I've started knitting again! It's only been about 25 years since I last picked up a pair of knitting needles - oh I am loving it so much!

 I am following one of Kaffe Fassett's sleeveless pullover patterns from his book 'Glorious Knitting'; sticking pretty much to the colourway in the book, as it so happened I had those colours stashed away in my wool basket anyway.

On Friday I went to see the Leach Pottery in St. Ives, somewhere I drive past so many times and have just never got round to going in.

 As you will read below, Bernard Leach set up the pottery with his friend Shoji Hamada in the early 1920's. Later his wife Janet and son David also worked alongside Bernard producing the dinnerware and studio pots which made his name famous all over the world, especially so in Japan, where Bernard had originally been taught his craft by one of the Japanese masters. Nowadays there are no Leachs at the pottery, but other resident potters still produce a range of dinnerware and studio pots available to purchase in the studio shop.

 I will take you on a little tour around the pottery, picking out details which delighted me.... (there was no-one else looking around, so I could take my time and soak in the atmosphere, imagining the great master at work).....

 The clay mixing machine

A warming fire at the heart of the pottery where Bernard would do critiques of his son David's and other student's work - if it wasn't up to scratch, he would simply squash it and expect the piece to be made all over again.

On one wall, samples of different clays and glazes for reference

 (When I was looking through these photos I suddenly noticed how closely the colours on these tiles resembled the colours that I was using in my jumper!)

The kilns, fired by gas

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Some beautiful pieces by contemporary potters for sale in the shop. 

For once, I resisted.......

A very Merry Christmas to you one and all!

Handmade Christmas tree decorations made out of driftwood and recycled books...

The seagulls in the Sea Garden window have their winter scarves on!

Here's to a holiday full of good cheer dear friends xxx

Men-an-Tol

Every so often a day comes along that feels like it has been given as a special gift, and Friday 29th November was one such day. 

I had made a return visit to The Egyptian House in Penzance (see blog post 16th Feb 2019), and this time I took Mum along too. Earlier in the week the weather had been rather dull and a little wet, but Friday dawned warm, golden and still, Autumn at its best. After sitting outside(!) eating fish and chips at The Tinner's Arms in Zennor (where the day before we had been huddled around a very welcome log fire to take away the damp chill), we decided to head up onto the moors above Madron to see the Men-an-Tol.

From the lay-by at the side of the road a small farm track meanders uphill alongside a tiny stream.

An abandoned farm came into view, and we wondered who had once eked out a living here from the moorland.

Then over a stile and looking towards the ruined engine house of Ding Dong Mine on the horizon, we catch our first glimpse of the ancient stones of Men-an-Tol.

Believed to date from the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age (3500 years ago) there is mystery as to whether this enigmatic stone with the hole was originally at the centre of a stone circle with the other upright stones around it, or whether these stones once formed part of a burial tomb. (Incidentally there is only one other holed stone in existence in Britain and that is also in Cornwall). What is known is that the stones as you see them today are not in their original positions, seemingly aligned to pinpoint the rising sun in the east and the setting sun in the west. It is believed they were moved sometime in the early 19th Century.

 For centuries people believed that the Men-an-Tol held special healing properties; by crawling through the hole three times, or seven times, or nine times, one could be cured of back pain, or children of rickets, or a woman wishing to become pregnant would gain fertility. 

It must be 30 years since Mum and I did this walk up to Men-an-Tol, and to experience it together again on such a beautiful afternoon as the sun was slowly sinking in the west, with the stones casting long shadows on the grass and all around was stillness and silence: not a breath of wind, so rare up on the moors, was simply magical.

Still here!

 Gosh it's been a long time, but I'm still here! Sorry for my very long absence......

The shop takes up all of my time; this Summer especially has just been exhausting, I think partly because I was still coping emotionally  with the death of my Dad, and seeing Mum struggling with her grief and doing my best to support her.

But I'm finding my groove once more now that things have quietened down. Autumn colours are creeping into the displays and  antique dyed linens are neatly stacked ready to find a new lease of life on someone's dinner table, dressing table or bed.

A shelf of Patsy's beautiful Liberty fabric covered notebooks

and these 19th C 'hexies' would make a lovely feature on the front of a small cushion or lavender pillow.

See you again soon, I promise......

 Happy Easter weekend everyone!

 The Spring flowers are out in all their glory now in Cornwall. Last week I visited Godolphin.....

Beneath the ancient apple trees and all amongst the grass were snakeshead fritillaries and primroses

 

Inside the potting shed......

 cobwebs and nests

 

New buds emerging......

 verdant mossy banks

 

I climbed up Godolphin Hill and walked barefoot right round the perimeter, sensing the cool grass and the warm granite of the rocks as I trod. I lay under an oak tree, so stunted in its growth by the wind that I could rest my feet on its lowest branch and gaze up though the latticework of branches to the bluest of blue skies above.

My dear Dad passed away a month ago. These last few weeks have been a time of great sadness, and  reflection; of memories and gratitude for all that he gave to us, and the wonderful life that we shared together. x