What a Difference a Week Makes

What a difference in the weather, last Sunday, I was happily snapping away in the sunshine like a demented, camera happy tourist while collecting bits of driftwood and shells and generally having a lovely time on one of my local beaches. Yesterday, the weather was grey, the Cornish mizzle, a cross between mist and drizzle had firmly set in and the whole atmosphere was decidedly autumnal and gloomy. Still, I'm not one to let a bit of rain stop me from having a walk by the sea so I hopped in the car and nipped off to Looe with my camera to pretend to be a tourist again and see if there was anything interesting to find on the beach.

I was thrilled to find a new local shop on the quay, I'm all for promoting local produce and I buy locally as often as I can, usually from the market where I have my stall but I also like to support other local retailers if I can. I bought some lovely mushrooms which I had for my breakfast when I got home, they were absolutely delicious.

And of course there is Pengelly's where I buy my fish whenever I'm in Looe

Banjo pier was looking empty and gloomy.

The fishing boats were having a day off.

I did spot something I've never seen before though, even though I have been visiting Looe for the last 11 years. A cute little petrol pump for the boats to use all neatly tucked away on the quayside.

I really love this old building, it would make an awesome house or workshop space, preferably both at the same time. I have a sneaking feeling though that I love it so much because the doors and windows are painted in a colour very similar to my front door. It's my new favourite colour. 

And despite the mizzle, these geraniums are totally beautiful and cheer up the gloomiest of days. 

The beach was deserted. Apart from a flock of seagulls having a nap on the sand and a couple of brave souls who had obviously finished their breakfast quickly and headed to the beach early in time to beat the rush there was no one in sight. Not only was it empty of people though, there was no driftwood or shells or anything at all. For some reason, the council have taken to scraping the beach with a tractor each day after the tide goes out to get rid of every trace of, well, just about everything that you would usually find on a beach. There is no life left at all, which is a real shame. I have no idea what they do with the seaweed and of course, the sea creatures that live within the micro-ecosystems within the seaweed, after they have scraped it all away but I'm guessing that not much survives. I don't understand why they have to do this. I'm assuming it's because the tourists don't like seaweed on their beaches. Ridiculous if you ask me but then I suppose that's just a personal opinion. Collecting shells was one of my favourite things to do when I was a child and we went to the beach.

A totally barren beach 

And finally there was this little fellow. I know a lot of people think that these birds are pests but I love the way they hop and walk along the ground. He was very obliging too and I managed to get nice and close to get a picture.

A Touch of Cabin Fever

Yesterday, after posting my Robin Hood In A Tree blog post, I sat down at my sewing machine with my pile of lovely fabrics in front of me and tried to conjure up some creativity. It didn't work. I sat there for about half an hour, moving the fabrics around, playing with the beautiful lace and velvet ribbon trimmings and finally, I had to admit defeat. My inspiration seems to have temporarily deserted me. I'm usually quite an outdoorsy type of person and lately, I have been feeling slightly claustrophobic. The horrible weather has turned me into a bit of a hermit so, I thought getting out of the house for a while and seeing some human beings might help. With this in mind, I hopped in the car and went for a drive. 

I drove to Mount Edgecumbe, about 20 minutes from where I live, to photograph their famous National Camellia Collection which usually in flower in January. Sadly, I was about two weeks too early! No Camellias at all and no human beings either.

Picture from the Mount Edgecumbe website

On my way home, I decided that I would call in a Kingsand, as it's just around the corner from Mount Edgecumbe. It's a quaint little village that in summer is beautiful, picturesque and fairly busy. Sadly, in winter it's not! It was utterly deserted. I wandered around the cute little lanes and found some beautiful little cottages that looked as if they should be on a post card but, alas, not one single human being and not even a coffee shop to indulge in a hot chocolate and a piece of cake.

The next little cove along is Cawsand. It's teeny tiny and very quaint but, once again, no humans (I'm beginning to see a pattern) There was, however, a very cute mosaic in the little shelter down near the beach and ............

.......... these very cute fishy things in a garden on the way to back to the car park.

Finally, on the drive back home, I stopped to breath in some fresh sea air. Being by the sea always makes me feel better. I love the beach no matter what time of year and although the weather was grey, the sea was so calm it was hard to tell where the sea met the sky.

Beautiful.