Sunday 25th July 2010

[jane jackson]

Only 5 months to go to Christmas folks!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been a glorious day in PZ today ~ beautiful sunshine. My friend arrived with her dogs and we took all 4 to Long Rock beach early afternoon. We just managed to find a parking place, lots of people enjoying themselves. We walked up to the pipe in the PZ direction and stood in the sea with our wellies on to keep our feet cool and we didn't even mind when the waves washed over the tops! Rosie went quite deep in the water well over the tops of her legs so came out looking very bedraggled but she'd loved it. Lots of dogs swimming or just running through the waves which is what our 4 did most of the time. We saw lots of small fish coming in with the tide and swimming quickly back out again. Then we noticed a line of movement in the sea not too far out with loads of bigger fish jumping and turning as though they were circling the smaller fish. We could see their fins and tail above the surface. Bryan thought they may be Mullet but he wasn't with us and we hadn't a clue but it was lovely watching them.

There was also a group of people with a homemade raft using 6 bright blue plastic barrels complete with mast and orange sail. Expect they were trying it out for one of the festivals perhaps Mousehole. Lots of folk in kayaks too.

[gloria townsin]

Oh sounds wonderful.........can't wait to be back in the West.

[Janet Swan]

Well, in landlocked Hertfordshire, my Sunday was a bit different - sadly no sea breezes, no dogs (and owners) frolicking in the surf, mysterious fish etc.

However, this was the weekend of 'Rhythms of the World' - an annual world music festival in Hitchin held in the grounds of a former priory. Admission is only £8 per day, so people of all ages flood into the town for it. I went on Saturday afternoon - for a wander round, bit of shopping from the slightly eccentric stalls and to listen to some of the music - with 8-9 stages there is so much going on.

But what makes this festival really special is that they build a beautiful "tent" furnished with the old wooden pews borrowed from our church, so the town can hold a Sunday morning service there. The tent is decorated with flowers and is used over the two days for "quieter" music acts as well. So, there we were on Sunday morning, singing rousing hymns at a service led my Bishop Alan, the new Bishop of St Albans, and our Team Rector, Michael. It really is a very special morning once a year.

Then I flew up to Letchworth to help my friend Renata at her open garden under the NGS Yellow Book scheme. It was a huge success and, together with the Friday evening opening, we made £619 for the various charities supported by NGS with "my" refreshments table raising £80 of that total, so it was a really good day.

Janet

[Sybille Weber]

Sounds as if you had a really good day, Jane. So lovely to live so close by the sea and to be able to pop down to the beach every day.
Your weekend sounded very busy and lovely, too, Janet, with the music festival and the open garden. I think it's lovely for people to open their gardens to the public on certain days. Unfortunately the Germans have never been such a gardening people as the English, but it is gradually beginning to change, and occasionally you can read that a private garden is open for viewing. This is still not very common though and if you come across such a garden over here, then the owner is usually someone who has been inspired by a visit to England.
We had glorious weather here on Saturday but I was busy with this and that so that we just went to a garden centre to get some gifts for friends' birthdays.
Sunday was a rainy day as it is today, but after the long hot period of hot and dry weather, this is just what we need. Just 16 degrees today.

Our weekend was a bit overshadowed by the sad ongoings at the 'Love Parade' music festival (although I would rather call it 'noise festival') in the neighbouring town of Duisburg where 19 young people died and 345 were injured due to total mismanagement. The grounds were only designed for 250 000 people but over a million came which was to be expected as three years ago when the festival was held at Essen, 1.6 million people came. Everything had been well organized at Essen, and the festival was a success, but this year, at Duisburg, entrance to and exit from the grounds was through one tunnel only, and everything else was fenced off which is incredible. When more and more people kept coming they closed this entrance/exit, so that no more people couldn't get in. However, far too many were in already, and in some spots the grounds were so tightly packed with people that they could hardly breathe and wanted to get out through this one exit/entrance which had been closed in order to prevent more people from coming in. When they found they were practically locked in, could hardly breathe and not move panic broke out. People got trampled on, and others fell off walls and fences they were trying to climb in their despair to get out.
My colleague and her family went there, too, but fortunately they were wise enough not to go in as they saw the huge crowd, and just after they had turned back the disaster happened. Her daughter's boyfriend is in the fire brigade and was on duty there. He is not himself anymore and has nightmares all the time.
The tragic about it is that this needn't have happened. The organizers had been warned about the risks but profit and an image boost for the town of Duisburg had been more important to them than people's safety.

[gloria townsin]

It is a terrible tragedy Sybille - we had a similar thing here some years ago at a football match......terrible. And during the war there was a tragic accident when people ran to get down an underground station stairway as the air-raid siren had gone off, someone tripped on the steps and there were lots of people crushed, I think they have recently put a memorial up to them. And tragically when the siren went off it was a false alarm. I am sure anyone who was in the rescue party will have seen some horrible things and I can well understand the following nightmares.

Jane and Janet you have both had lovely weekends, although different both sound lovely....I had no idea so much went on in Hitchin Janet, quite a hot spot. What a wonderful sum to have raised - brilliant.
Hope the girlies dried off with an extra sheen to their coats Jane - although not sure sea water is that good on a long coat.

[tricia2ws]

What a terrible tragedy and such a sad waste of life, to go out to enjoy yourself and never come back home...just awful, you really feel for the families, so sad. x tricia

[jane jackson]

That was truly a dreadful disaster in Germany, must have been terrifying to have been involved in it.

Janet, what a lovely weekend you had too and you did so well with your friend's open garden and the refreshments.

Not quite so sunny here today as yesterday but very warm and humid. We sat out at Lamorna Cove eating cheesy chips and watching the families on the beach and also the boat coming back in with the divers all carrying their equipment up the beach ~ those air tanks looked very heavy.

Does anyone hear from Steve over in Canada now? I thought of him as I glanced over to The Magazine and thought what a wonderful view he must have from up there.

Later in the afternoon we took the girls back to Long Rock beach but the tide was further in this time so Rosie didn't go in too far. There was a jet ski out there pulling what looked like an inflatable dinghy with 2 people in. They were having a whale of a time.

[Kath Mulligan]

Glad you're still having reasonable weather Jane, should be good for the start of Adrian and Rachel's holiday then. It has been horrible up here today, wet, very misty over the hills but muggy with it. At midday I was driving back from Buxton with my headlights on!

Sybille I read about the terrible tragedy at Duisburg and wondered if it was anywhere near you. What an appalling thing to happen. It does sound as though it was very badly managed, having only the one entrance/exit. As Gloria says, we had a similar tragedy here some years ago at Hillsborough football ground when about 95 people lost their lives through being crushed and trampled when too many fans were allowed into the ground. You wouldn't expect to wave your children off to an event like that and not expect to see them alive again, would you?

Jane, Patricia hears quite regularly from Steve. He was over at the Magazine recently and met up with Patricia several times I think, but he is now back in Canada. Shame that he doesn't post on here anymore, I used to enjoy reading his posts.

Janet, you sound to have had a lovely weekend too, so glad that the weather was good for Renata's garden open days. Elizabeth and I were at Stoney Middleton well dressings yesterday, then went to Buxton on the way home to a summer fete in the Pavilion Gardens. There were also craft, art and photography exhibitions on and we got talking to a wonderful young wildlife photographer called Craig Jones and his wife. He runs various photography courses and also offers one-to-one tuition where he meets up with you at a given point at dawn, then takes you off either to see birds, seals, mountain hares etc, returning at dusk. He is Peak District based so Elizabeth is going to arrange to go onto our local Kinder Scout with him to photograph red grouse, mountain hares, plovers etc. He also does longer trips to North Norfolk for the seabirds, Lincolnshire for seals, Mull for birds of prey, and Africa and India for the more exotic wildlife. The last two are 8 day trips that are rather expensive but Elizabeth is determined to save up to go on the Kenyan trip at some point. He was such an enthusiastic young man who is obviously very keen to pass on his knowledge and enthusiasm to others that I almost wished that I had a decent camera too and could go along! Then reality kicked in because I could not cope with trekking about the moors all day long in all weathers!

By the way Jane, I could have done without the reminder that it is only 5 months till Christmas, thank you. :blink:

Kath

[gloria townsin]

I have a feeling Patricia said Steve is due back soon. I don't know why he doesn't post here anymore, I was really looking forward to hearing about The Magazine and how it all turned out and his visits.........so if you drop by Steve would love to hear from you again and try and be at next year's Memorial Weekend as it's a special one.

[tricia2ws]

New argos book out......sure sign christmas is coming........x tricia :toomuchinfo:

[gloria townsin]

Yep I saw it advertised the other day..........ho hum!!

[Kath Mulligan]

I've probably mentioned it on here before, since I was so horrified at the time, but I received the Christmas edition of the Studio Cards catalogue in May - yes, May!!! It is still sitting unopened in its polythene wrapper and will continue to do so until after I come back from Cornwall in November. I refuse to think about Christmas until then.

The one exception I do make is to buy next year's calendars when I am in Cornwall, so that is usually in June, although this time it will be November.

Kath

[Janet Swan]

... and we must try to remember that Charles, who provides Cornwall Webcam for our enjoyment, also produces a nice calender each year ... am I the only one who buys it?!!!

Janet

[Gill Bilcliffe]

The 2011 Norfolk calenders are for sale in my local Co-op. At the garden centre last weekend they were clearing out the area where Christmas decorations are displayed I guess to make way for this years Xmas extravaganza!!

[Janet Swan]

Aw, Gill!!! A friend has offered me a place on a coach trip to Sheringham and Cromer this Saturday - and if the shops have Christmas stuff there already, I think I'll say no thank you!!!

Janet

[Gill Bilcliffe]

I don't think you see Christmas stuff just yet Janet - well I hope not!! Funny I was thinking of getting the bus with my twirly bus pass to Sheringham tomorrow that is if the weather holds. A little rain her at the moment but it is well needed so I will not complain.

[gloria townsin]

I really cannot stand to see Christmas stuff before October......I make a point of not looking if it's displayed. It completely undermines that actual joy of the season if you start preparing for it months and months in advance.

[Kath Mulligan]

I shall be travelling to Sheringham by train on my way to Wells in September, then hopping off the train and onto a bus which hopefully will take me almost to the door of the cottage we are renting. We always used to spend a day in Sheringham when we were holidaying at Bacton, and of course, Cromer was the nearest town to us so we often went there. In fact, I always used to buy my calendars in Cromer - think the bookshop was called Jarrolds - is it still there, Gill? I am planning to drag Dorota to Cromer and Sheringham one day. We both want to go out on one of the seal trips from Blakeney and to visit Holkam Hall too.

I think I saw some boxes of Christmas cards about to be put out on the shelves when I was in Morrisons today. I shall refuse to look at them!! I honestly think this is one reason why Christmas nowadays often feels like an anticlimax once it actually arrives. We are so bombarded with stuff for months before the event, that we are all bored stiff by the time it arrives. At least, that's how I often feel.

Kath

[tricia2ws]

We used to go to cornwall in september and the local morrisons had just started to get the christmas stuff in, in sainsburys we are clearing out the summer stuff to make way for back to school, once thats gone it starts to dwindle in, although we have halloween first, speaking as someone who loves everything about christmas, I think it's just to early, part of the fun for me is the build up just a few weeks before, seeing stuff months before hand takes the pleasure out of it, I can remember going to the local wyvale just before last year and they was almost sold out of a lot of things, they will have us buying after easter before much longer, and don't even get me started on easter eggs and hot cross buns, tsck, rant over. x tricia :shout:

[Kath Mulligan]

Our supermarkets seem to have hot cross buns on sale all year round now which is a shame because they used to be something special to look forward to.

We have Elizabeth's birthday in early November, just after Bonfire Night so I refuse to even think about Christmas until after that. This year we shall be in Cornwall that week and we are planning to do some Christmas shopping at places like Presingoll Barns while we are down. The girls quite fancy having a day shopping in Plymouth. I like Plymouth but not sure I want to spend a full day shopping there, so I might opt out of that trip and do something on my own instead.

Kath

[gloria townsin]

Isn't life odd? Today I discovered that my vet's nurse Jenny's daughter went down to open the Helston Sainsburys a week or so ago, in fact the day we left!! I didn't know until today that she had any connections with the store, why would I? and it was just by chance that I was talking about Cornwall and mentioned Helston that Jenny asked if we were anywhere near there as her daughter had been there opening the new Sainsburys. Annoyingly her hotel booking on the Lizard hadn't been done properly as when she got to the hotel they had no room reserved for her. She ended up back near the railway station and had a rather miserable hotel stay overnight. I guess it must have been Camborne or Redruth? wasn't Penzance. Apparently most places were fully booked, so that's good news for Cornwall.

[tricia2ws]

I love presingol barns, it has some lovely gifty things in there, bet you get some great christmas pressies, I also quite like treasure park, although a lot of it is jewellery, they do have some other little bits and bobs too. Helston sainsbos....now I could always get a transfer down there......x tricia :yes4:

[Kath Mulligan]

By treasure park, do you mean the Cornish Gold Centre, Tricia? I know it has now been vastly extended to cover more than just the gold centre, and it's a place we often visit. I often used to bring the girls back a pair of earrings from there when Vin and I were down on holiday and I have a lovely delicate gold chain that he once bought for me.

Kath

[gloria townsin]

Hey........what a good idea Tricia.........for once I'm looking forward to doing some weekly shopping there.......a new supermarket.....shows how exciting my life is!!
And to make it even better Helston Tesco, just up the road from Sainsbro, is extending to a much bigger store......oh my choice is endless...........

[jane jackson]

We've got Tesco and Morrisons practically on top of each other and now we're likely to get Sainsburys on the Heliport if they and the Helicopter firm get their way ~ do we really need 3 supermarkets in PZ especially if you have Tesco and Sainsburys in Helston? Do you still have Somerfield there or has that gone?

[Gill Bilcliffe]

Kath I don't know if there is a Jarrolds bookshop in Cromer as I don't go there very often. There is a Jarrolds bookshop and department store in Norwich though.

Gill

[Linda]

off at a tangent...I was born in Lowestoft and when I was a child we would holiday in Cromer in a caravan. I really enjoyed those holidays.

[Kath Mulligan]

I can always check for Jarrolds in Cromer for myself, Gill in September.

Linda, I like Cromer too. Love the museum set out like an old fisherman's cottage, complete with very lifelike figures, and the church in the centre of the main street which usually had beautiful flower gardens around it whenever we were there. I remember us climbing right up to the top of the belltower one year and being able to go out onto the parapet - wow, what a spectacular view that was. It was Cromer too that started my long association with the RNLI because we always used to visit the lifeboat station at the end of the pier and I bought a book there about one of the most famous lifeboatmen, Henry Bloggs which was an amazing read. As soon as we got home I joined the RNLI as a Shoreline member and have been supporting them ever since.

Kath

[gloria townsin]

Not sure about Somerfields but there is a Lidl just outside of Helston on the road I take to Penzance.

[jane jackson]

If you come from The Lizard we turn left at Spar for PZ but if you got straight on our VW Garage is on the left and I think Somerfields is/was on the right up a side road.

[tricia2ws]

treasure park is the cornish goldsmiths, it's a big complex now, there is a silversmiths, what was the newquay pearl, a bit with bags, keyrings etc, a bit with ornaments, and our personnel favourite.....a build your own teddy bear bit, you pick which one you want, stuff it, dress it, then name it, lovely, there is also a lovely cafe there, and of course the remains of the tolgus tin mine, tho' you have to pay to go round it now. there seems to be a few sainsbos cropping up down there now, i'm spoilt for choice as to which one to transfer down to now.......in my dreams maybe.......:haha: .........x tricia

[Janet Swan]

What's all this here about supermarkets?!!! How about supporting local shops and suppliers more - so they don't keep having to close because of supermarkets opening up everywhere and putting them out of business?

Janet :behindsofa:

[tricia2ws]

sorry to see the small shops go, but sadly the supermarkets already have the little shops beat, the smaller shops for sure are just too expensive, had to use one a few weeks ago when ross was unwell, blimey I can't believe how much I had to pay, as a single mum, I have to shop where it's cheaper, and working for a supermarket, they employ a vast amount of people, so for me they are a good thing. x tricia

[Kath Mulligan]

I'm as guilty as the next person for doing my main shopping at the supermarkets, partly because it is more convenient to have everything under one roof, but mostly because it is cheaper, but I do also try to support my local shops too. We have a wonderful butcher and a great fruit and veg stall on the outdoor market every Friday and Saturday, and a lovely card and gift shop too, but apart from that many of the old shops are now building societies and takeaways (although we are losing our local branches of the Derbyshire and Halifax building societies in the next couple of months).

I did use the local Spar shop during the wintry weather when I couldn't get my car out, but the prices were ridiculously high in comparison to Tesco and Morrisons so I'm afraid I went back to using them once the snow had gone.

Kath

[jane jackson]

I'm guilty too but it is so much easier to shop in a supermarket as well as cheaper for most things. Bryan does get veg, eggs and milk from a lovely shop in Causewayhead on tuesdays and fridays when he's up the town and they are actually cheaper than the supermarkets. I once bought a swede and a cauliflour from there and only had one bag in which to carry them home ~ not a good idea and I soon regretted that as my arms got tired. It's also the parking problem which not only adds to the cost but you have to walk too far carrying the shopping. I do use a great little shop for birthday cards.

Tricia there's a Sainsburys possibly coming to Hayle so you would have lots of choice to transfer!

[gloria townsin]

I do support the local Mullion shops as much as possible, but when I have the main shop to get like Tricia, Jane and Kath I have to go where I can get almost if not all I need and at a price that makes it affordable. Unfortunately local shops either don't have what you want or if they do it is a premium price and so I am inclined to get a week's worth at a time, other than fresh meat and bread, although at one time when the boys were at home I used to buy bread and freeze it as we were forever opening a new loaf, my lads seemed to walk into the kitchen and automatically make toast, tea and or sandwiches...........just a snack. But I do hate the loss of local shops and yet I am a culprit in helping their demise....I really don't know the answer.

[Gill Bilcliffe]

My corner shop is a convenient Co-op store. While it is very handy the shelf prices are so much more that the bigger stores although each week there are good offers at the Co-op competitive with the competition. I wander off to Tescos each week for my main shopping as it is so much cheaper with lots of vouchers and money off deals. These days unfortunately we have to watch our pennies!!

[pauline]

How lucky you are! our "corner shop" has four wheels and a drop down side. It parks in the main village for 15mins on a Wednesday. The prices are higher, of course, but the bread is wonderful. Our nearest supermarket is 6miles away, not too far.

But we do have a fish van every Friday and the fish is very fresh. Actually these vans are "hail and buy" just like our one bus on Saturdays.

[jane jackson]

There are always advantages and disadvantages in living in an out of the way place aren't there? On Exmoor we had a village shop but that was very expensive and small so didn't have the choice and our local supermarket was 13 miles away in Minehead so a half hour drive ~ thank goodness for our freezers then with the B&Bs to cater for especially the unexpected ones. That's where our vegetable garden came in very handy and the fruit and the eggs. One year in the early days our top field was absolutely covered in the most wonderful mushrooms. It was after we'd had the field harrowed and the chap had gone a bit mad and gone down a bit far and we never had those mushrooms again. We were selling them at the gate and giving them to neighbours.

The likes of B&Q were 26 miles away in Taunton so now it's lovely to be able to just pop down the road, only 5 minutes away ~ as I said ~ swings and roundabouts really ~ convenient but in a built up area ~ at least the sea is very close!

[pauline]

. One year in the early days our top field was absolutely covered in the most wonderful mushrooms. were selling them at the gate and giving them to neighbours.

!

Occassionally I see what I think are mushrooms in the fields but don't have the courage to pick them. I know I could show them to others in the know, but aren't they seasonal, autumn time? Ignorant about that. But, have eaten blackberries this week fully ripe from the hedgerows and it will be a very good year for wild hazel nuts if the wildlife can spare us a few. The sloes are forward this year also.