Friday, 2nd July

[Sybille Weber]

Help! We are melting. Between 37 and 39 degr. C here today. The temperatures around 30 that we had all week were bad enough, but this is just too much. Some cooler weather, please, and we desperately need some rain, too. Thunderstorms are forecast for tomorrow afternoon and night, with a temperature "drop" to 28/29, but according to the forecast temperatures are going to rise again on the following days.
Jane, you said it was raining in Cornwall, so please send some of it over here.
:help:

[gloria townsin]

Sybille - that IS HOT!!

[Linda]

too hot...I couldnt cope with that

[pcniles]

Hello everyone...

****I just discovered this long-winded post of mine was put in the Weather Report area, inappropriately. Not sure how it was I wound up here. If I could figure out how to move it to General Discussions, I would. But I do, at least, speak to the weather a little bit. Sorry!!***



It's actually Saturday, July 3rd now, late morning here and I wanted to pop in and see what my Friends of Minack were up to.

It's been awhile since I've posted here. So much has been going on and I just haven't had time to keep up with my social contacts on the web world. I check in on FaceBook most every day though am not very active there either. It's nice to keep in touch with some of you there, or at least see / read what you are doing.

It's warm here too, though nothing like Sybille is experiencing. We're around 70-75 Fahrenheit (21-23 Celcius). Nice, except for the winds. High winds. I think of Derek's "gales" whenever the wind starts blowing, but I have a feeling those gales were a lot stronger. Foggy mornings often start the day although of late we've been clear, sunny, from dawn to dark. Summers here are usually mild with a few days where the temps do climb into the 30s (celcius) but rarely, fortunately. I'm not an extreme heat lover.

I'm continuing reading the Minack Chronicles. I've not as much reading time as I would like, time being scarce to sit and concentrate these days. But I have finished reading A Gull on the Roof and A Cat in the Window and previous to that, A Drake at the Door. In all these stories--so many travails and set-backs that Derek & Jeannie experienced; it's really a wonder they survived those early years. I marvel at the fact that they gave up such a glamorous and 'comfortable' life to live at Minack. They were certainly extraordinary people. I am still enthralled by Derek's wonderful writing style. The wisdom he 'casually' shares is so deep and enriching of my own life. What great fortune to have discovered these books.

I wanted to let you know that A Cat in the Window was issued in a U.S. edition entitled, Monty, Biography of a Marmalade Cat. I seldom see mention of this book in any of Derek's bibliographies. It was issued in hard cover, I think around the same time as the original UK edition; other than the title, it is identical to A Cat in the Window. I find it interesting, that for whatever reason, the title was changed. I now have both copies, obviously. It's a wonderful book, and I'll be gifting one of them--haven't decided which--to a friend who wants to read the series herself. Her ancestory includes some people from Cornwall although, like me, she has never visited the area.

Anyway... this is a holiday weekend for us here in the U.S. I suppose you all know why and no point in my rubbing it in. ;) Due to the economic situation, much of the noisy fanfare, i.e., fireworks, are not going to be happening this 4th. I can't say I'm sorry about that. However, I'm sure the neighborhood kids (of all sizes) will still be setting off their sparklers and little firecrackers all.....night.....long. Upsetting to the dogs which, of course, then upsets me.

We're doing some minor work around and on the house which has been keeping us busy. My husband's employment has suddenly increased too (he's an independent banking/financial consultant) and though I'm certainly not complaining about that--the extra income is nice--it does take some of those hours I might spend in personal pursuits. I'm going to head outside now and plant some moss roses, some cosmos and dahlias before the sun gets too high and the wind comes up.

My early evening hours have been blessed with visitations by two lovely foxes. I've known for several years that we do have foxes living in the area but they are reclusive and nocturnal and for the most part all I ever saw of them was maybe a glimpse in the pre-dawn hours. But now they are coming around for a little birdseed and raccoon kibble, almost every evening. And staying quite awhile. I'll have to post the video I captured on one of them although the quality isn't very good (through a living room window). They are a handsome couple; so much so that I named them Angie and Brad. :)

Like Minack, this area has an abundance of wildlife for which I am so grateful. I love seeing the foxes, and the raccoons, even the skunks and the possums--the possums are so ugly they are adorable. We have a new family of squirrels too, a bunch of babies running about. And a new kind of squirrel I've never seen prior to living here known as the Chickaree or Oregon's Douglas squirrel. He's a friendly little guy too... I can get up quite close to him as he hangs from the sunflower seed feeder. I named him Chuck.

That's all for me for now.

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend.

Be well...

[gloria townsin]

Lovely update Pam and glad you are finding some Cornish time via the Chronicles. We are in Mullion at present and enjoying some nice weather and Cornish events of which there are many at the moment.
Happy 4th of July........and I agree about noisy fireworks, can do without them, what a spoilsport I am, but my youngest dog hates them and it's a hard job to pacify her.
Had a nice wander to the harbour a while ago it is warmer than we thought - a nice evening now.

[jane jackson]

Good to hear what you're doing Pam. Your weather temperatures sound fine ~ couldn't cope with Sybille's with being that high in the 30s. As it is I have an electric fan going all night right beside my side of the bed. Bryan never has any trouble sleeping but i'm hopeless if it's too hot. Just working in the garden this afternoon I got hot and bothered but the sunshine is lovely and it was great walking on the beach this morning with the tide well in even if it was Long Rock and not Sennen.

[pcniles]

It sounds to me like Cornwall is much like the coast of Oregon, temperature wise. Maybe a tad warmer at times, overall, but not much. Perhaps more humid too. That's one condition we don't have along the U.S. west coast--humidity, which is really nice.

We just had a ceiling fan installed in our bedroom; prior, we always ran an electric fan. Neither my husband nor I like sleeping in a warm room and often even in the winter we'd have the fan going. The only difference between the ceiling fan and the electric floor fan is the noise: the ceiling fan is soundless. Kind of got use to that whirring of the fan and miss it. May have to run 'em both! I'm not a very sound sleeper, either.

[gloria townsin]

I'm not at the fan during the night level but I do open the bedroom door and so far that has done the trick. The bungalow is quite cool really, although in the loft it is stifling so we might find the upstairs bedroom too hot when we use it. Still I grumbled so much about the winter I am not going to grumble about the heat.
Mullion is looking really pretty now as they have flowers everywhere, on the lamposts, window boxes to the shops and hanging baskets everywhere, it's for Mullion in Bloom and the Horticultural Socy ladies were going round today with a bowser on wheels and watering. Think I will put some of our planters in the front before we leave so that they are on show rather than leave them in the back garden where no-one will see them for a week while we are gone. Hoping to be here for the show on Wed and also for Stithians on Monday week. But Eddie is beginning to itch to get back and do jobs in Croxley.......too much splitting time for my liking.

[Kath Mulligan]

Hopefully the time splitting between Mullion and Croxley won't go on for too much longer, Gloria. Fingers crossed that you get a better day for Stithians this year, seem to recall that it was pretty wet last year.

I don't like trying to sleep in this sticky heat either. The duvet has been abandoned in favour of a sheet and light eiderdown and even the eiderdown has been cast off most nights recently! I've tried sleeping with a fan going but the noise irritates me too much, can't have the window open because the milkman comes round about 4.30am, rattling crates and often with his radio blaring out, and of course, the dawn chorus starts up around 4am too! Much as I love to hear birds singing, I would much prefer not to be wakened by them quite so early!!

Kath

[Janet Swan]

... and add a slightly overweight cat who still wants to be cuddled - well, who needs sleep anyway?!!!

Janet

[Gill Bilcliffe]

....... and a naughty little cat that wants to be outside in the early hours of these warm summer nights. Hence no sleep for me either till I manage to get her back inside!!

Gill

[Janet Swan]

We are slaves to our beloved pets, aren't we Gill?!!!

Janet