Wednesday 16 March 2011

Ma Nature's lyrical

Its been 4 months.  I am out of hibernation - the sun is out, the daffodils are blooming, and life is finally starting to feel as I imagined it would as a newly-wedded lady.... only a year later!

I have wanted to post so often over the last months but life, and work, and Christmas, and birthdays and moving house all got in the way.

The idyll of farm life soon faded with the arrival of one of the coldest winters on record, and the novelty of living in a house that was falling down around our ears soon wore off.  Night after night the Mr and I would sit, in our three plus jumpers, mittens, scarves, coats and wooly hats, watching each other breath the way we did as children.  The fire's heat went out through the single paned glass and the draughty door frames and very often we ended up in bed at 7 - not for newlywed antics - no, because the electric blanket made it the warmest place in the house.  We got through 5 series of Battlestar Galactica in about 3 weeks as we watched episodes back to back on the lap top whilst huddling with the dog, who was so unbelievably cold that all of our discipline went out of the window.  It's bad enough us electing to live like this, we reasoned, but she hasn't any choice in the matter!

The nights were long and dark and in the end we retreated 'upcountry' for what can only be described as one of the loveliest Christmases ever.  The In-Laws house was like a little gingerbread heaven as we approached on the 22nd, fairy lights twinkling, snow on the roof, and the log burner working over time.  We were spoilt for nearly two whole weeks and returning to the cold crumbling house in January was a depressing shock to the system.

So we set to with the house hunting!  And now we think we've died and gone to heaven.  Our new home is in the perfect little village of Cubert, 1 mile from the North coast (Holywell Bay) and about 3 miles West of Newquay.  It's high on a hill and visible from miles around - on Monday Mr and I went for a long old walk (mainly because we got a bit lost) but it enabled me to take this picture...


You can see the steeple of St Cubert's Church towards the right hand side ... its a 13 Century building - a little bit worse for wear as many of these places are - but its the heart of the village and I can see it from my front door :-)  Being new to the village I though p'raps I ought to pop along on a Sunday just to say hello, and before I knew it I had joined the choir and found myself singing for the Bishop at the St Piran's celebrations the following week!  I  was so warmly welcomed - and its lovely to be 'plugged in' so soon.

St Piran is not, contrary to popular belief, the patron saint of Cornwall. He is in fact the Patron Saint of Tin Miners - and it is his cross which adorns the Cornish flag (The white represents the streaks of tin in the Cornish rock)  Every year the locals of Perranporth (about 5 miles away and the site of St Piran's landing in Cornwall) re-enact the event, which involves St Piran, an Irish Monk, drifting across the sea from Ireland having been saved from drowning by the millstone intended to kill him which had miraculously 'floated' and brought him to Cornwall.

St Piran's Cross which dates from the 9th Century, is decorated with Daffodils as part of this event which includes a big parade of locals across the sand dunes.  We missed the event but on our epic walk we found the cross!  And very lovely it is too.



And well- that was the day I decided to come out of hibernation - things are looking up - Spring has properly sprung and in ten days time the clocks will change and we'll be well on the way to Summer.  I LIVE IN CORNWALL.  And it's actually rather lovely!   Winter Blues - what are they? Pah! I spit in the face of Winter Blues.  I hear Daffodil Yellow is the new blue :-)

As the song goes- 'Ma Nature's lyrical, with her yearly miracle... its spring, spring SPRING!'

1 comment:

  1. So nice to read you, gives me the desire to come and see the place with mine own eyes.
    Good news about choir too. Isolation can be hard; I do feel a bit like that sometimes. I have not joined a choir (yet), but found a creative writing course at Warwick Uni with very good people sharing stories, different voices, all very moving.
    Hope to read more from you,Françoise

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