Little Tavelling Dreams: St. Ives

On my suggestion, we went to St. Ives for the day, which is one of the more popular Cornish towns. It has been popular with artists for generations, and has recently opened a Tate gallery on the waterfront.

After hunting down a little cove, chosen by Mum for it's beach cafe ("Its award winning,dear") we settled down in the sunshine. To my Mother's amusement we were joined on this tiny stretch of sand by BBC Coast presenter, Neil Oliver, who spent much of the day carefully constructing an elaborate sand castle long after his boden-clad children had lost interest.

We stayed for lunch, not that I got to each much of mine. No sooner had I unwrapped my chicken ticca baguette that I found myself wrestling for it against an opportunistic herring gull. I won, but there was a sizable chunk that I was no way going to eat.

Shaking slightly, I took a more defensive stance in my deck chair while finishing my food.

Yet clearly the damn bird (sorry RSPB!) had set me out as a target, and at the slightest window of opportunity it snatched the rest sandwich. It ate it in one.

^^Not at all random...
I couldn't settle after that, but I'd chosen the right town to be in. St. Ives is full of little shops; high street, independent and touristy. I had plenty of places to rummage in safe (I hoped) from seagull attack.

Little Travelling Dreams: Falmouth Boat Trip

Wednesday was an early start as we rushed off to Penzance to catch Maddy's early morning train home. It was a narrow thing, but she made it.

My parents and I then went back to Falmouth, where we had booked a boat trip up the Fal estuary. We stopped at Trelissick garden, which was given to the National Trust by the Copeland family, who still own the impressive mansion today.

The grounds are full of exotic plants and massive ferns, and thanks to all the rain we'd been having, there was definitely a tropical feel to the place.

The pretty little cafe courtyard was my favorite place though, because of all the little birds that had become tamed by feeding on crumbs. It had actually got to the point where we probably should have been feeding the birds as some were getting a little chubby.

It was hard not to though, because they were just too cute!

Later in the day it brightened up considerably, if briefly. We took the opportunity to walk along the coastal path behind our cottage leading to the Lizard.

We passed the Devil's Frying Pan, a collapsed sea cave, in picture-perfect blue sky and sea. The rain still held a strong presence though in the form of thick mud everywhere, slippery to the point that I had to haul myself along tree branches and a certain father of mine went sprawling....

It is amazing how different Cornwall looks in the sun -suddenly you remember why it is you came. In a word: stunning.

Little Travelling Dreams: Surf's Up!

Day two in Cornwall dawned with the worrying realization that I was about to plunge into cold waters: we were going to use the boards, regardless of the weather, because this was going to be Maddy's only full day in Cornwall before she had to return home to her summer job.

After an undignified struggle into wetsuits, we waded in. The conditions weren't too bad with surf-able waves rolling in fairly often, breaking perhaps a little too close to shore, but hey, I was hardly going to need a long surf for my questionable ability!

For much of the two hours that Maddy and I were surfing, we were the only ones in the water. During that time I'd like to think that we provided lots of entertainment for the lifeguard and beach cafe guy, as we exhibited some pretty spectacular wipe-outs. Well: I hardly think what I did could be called a wipe-out seeing as I barely got standing: somehow I don't being almost horizontal by the time my legs straightened actually counts as 'standing'. My signature move generally involved me moving too slowly, or being too far forward on my board by the time a wave hit me, and then being tossed head over heels with my board flipping somewhere close to my head.

Unlike me, Maddy could stand on her board, and she didn't manage to snap off a fin from her board. *oops*

After that (and steaming cups of crunchie and fudge covered hot chocolate) we dumped the boards to spend an hour or so in Falmouth. In one area of the town, we discovered a gorgeous shop Kit's Boutique. Part haberdashers, part clothing boutique, part accessories haven, I could have spent hours amongst the Object d'Art beauty bags and the kitsch jewellery and mirrors, but I satisfied myself by returning by force the next day...

Little Travelling Dreams: The Start

It was a rainy day to travel to Cornwall last Monday; though I shouldn't have been surprised. All UK holidays seem to involve rain for me!
We were staying in Cadgwith, a tiny village on Cornwall's Lizard Peninsular. It was the place that Monty Halls filmed The Fisherman's Apprentice, who I blogged about here.

We, my parents and I, all piled into our overstuffed car, along with my friend Maddy, who brought with her a pair of surfboards. As we drove further west, the conditions worsened: Devon was misty and Cornwall was near-invisible to us from the road. Everyone forgets something on holiday: I left my phone, after I took it out of my bag when I got an early morning text (from Maddy of all people!!), and my Dad spectacularly left the keys to unlocking his bike from the roof, after months of careful bike maintenance and buying new kit. Luckily, there is a little thing called a postal service that promised to send us the key by 9am the very next day (actually, it was a little after 10, but based on the miles of narrow, winding lanes, I'll forgive 'em).

By the time we got to our cliff-hugging cottage there seemed to be more water in the air than sea. And yet it didn't matter. As we explored our pretty cottage, which was surprisingly large and airy, I caught a glimpse of the view of the cove and my breath was taken away. I could barely see the coastline, but it was still amazing.

Maddy and I set out to discover Cadgwith, involving a walk down a narrow, rain sodden path. Although Cadgwith is tiny, it is well equipped with two pubs, a local shop and gallery, at least one fish monger's and a small fleet of fishing boats. Cadgwith is one of the last true fishing villages, untarnished by tourist shops in a honey pot area. When the weather is that bad, you can only laugh, and stare menacingly at the weatherman...

Little Tavelling Dreams: Home

I've just got home after a week spent in Cornwall. Due to the weather and my wimpish constitution, I didn't go surfing *quite* as much as I'd envisaged. It was still lovely though: we ate the freshest seafood, went for walks where possible (often in National Trust sites due to the impassable mud on cliff top paths), wandered around Cornish towns, and attempted to hit the beach once or twice.

^Look sun!!!^ Over the next few days, I'll write up some posts from some of my days.

A Little Note...

Just to say, there may not be any posts for the next week as I'm off to go surf in Cornwall, and I will probably be sans internet. See you soon...

Little Eco Dreams: Phoenix Forum

I am a member of of the RSPB, and last year, I was elected onto the teen forum, the Phoenix Forum. I've had a few meetings now, and I just have so much fun working with everyone. There are ten of us involved, and we're a complete mix. Some of the guys are really into your traditional birdwatching, and their knowledge is so inspiring. Others of us are more interested in wider issues, which I think helps to represent all the young adults who care about the environment, but aren't necessarily interested in bird watching.

We delved into psychology and had this big discussion on the rebranding of the Phoenix to help it to become more of an identity whilst still being strongly linked to the RSPB. The logo is pretty old now and possibly outdated, so it seems that that is pretty likely to go.

We're also planning on expanding our facebook page to get more people involved and informed. With a bit of luck, we will soon have a Twitter page up too.

Our meeting was at Rainham marshes, just outside London. At this time of year, it is pretty quiet in terms of wildlife, but it was still so pretty, albeit very windy! There were, however, lots of egrets, which are really pretty, graceful, birds. In the distance there you can see the Shard and other big financial buildings.

So if any of you out there do have the slightest inkling of environmental consciousness, I would definitely recommend joining the RSPB. It is pretty cheap, helps the environment and is really worthwhile. You get a member-written magazine aimed at 13-18 year old's four times a year, and you have the opportunity to meet others and get involved if you wish.