Glamour Shots Party

Lori is holding a Glamour Shots Party and I found the courage to enter - Go on give it a go.

This embarrasing picture was taken when I was about 23 - that's a lotta years ago! I feel very old!

Restful Restormel

It's the AGM for the MX-5 Owners Club today. Everyone is going for a convoy drive and then stopping at the Jubilee Inn, Pelynt for Sunday Lunch, followed by the AGM in the garden at the rear of the Inn.

As Mike has not long had his eye surgery, and is still bothered by the sun, he did not want to risk doing the club run, but suggested a gentle drive up towards Lostwithiel, and a wander and picnic at Restormel Castle.

My dilemma? Paul had already arranged to go to watch a hill climb up at St Austell, and as this one has not taken place for the last two years, did not want to miss it.

For those of you that know me, you will be aware that I am not at all confident driving any distance, ever since a car side swiped us about 11 years ago. Travelling in a car is a very real fear for me, and I constantly send my poor husband do-lally with my screeches and cries whilst I am a passenger.

I declined the offer to join Mike and Sally-Ann, despite having wanted to go to Restormel for some time.

After a day of searching for craft stuff (for a secret project, that I can only tell you about once I have permission!) I decided that I really did not want to miss out on this opportunity, and in a moment of bravery, I texted Sally-Ann and said I would meet them the following morning at our usual spot, and follow them up country. OMG! Panic!

We got up early and when I came down from my shower, found that Paul had made me a lovely picnic to take with me. All I had to do now was to calm down and do the drive!

I met the others at North Country, and Sally-Ann reassured me by saying we would be driving all of the roads that I was very familiar with, if only as a passenger, so there should be no surprises for me.

And off we went....

... and as you can see from the piccies, I did it! I was so very proud of myself. I know that an hours drive up the road is nothing to any 'normal' person, but this was a huge, huge achievement for me, and I am so glad that I went.

The Castle is set up high, in beautiful Cornish countryside, and the whole place has a fantastic and calming atmosphere about it.

Sometime when you go to these sort of places, you can almost feel the fear of battle or tears of heartache that are held within the walls of the building, but this place is totally different.

The skies were a glorious blue, and the whole drive up was done with the lids down on our little sports cars, making the trip even more wonderful.

Having walked the upper walls and looked in on the rooms from above, we wandered back over the dry moat and sat at a picnic table to eat our lunch.

It was then time to look once more inside before a wander around the external walls of the Castle and some more pictures of this beautiful place.

From here we headed over to Pelynt for the AGM, and then back home.

I am so thrilled that I plucked up the courage to do this, and thoroughly enjoyed my day. I just hope that I can get the nerve up again soon to do something else, and keep the momentum going.

Thanks for inviting me to join you Sally-Ann and Mike.xx

2010 Tide Race

Where did the year go? It's Tide Race time again, and we arrived well into the race, when the castles were getting to the height that may save it's builders and ultimately win them the race.

The gentleman you can see above, was very busy tamping down the top of their castle with a heavy duty metal spade - no plastic beach spades for this team!

There were plenty of people on the beach watching, and despite the fact that we arrived having timed our arrival with the incoming tide, it still seemed to take it's time to come in, and, as the wind picked up, and the chill cut through us, Sally-Ann and I gave up and headed on back for a warming cup of tea, leaving Paul to tell us who had won......

Unfortunately he only lasted 30 minutes more than we did, so we have no idea who the winners were this year!

Good effort everyone!

Portreath Harbour Fun Day 2010

It's Harbour Fun Day once more in Portreath, and I wanted to have a go at selling some cards on Sally-Ann and Mikes front balcony/porch area.

Along with my box of cards, was a lovely rack that held all of Pam's paintings. We could only try...

Whilst Paul and Mike relaxed and watched the goings on from their birds eye view on the balcony, Sally-Ann and I had a wander around and checked out all of the festivities

We were lucky enough to see the animals from Gwen-an-Mor and Feadon Farm. There were many birds of prey, voles, toads, and snakes.

I was fascinated with the snakes, and although Sally-Ann has a terrible phobia of them, she was very brave and got close enough for the zoom on her camera to work, and she got a few pictures of me holding one.

Along with the live animals, were bones of long since dead ones, it was great to see, as it gave us an idea of how large some of these beasts got.

As we returned to the safety and relative relaxed atmosphere of the balcony, the competitions began, firstly with the swimming race

and then the raft race

everyone headed off with great enthusiasm..... I ran along the harbour to intersect them at the cut and spotted an old fashioned Punch and Judy show, which the kids were in awe of....

and finally returned to the harbour head once more, to see who won the race

The guys with the two bath tubs and kitchen sink strapped together just made it to the finish before they sank!

All in all it was a great day, and it wasn't until we started to pack up that the rain started to spot. Well done Mother Nature, you timed it right for once!

Glam Lam!

I am so sick of not having enough money to do anything on the house, and always seem to be robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak. Since I had my stints in hospital in January and February, our accounts have just taken ages to recover from 5 weeks of little or no salary coming into my account. Even with the sale of the static caravan, and the money that gave us, things seem to have taken their own sweet time to fall back into place.

And so, with the misery descending on me, I decided to see how much it would cost to re lay some new laminate in the living room.

The old stuff, that you can see in the picture above, was a really pale maple like effect, that the previous owners had laid (very badly) and it was chipped and scratched to within an inch of it's life. I could not take looking at it any more!

Having got a quote from a flooring company, that reached nearly £800, my general mood of dissatisfaction got worse.

It was at this point we remembered we had nearly 2 packs lefts of a deep chocolate brown laminate that we had used in the hallway when we first moved here.

I worked out we need to be able to cover about 25 square foot, and we had about 3 square foot already, if we used the same stuff. I went online to check if our local DIY store still did that make and colour...... Bingo, and they had a third off, for this weekend only. The really cheap packs now got even cheaper! We did not even need the foamy underlay, as we had some left from last time.

A quick trip down to HB (you know where it is if you think about it!) DIY store, and we got the 8 packs that we needed to be able to complete the job. And the cost you ask? (bearing in mind we had not got anything to pay for it) £100! it went onto the plastic, and was worth every penny of worrying about the bill. Look at the results....

It went down in about 11 hours, over the Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon, and all we need to do now is to refit the skirting board, which we managed to get off unscathed so that it can be re-used.

A relatively cheap do over of a room that had not had a thing done to it since we moved in three years ago.

A lick of paint, which we already have, and it will be a whole new room. Thank Gooodness!

My lovely hubby even agree's it was what we needed to cheer ourselves up and feel like we are still managing to achieve something towards finishing the house.

Scontastic

I had promised, that whilst the boys and the kiddies were in Cornwall I would make scones for them, and today was the day.....

I came home from work and set to making 3 batches. I needed about 24 to allow everyone to have 2 each.

They came from the oven, and got placed into a container and we drove them, still warm, down to Cambrose, and the camp site where they were all staying.

Jamie and Phill provided the cream, jam and tea, to complete the cream tea.

We all filled our faces and chatted about all sorts of gossipy things. A lovely relaxed evening with friends.

Bennetts Take The Beach!

When we had the call to come to the beach today, I did not expect to see this.......

Yes I've been to New York.

Yes I've met the Naked Cowboy.

But have any of you ever met the Surf Cowboy!!

Simon did a smashing job of taking this title and making it his own! Meanwhile, the others got kitted up, (as normal surfer dudes) and headed on down to the water for a splash around and some fun

Little Sara took a while to get in and paddle, but after a little friendly persuasion, she decided that sitting on the body board in an inch of sea water was an acceptable experience to endure!


Soon it was time for the second session in the sea, so we got a quick piccie before they all rushed off again

It was then the weary walk back up the beach, and the stripping off of the wet suits before heading home to relax.

What a tiring afternoon..... and I was only watching and taking pictures!

Visiting Our Cornish Mining Heritage

The weather was glorious when we awoke, and we did not want the day to pass without doing something nice, for as little money as possible.

As we have 12 month passes for the National Trust, I checked out their website for some ideas, and having decided on Levant Mine at St Just, not far from the Lizard, and Cape Cornwall, we packed up a picnic and piled into the MX-5.

The lid down and Fred attached to the seat belt with his car harness on Paul's lap, we headed off down country with the sun beating down on us.

Yes, I did drive all the way! I was feeling very brave today! LOL!

We arrived and were advised that the whole of the mining heritage site was dog friendly and that Fred was welcome anywhere we wanted to go.... so many new sniffs for him, he was in his element!

The first building took us into a room with a mine shaft that went down, and down, and down....

the next room was a video DVD room with info on the site and its full history, as the film was already running, we took advantage of a huge table outside, and ate out picnic... we could go in once the film restarted.... unfortunately we had finished our tiger baps, fruit and crisps and the film was still playing, so we carried on to the next building with the intention of coming back later.

This really is the most breath taking place. The sun was shining and the sky and sea the most glorious blues, but we could imagine that the treacherous rocks and weather renowned for in this part of the world would make this quite an open and hostile environment in the winter time.

Having wandered around the main building, we headed out away from the steam engine and primary site, and walked back up the coast path, in the direction of the Pendeen Lighthouse, as there were more outbuilding to be looked at, and arsenic piles/slag heaps to be inspected.... all by products of the mining that took place here.

As we came to the last of the out building and relics, we could see the Geevor mine in the distance, and as it was only about a quarter of a mile away, decided to walk up to it and get a drink in their cafe before heading back to the final building at Levant.

By the time we had climbed (or crawled and puffed in my case) up the hill towards Geevor and this water wheel, both Fred and I were ready to collapse from heat exhaustion and dehydration!

Fred downed a complete bowl of his water, that thankfully we had left in the picnic bag that Paul was carrying.

I was able to sit at a picnic table in front of the above buildings, and down a large glass of fizzy pop, whilst Paul was very grown up with his cup of coffee..... Coffee in heat like this!!!!

The walk back from Geevor to Levant was a little easier, as it took a slightly higher coast path, that wasn't so hilly.

It bought us out just by the area where the car parks were, and we were able to then access the underground mine that was open to visitors.

It was wonderfully cool inside the granite walls, and as we followed the path down the tunnel, Fred panted away, appreciating the drop in temperature.

The little cubicles in the wall that you can see, were to house the miners helmets!

When we had finished looked around, we climbed back into the '5' and drove over the Pendeen Lighthouse, that we had been able to see from the mines.

We parked up and walked down to the Lighthouse, and, having set the camera on auto timer, and propped in precariously on a fence post, I managed to get a family picture of our day out.

Before heading back home, we bought an obligatory ice cream with chocolate flake and relaxed whilst taking in the beautiful view.

What a fantastic day! The journey home was just as good, this time with Paul driving, and we did the coast road all the way home, coming through St Ives, Carbis Bay, and Hayle before driving our favourite coast road from Hayle to Portreath.

We finished the day off by raiding out little red purse, or kitty as we like to call her, for some entertainment funds.

The day was finished off with a meal at the Portreath Arms, the only part of the day that cost us any money, other than the £2.50 for the ice cream, earlier in the afternoon.

Fantastic!