hello again to this mythical, magical old rugged place.

It's always a good time to visit, but May has it's advantages. The wild and jutted jagged edges are  softened by bluebells, yellow tom thumb, purple thrift, sea campion and other coastal cliff flowers.
I picked a sprig of thrift to dry and keep. I shall keep it with my dried clover flower that I picked on top of the Tor, at Glastonbury.

High on top stands the new sculpture 'Gallos' by Rubin Eynon.  It means power in Cornish. An 8ft bronze sculpture inspired by the legend of King Arthur. I believe that some people are not happy about new additions here and feel that it is making Tintagel too commercial... I personally really liked it and thought it was a beautiful thing. Standing tall with the wild winds and stormy skies around him he looked so at home. I loved the way he faced inland. looking back home to his lands. I also love the way the artist has left parts of him as just gaps, as if he is only partially here. A ghost you can see through. Arthur stepping through the veil.

Another angle.

Magical.

Carrying on the Arthurian theme, we crossed Bodmin moor and passed Dozmary Pool.

Dozmary Pool is a fresh water natural lake. In local legend, it is believed to be the final resting place of Excalibur and the home to the Lady of the lake.  After Arthur was mortally wounded at the battle of Camlann, Sir Bedevere threw Excalibur into the lake, returning it to the Lady. 

I would have been happy to carry on visiting Arthurian sites, but there were other plans on the list too, so that will have to wait to another day. Instead we drove across to the southern coast and met a sea mist in Polperro.

Polperro was one place I had never been in Cornwall, so a visit was long overdue. It didn't disappoint and looked even more atmospheric in the grey and mist. 

For those of you that like me have never been. It is a place of winding narrow streets, white washed cottages and is filled with quirky corners 

The Shell House...

We browsed in the lovely little shops, visited the museum, in between dodging the rain showers and were enticed into cosy cafes by tempting treats. 

The next day the sun came out so we went in search of the wild and rugged places once more and walked some of the coastal path.

A lovely walk was had. 

We finished our short trip by returning via the northern side again and back to the more magical .  Many years back I visited the famous Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle.  After so many years I  thought it about time to make a re visit. Such an interesting museum filled to the brim with so many things to look at. Spells and talismans and all manner of magical tools and information about magic and witchcraft through the ages.  

It was a perfect end to a short break. :-)  

Listening to the Hedgerow

Old hedgerow share your story,
Your tales and songs and spells
of morning misted dew drops, on petals of blue Speedwell.
Whisper me the wild and woven ways of forever, as I walk the winding lanes.
Teach me the secrets of bedstraw, sorrel, celandine and stitchwort;
Bryony, archangel, pimpernel and violet;
Stitch and bind the leaves and sap with woodbine into each strand of my hair.
Wrap me up in hawthorn blossom and let the birds build nests upon my heart.
Fill my bones with the scent of bluebell, lest I should ever forget.

~Karen Davis 

In May it's as though time stops. Steps are taken back in time and a remembering becomes more prominent. A remembering of the old ways of hedgerow and home. If I sit in among the greening then I can almost disappear. Away from the modern ways of car and telephone.

If it wasn't so chilly then I would probably take up residence on the soft moss, beneath the apple tree whilst it blooms. Just so that I can inhale as much apple blossom scent as I possibly can.  It's one of my most favourite smells in the world, especially when it has the morning dew or raindrops on.

The apple blossom is almost finished blooming now and it's the hawthorn's turn. After a poor year of blossom last year it has certainly made up for it this year. It's absolutely covered in flowers and is literally vibrating and humming with the sound of bees.

It is over a month since I last posted on here. I have felt the need again to step back from social media. No reason really, just a little weary of all the chatter.
There have been lots of jobs to do in the garden and not enough hours in the day. I made a rather rickety structure for the sweet peas to climb this year. I'm not sure how it will stand up to strong winds?

There have been walks to the bluebell woods and a short trip to Cornwall, which I will put in the next post. In between I have been quietly working away painting. The next shop update will be Tuesday 31st May at 7.00pm UK time. This will be 8 hedgerow hares and whatever else is finished and ready.

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend. :-)
X

Watching Spring Emerge

Sweet primrose scent has entranced and stolen me away. Sometimes the pull is too strong and I have to just stay. So I sit and watch and breathe the perfume that takes me back. Back to my childhood days, playing in fields and scrambling up primrose banks and railway batters with mud on the knees of my old trousers. My nose in a posy of primroses, cool and soft when brushed against my cheek. One for Mum and one for my Nan, that lived next door.  That sweet delicate smell always steps me back in time.  

And I stay some more and watch the Spring unfold before my eyes.  Bees and brimstone butterflies beneath blue skies. 

I could stay all day, just sitting and watching,  there is always so much to see. But I have painting to do so I bring the outside in with me. 

Back outside for a tea break. I would have missed this beautiful bee fly if I had drank my drink indoors, sat with head in a phone or iPad.  

 From my desk I always get a good view of the latest visitors, normally the feathered type, but sometimes furry ones too.

So things have been a little slower. this month. Taking time to smell the flowers and watch the wonders of Spring emerge. And jobs in the home and garden, digging and seed sowing and giving the house a bit of care and attention.
The parliament is finished. I will miss them hanging here watching, with a knowing look in their painted eyes. But, they have given me an idea for a painting, so they will be back in 2D form.

In between there has been cutting out of more wooden hangers. Below is the Spring Wizard in progress.

And here it is finished.

All of the hangers will be added to my Etsy shop on Monday April 25th at 7.30pm (UK time)

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Enjoy your weekend, I have golden beetroot to plant and more digging to do!

P.S...Mrs Thrush now has a nest in the honeysuckle. :) x

A trip to a Sussex Museum

Houses often have faces. Sometimes they look happy, sometimes sad, occasionally grumpy or even scary. They sometimes also have a feel to them. A good warm feeling or a cold hard one. Maybe the feelings are the echoes and memories of those who have lived in them. All those moments of energy in one place. So many layers of laughter, tears, birth and death. This house doesn't look happy or sad to me, maybe a little unsure or slightly worried? I like this house, the inside had a good warm feeling. It reminds me of the simple houses that children draw. It reminds me also of a children's TV series that I can remember from childhood. I must have been very young as I remember that it scared me a little and it has stayed with me for years. All I could remember of it (until recently) was that it was about a house with someone trapped upstairs. They were trapped upstairs because there was no staircase. It's only recently that I found out what the TV series was, by searching on youtube. 

I came across this house at the Weald and Downland open air museum a couple of weeks ago.  

The Museum is just outside of Chichester in West Sussex. It's home to a number of old buildings that were rescued instead of being demolished from various places in Sussex and the Eastern surrounding counties. I love old buildings so this has been on my list of places to visit for a while now.

“The old house had a thousand doors in it.

All old houses do. You can see them if you know how to look: the noontime shadow of a windowpane crawling with intent across a floor; unmeasured angles of wall meeting wall; fireplaces grown chill with unused years. Archways with unseen contours you can trace with a finger in the cracks as brick grinds against brick in settling walls. Some nights, and some houses are doorways entire, silhouettes against the evening's last light black on black like an opening into a darker sky. You just have to look. An eye-corner glance will do, if you don't turn and stare and explain it away.”
~ Michael Montoure

 

“It was a mistake to think of houses, old houses, as being empty. They were filled with memories, with the faded echoes of voices. Drops of tears, drops of blood, the ring of laughter, the edge of tempers that had ebbed and flowed between the walls, into the walls, over the years.
Wasn't it, after all, a kind of life?

And there were houses, he knew it, that breathed. They carried in their wood and stone, their brick and mortar a kind of ego that was nearly, very nearly, human.” 

~Nora Roberts  Key of Knowledge

This one below is an old market hall.

Just as beautiful on the inside, as the outside.

As well as houses I also spied a beautiful gaggle of geese. 

And this handsome fella and his friends...

It was a bitterly cold day and the fires lit inside some of the cottages were very appreciated. 

There are many other buildings and things to see, but the tudor style is where my heart lies hence the pictures. It's a lovely place to visit, I would like to return when it is a little warmer though and next time I will hopefully get to look in the little gift shop which sadly had already closed by the time we had finished looking around.  

Back at home amid our local beautiful timber framed buildings, the time had been turned back and a whole street transformed for Shakespeare and his friends. A new tv series about 'Will' the young William Shakespeare. I felt very much at home amid all these props. It was a visual delight.

Wouldn't it be fabulous if it was a permanent fixture, so much better than parked cars don't you think? ;) 

The talisman that I showed in progress in my last post are now finished and in the shop here.  Over half of them have sold already, so make haste my dear friends, if you were hoping to snaffle one up. 

Have a magical week. 

X