A visit to Mary's art exhibition

Last Thursday saw a friend and I visit an exhibition of Mary Martin's paintings at St Dominic Parish Hall.  I don't have a particular eye for art, certainly far less than my companion, but this is a little different.  We had an invitation via Virginia, one of Mary's sisters, to come and as many of Mary's oils were of her beloved Tamar Valley and of Cornwall's coast we were keen to have a look at them.  There were also some paintings she had done in France.

It is always a pleasure to see her latest work: whilst I personally don't relate too well to oil paintings, particularly on the walls of a small Cornish cottage such as mine, I can still get enjoyment from seeing Mary's art.  There is a lot of feeling and life in her Cornish scenes particularly.  We were both struck by her paintings of the coast near Boscastle, partly I suppose because of our particular affection for that area.

Mary's work is highly regarded, more information can be found here http://www.marymartin.co/Mary_Martin_Cornish_Artist/Home.html

The fine and sunny weather continuing gave us the incentive to drive on down to Halton Quay, one of those really peaceful spots on the Tamar where the gentle hills and placid river are very much in harmony.  From there a favourite circular walk of about a mile takes one through very quiet countryside of old orchards and deep lanes and it is one of the latter that we know as a place to spot the unfortunately named "bastard balm" flower.  The Tamar Valley is one of their strongholds but we were almost too late to see it.  However one example was still in flower I'm glad to say.

It's warm again today but with a threat of a thundery breakdown and cooler weather from tomorrow onwards.

Victoria Beckham - what did you look like

Understandably attendees at a wedding, if it's of the posh type at least, will very much dress up for the occasion.  There has been general approval I believe of Kate's wedding dress at last Friday's event - I'm no expert of course but she looked pretty stunning to me.

However it was particularly fascinating looking at the photos of some of the guests that went to Westminster Abbey.  It's the womenfolk that catch the eye, many of them looking very smart but one or two quite frankly appearing ridiculous.  Of the latter Victoria Beckham was a good example.  First of all was a strange little pill box type of hat on her forehead.  How on earth do such things stay there?  Is it some sort of glue?  It looked absolutely stupid to me!  And then there were her shoes - they were ridiculously high heeled and ugly too in my opinion.

I appreciate that women feel they have to wear high heels at that sort of wedding and there's no doubt that both the nature of the woman and the nature of the event should drive the decision about what hat (if any), clothes and shoes might be worn.  When it comes to shoes I go against the normally perceived wisdom and say for me that the higher a woman's stilettos the more turned off I will be!  I love to see a female in low heeled shoes and there is absolutely no shortage of suitable designs so far as I can see.

Here she is with her husband: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1382258/Royal-Wedding-2011-Victoria-Beckhams-hat-Philip-Treacy-ready-minutes-service.html  It might have helped if Victoria knew how to smile as well!  Perhaps like an earlier Victoria she was not amused.

Royal Wedding goes like clockwork

Well, that was the Royal wedding then!  I didn't watch it, partly because I don't have a TV these days, but I did look at some of the recorded highlights on the internet.  The general verdict, from monarchists at least, is that it all went very well.  That is my impression from what little I saw and primarily I am pleased for William and Kate as I would be for any other couple getting married.

Although I can hardly say that I got caught up in all the hype one of the real positives from the day is just how people get drawn together on such an occasion, how they can temporarily at least get away from their day to day problems for a day or two and feel really good about life in perhaps a different way.

Watching the main cast coming out onto the balcony at Buckingham Palace I was particularly struck by how much older Prince Charles was looking and also reminding myself of just how short the Queen is!   

The whole day must have seemed almost surreal for the Middleton family - as "commoners" they could never have expected anything like this to happen!

This blog would like to wish the newlyweds every happiness for the future.

A brief break in Dorset

Last week saw me join other members of my family for a short holiday in south east Dorset, the home of a brother and his wife.  This really was a postponement from the Christmas get together - because of the icy conditions leading up to the day last December we didn't risk the travel at that time although if I remember correctly it was more amenable from about Boxing Day onwards.  At the risk of sounding a miserable old so and so I just don't find it the most important thing in my life to go off somewhere to celebrate Christmas anyway.  As for the "New Year" forget it!

However I'm sensitive enough to understand how difficult it is for many people to get through the Christmas period alone if they have been recently widowed or divorced for example.  In my case although living alone I don't feel lonely.  I'm going a bit off topic here, suffice to say that I was very pleased to meet up with other family members the other day.

Although I might have driven to Dorset I decided to let "the train take the strain".  I don't habitually use the train on longer journeys because it is rare for me to leave my two beloved counties.  It's a very civilised way to travel in my opinion bearing in mind that it isn't door to door, in this instance one of my hosts met me and another train carrying brother at Salisbury to transport us for the final leg to our destination.

With  two whole days together I would always have just settled for one of these being dry and so it happened.  This enabled us to enjoy a nine mile or so walk in incredibly quiet countryside.  When away from the coastal conurbations Dorset is very rural indeed and, as evidenced by our walk, the county has its fair share of hills.

The journey home was a variation of the theme in that I went from Salisbury to Westbury and then got the train that runs from Paddington to Plymouth.  The portion of the line from Salisbury to Westbury goes through pleasant but very undistinguished scenery and reminded me just why my passion is for Devon and Cornwall rather than "Middle England"!  But that is Wiltshire whereas what I've seen so far of Dorset has been very pleasing.

Would I like to live in Dorset out of choice?  Well it's nice to visit that's for sure but no I wouldn't choose to live there.  Fortunately it's just right for this brother and wife but for me the Tamar Valley will do just fine!

The earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power station

There is no doubt that the biggest international story of the past eight days has been the earthquake in Japan and its aftermath.  Originally described as a 'quake of 8.9 on the Richter Scale it was later revised up to 9.0 one.  Incidentally the scale started to be used as a measure of the seismic energy arising from an earthquake or tremor in 1935, all down to the work of the United States geophysicist Charles Richter.  I think I'm right in saying that last week's earthquake was the worst experienced in Japan - maybe that statement should be qualified by stating it was the largest that country had seen since accurate assessments of severity have been made.

As we now know the earthquake was really bad but it was the tsunami that followed that caused the major destruction.  I find watching videos of the tsunami (plenty of them on 'youtube') both awesome and awful.  I'm certainly not looking at them every five minutes but as with many people I guess I've found that they were almost compulsive viewing at first.  Perhaps because of the distance between camera and action the cars and boats tossed about by the wave look like toys, difficult to realise that many of them were occupied by people.  It's also almost impossible to take in that for many of the tsunami survivors all they have left is the clothes that they are wearing and my heart goes out to those who have lost family members.

Whilst the effect of the tsunami is by far the biggest part of the tragedy being endured by the Japanese at the moment, as news it has been somewhat overtaken by the problems experienced at the Fukushima nuclear power station.  The individual difficulties at the various reactors there have been well documented and I won't repeat them here.  Tonight there seems to be some cautious optimism although it's early days yet to suggest that everything is under control.  As I understand it a power line has been established to the pumps that keep the reactors cool - good news of course but whether the pumps are still in working order is something likely to be found out tomorrow. 

We have been told that there are about 50 volunteers at any one time risking exposure to radiation in trying to get things under control at the plant.  Actually I think that it is about 180 or so brave men because they are working in shifts.  The next day or two it would seem are going to be crucial in recovering control of the power station.  Let us hope that all the hard work leads to a happy outcome.

Nature becoming more active

Here in the Tamar Valley today is one of the better days of the winter, a day when ones motivation for getting things done is a bit better than usual.  Dry with a bit of sunshine and not particularly cold it was a good time a little earlier in the day to pop down to the river and see how nature is fairing.

At a favoured spot on the river bank the violets are now up to 20 flowers out, well not all out to be honest but 20 showing purple even if a number of these are still in bud.  The snowdrops are making a great show at the moment and crocuses and a few primroses are making their presence known in people's gardens.  A few forsythia blooms are evident but the big surge of yellow is yet to come.

Across in the woods on the Devon side a woodpecker was hammering away.  I've heard it occasionally during the past couple of weeks, fairly quiet and tentative at first but now more strident.

It was good too to meet a couple I know out walking and stop for a chat, nice that the weather allowed a bit of time for such activity without oneself being frozen or drowned!

Although just a short walk it was beneficial to get at least some fresh air into ones lungs I think.  Perhaps this is one reason so many people own dogs hereabouts, to have a good excuse to get that regular exercise.

The winter so far in East Cornwall

After the mayhem of the frost, ice and even some snow in December the weather here seems to have reverted to "Cornish standard".  This can be interpreted as reasonably mild, fair dollops of rain and the occasional day or half day of sunshine.

As someone enthralled by all types of weather, except the absolute extremes that lead to death and destruction, it was good to see some snow.  The best of it was on the Friday night that led up to Saturday the 18th December.  It was on that sparkling sunny morning that Cotehele celebrated its wassail up in its Orchard.  As usual this event was led by our local worthy musicians "The Rubber Band" and it was a massively pleasurable walk of three or four miles to get there.  I had forgotten though just how much extra effort it takes to walk through snow!  Virgin snow under a blue sky is something special but it's the follow up when it is part melted and starts to look grotty that inevitably disappoints.

A big plus of the cold weather was the expected influx of redwings.  My friend's apple orchard lies behind the cottage and she had left some windfalls on the ground.  The redwings were delighted as were one or two fieldfares and some male blackbirds.  There were plenty of pickings for everyone but this didn't stop the blackbirds from bullying the much smaller redwings.  Maybe that's why redwings appear in greater numbers than the fieldfares and blackbirds - they can't all be chased away from the rich pickings on the ground at the same time!

Down near the weir there is an area either side of the river path where violets grow.  I seem to recall being told that violets were cultivated commercially in a nearby garden and that this patch could have come from there.  I check them in the winter to see if any are in bloom and was rewarded earlier today with the sight of one of them in bud.  Another part of the river bank not far away is good for snowdrops and it looks as if by the end of this month some of these might be in flower.  Great to see a heron just downstream of the weir as well waiting patiently.

Of course there is still plenty of time for more cold snaps but the length of daylight is increasing, always for me a great psychological boost.

Happy New Year

I thought I ought to say this before the end of January - so 'Happy New Year' to anyone who is passing by.