We have just come back from a weekend in Totnes Devon .We stayed at the home of our very dear friends Richard and Brenda..This morning amid showers we walked to Dartington for coffee.I have taken some pics.and will post them soon but just wanted to say have a good Samhain,we have just eaten firey ginger cake and apples while sitting in candle light talking about seeds in the ground waiting for spring, regeneration and remembering those who have passed on. The stove was bright and cosy and the tea comforting. I am thinking especially of my Dad who died last year at 86,he was a W.W2  veteran and a truly lovely man. We all miss him and his sense of humour which was quirky,he loved to play with words

I will just post a couple more lovely ideas for winter clothes,the fabrics look wonderful together and make me keen to finish the skirt I cut out last week!

I love these colours and layers!

Today at Truro Community Library where I work the kids were learning to paint on silk,some of the designs were extremly attractive.

Mums and Staff  pitched in and the kids had enormous fun creating their owm designs.

Lovely to see the boys being creative too,one lad did the most colourfull halloween pumpkin !

Thinking back to Spring

Last Spring I wanted to go down to Lamorna and find the studios of a group of artists who painted in and around Newlyn.Some of them had studios at Lamorna Cove which is such an enchanted place.
 A stream rushes down to the sea through a rocky valley that in Spring is full of wild flowers. There is an old Pub called The Wink where the artists met and had  a great time together.The pasties are very good there to this day.

This colony produced some remarkable and beautiful pictures,they painted outside in all weathers and caught the light and the ambiance of the area.They also used local people as models and in another post I would like to share some of their work.

But for now I will just remember that lovely  early spring day when the daffodils were blooming and there was still a nip in the air and the only sound the  was of water rushing  over boulders down through the woody valley and out into the sea.

Autumn colours

I really like this dress,it is another by Ewa i Walla the scandinavian designer. I love romantic clothes  like this, pity I cannot afford them but it is fun sewing or trying to match the look in more affordable shops. I don't know about any of you out there  but I think all dress is fancy dress so wear what you love! I love fabrics,William Morris ,Liberty and many others.

This is really wearable too and what is nice is that these sort of styles can be worn by women of virtually any age.

These Autumnal ladies dresses are lovely and the colours suit this misty evening.Steve and I have been clearing the garden,stacking pots and getting firewood together and now we feel like a glass of red wine and supper

Steve and I drove to the King Harry Ferry and crossed over onto the always beautiful Roseland, it was a perfect balmy Autumn day and we took our breafast with us!
 We sat and ate smoked salmon on my home made bread with the last of the home grown tomatoes.It was perfectly peaceful and we saw a heron fishing from the bank .It made me think of Dylan Thomas 's "Heron  priested shore".

 Legend says that Henry the 8th brought Anne Boleyn to Place Manor ,you can imagine her strolling to the waters edge to look at the view.
There were Celtic Monks living at Place and Roman artifacts have been found in the area. The whole of the Roseland has been inhabited from ancient times and there are numerous earthworks in the area.

The view from the quayside.

After breakfast and a coffee we went on through the lanes to St. Anthony Head were we saw the last flowers of Autumn and some red admiral butterflies that really loved the flowering ivy.

Steve watching the ships and other boats in the Carrick Roads from the headland.

I can never tell a shag from a cormerant!!These birds were on a rock just below the St Anthony Light.

Some delicate Bladder Campion growing in the protection of a dry stone wall.

Little Pennywort hiding in the wall.When I was a child I would imagine fairies and elves living in places like this!
 We left St Anthony and drove over to St Just Church, a place I love, it is the most beautiful church yard in the world. Trees ,shrubs and ferns interspersed by running water and ponds. A feeling of utter peace and tranquility pervades.
 I worked for many years on the mobile library that served the Roseland and I saw the graves of many of my older borrowers and  it seemed wonderful that they were resting in such a delightful place.

I wandered around the outside of the church and came upon this doorway decorated with a garland of blue ,white and green. I was enchanted! Inside the church the stained glass windows stood out against the simplicity of the white washed walls

There has been a place of worship here since 550 A.D when it was a celtic  Christian church.
There are many legends about this area and  one is that Joseph of Arimathia brought his nephew the  young Jesus with him when he came to do business on the Fal. He landed according to legend at St Just which was then a sacred place of the old religion. Jesus is supposed to have talked with the Holy Men while his uncle bartered for tin. If you walk down a path by the waters edge you come to the Holy Well of St Just were the sound of water dropping into the darkness of the moss covered grotto is mystical.

We went on to St Mawes were we walked along the front in the sunshine and finished a perfectly lovely day with a Cornish Cream Tea and then home via the ferry. Phew,  what a long post ! I hope you enjoy it as  much as we did.

May the road rise with you, may the wind be always at your back,may the sun shine warm upon your face,and the rain fall soft upon your fields,and until we meet again may your God keep you in the hollow of his hand.
Quote from the guide book to the Church of St Just in Roseland.

Autumn colours

Autumn leaves have started to fall,I don't think anyone said it better than John Keats in his beautiful  To Autumn but here is a small contribution by me.

Autumn 

The taste of mushrooms

in an Autumn omelette,

the scent of turning inward,

of fallen leaves,

damp to the touch,

enchant the eye and soften the sound of footsteps.

Tomorrow morning Steve and I are planning a walk in Lammorran Woods  , an enchanting area where I think time  slows down!

Waterhouse and Tennyson weave magic!

There she weaves by night and day

A magic web with colours gay.

She has heard a whisper say,

a curse is on her if she stay

To look down to Camelot.

She knows not what the curse maybe,

And so she weaveth steadily,

And little other care has she,

The Lady of Shallott