Calendars and an Apology

An explanation of my recent lack of blogging activity and a sneak preview of the 2019 aspi.blog Cornish wall calendar (I will receive the printed versions by September 24th).

INTRODUCTION

The principal purpose of this post is to give you all a sneak preview of next year’s aspi.blog wall calendar. I am also going to explain why it has been a while since I last put up a blog post.

APOLOGY/ EXPLANATION

The reason why it has been a while since my last blog post is that I have had a very busy schedule of late, between work and various volunteering activities, and the one day on which I might have done a significant amount of blogging (Saturday) I lost to illness. I was sufficiently recovered by Sunday morning to do my volunteering for Heritage Open Day at the Bank House and to enjoy some of the experience, though I curtailed things somewhat so as not to set my recovery from the horrors of the previous day back. My opportunities will be somewhat limited during the rest of this week as I will be at the Corn Exchange helping to run an NAS West Norfolk stall for much of tomorrow and will be working Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

THE CALENDAR

Here are sneak previews of the 13 key pages of the calendar (not actual size). I decided to make this calendar a celebration both of my pictures and of the fine county of Cornwall…

For January we have a picture of Fort Picklecombe:

February features Brunel’s famous bridge at Saltash:

For March the focus shifts to the far west of Cornwall, where with the exception of November and December it remains for the rest of the year. This is one of two pictures from a seal colony near St Ives to make an appearance.

The April picture is a trio – across the top a view from St Michaels Mount to Marazion, and sharing the bottom a heron at Lelant Saltings and a crab at St Ives.

May features a shot of Carbis Bay.

June features our second seal picture:

July features the seaside garden at St Michael’s Mount, which members of the public can view only from above:

August is double-up, featuring a cannon emplacement at St Michaels Mount on top and a panoramic view of the mount and causeway below:

September is a double up from St Ives showing an old phone box with a an antique Great Western Railway clock attached on one side and a close-up of the clock on the other:

October features a red admiral butterfly spotted on the descent from St Michael’s Mount:

November, sharing with July the distinction of a photo taken that month, features the lighthouse picture that is also my desktop background and the reverse side of my personal cards.

December, just to emphasise what this calendar is all about features a shot of the Cornish flag.

Each page of the calendar is 28cm wide and 21 cm high, meaning that when hanging up open and ready for use it is 28cm wide and 42cm high.

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 12: Homeward Bound

Bringing my series on my visit to Cornwall to a close.

INTRODUCTION

All good things come to an end, even this series of blog posts, and with this post we do indeed reach the end of my account of my visit to Cornwall.

THE JOURNEY HOME

With my train due to leave St Germans at 9:27AM on Monday July 16th we had decided that a departure from Fort Picklecombe at 8:30AM was warranted due to the fact that I had a reserved seat on that train, which was going all the way to London, and would have been in the region of £100 down had I missed it. We arrived early at the station, and once the train arrived I found my seat easily enough, although as had happened on the journey down they had reversed the running order of the train and I was facing against the direction of travel instead of with it (trust me, for a photographer this is quite significant). Here are the last of the Cornish pictures…

The rest of this post takes place outside Cornwall. The train ran a trifle slow, arriving into Paddington sufficiently late to ensure that I would not make my intended connection at Kings Cross. However, the failings of Great Western were as nothing compared to those of Great Northern. The train arrived at Cambridge where it was supposed to divide in two as usual with four coaches going on to King’s Lynn and the rest going back to London, then a good couple of minutes later we got an announcement telling us that the split was not happening and that we needed to go to Platform 7. As a direct consequence of this mess up we then hit two red signals, at Waterbeach and again at Watlington, arriving into King’s Lynn much later than we should. This made it four successive journeys on Great Northern where the schedule had not been adhered to. Their failures appear to have got worse – just a few days ago I saw a special bus service running between King’s Lynn and Ely.

Tunnel trucks — These trucks look like tunnel segments on wheels.

Royal Oak — Westbourne Park, the penultimate Hammersmith & City line station west of Paddington – until quite recently local mainline train services stopped here as well. When the Metropolitan Railway opened in 1863 it used GWR rolling stock (broad guage in those days), and there were track connections between the two railways. This line to Hammersmith became part of the Metropolitan Railway in 1864, and between 1877 and 1910 services ran through to Richmond by way of a viaduct from Goldhawk Road the far end of which can still be obeserved at Ravenscourt Park. The last legacy of these connections is that today the Hammersmith and City platforms at Paddington are nos 15 and 16 of the main station.

Interchange, Baker Street — The interchange from Circle and Hammersmith and City through to the four platforms that serve the Metropolitan line at this station (and escalators down another four platforms which serve the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines)

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 11: The End of the St Michaels Mount Day

Concluding my account of the day at St Michael’s Mount as we near the end of my series about my visit to Cornwall.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest installment in my series of posts about my recent visit to Cornwall. This post completes the day at St Michael’s Mount, leaving me with a post to do about the journey home and finally a page from which all the posts about this trip can be accessed. The fact that this will mean (including the page) 13 pieces relating to the trip bothers me not a jot – I have no more time for triskaidekaphobia than I do for any other ~~ridiculous~~ superstition.

WRAPPING UP ST MICHAEL’S MOUNT

Having finished our exploration of the mount itself it was time for lunch, which was excellent. The establishment at which we ate our lunch has a rule that alcoholic drinks can only be served if food is ordered at the same time, and according to their interpretation cream teas do not count as food, so on two occasions in the course of that meal we ordered portions of chips to go with drinks. Mention of cream teas (a speciality of the far west of England) brings me to a debate that rages unchecked: which goes on the scone first, the cream or the jam? The cream advocates argue that cream in this context is the equivalent of butter (and if it is Cornish clotted cream it is so thick that one can pretty much slice it like butter!), and that if you put the cream on first you do not get jam in it. I am not sure what the jam advocates base their case on.

Lunch consumed it was time to head back to our parking place on the edge of Penzance. The tide was just starting to turn but was still a long way out, and unlike the Mont St Michel, on which the current setup of St Michael’s Mount is modelled the tide here comes in slowly (no danger of galloping horses being swallowed by an inrushing tide, as allegedly happened at Mont St Michel on one famous occasion), so we were still able to walk back across a vast expanse of beach to rejoin the official footpath just west of Marazion. I omitted to remove my socks and shoes for this part of the journey, and they ended up thoroughly soaked, although by the end of the walk they had dried out again (without the sea breeze the heat would have been fiendish).

Mathematical Pic — The first few photos here, including these mathematical pictures are from lunch

Sea birds — Just before recrossing the causeway to the mainland, we saw these birds – the one with the red bill used for digging would have been having a bonanza – there were huge numbers of worm casts in the sand.

Causeway close-up II — The causeway from close up

Farewell to St Michaels Mount — A farewell shot of the mount

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 10: The Map Room at St Michael’s Mount

Continuing my account of my visit to Cornwall. Today we look at the map room at St Michael’s Mount.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest post in my series about my visit to Cornwall. As part of my coverage of a day at St Michael’s Mount I am devoting a whole post to the map collection there.

A Collection of Antique Maps

For a cartophile such as me this section of the visit was particularly good fun…

Plymouth to Senan — In the days before googlemaps this is what a walking route looked like!

Jan Janssons Cornwall — At one time the Dutch were trailblazers when it came to cartography.

Falmouth – one of the people who have noticed my posts about cornwall is **thecornishbird**, whose offerings include this about Falmouth: **https://cornishbirdblog.com/2018/07/14/things-to-do-in-falmouth/**

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 9: The Top of St Michael’s Mount and the Descent

Continuing my account of a visit to St Michael’s Mount.

INTRODUCTION

This is the third to last post about the day at St Michael’s Mount, and the ninth in my series about my summer visit to Cornwall. The next post will be all about the vast collection of antique maps that are on show here, and then a final post about the last stages of the day. I then have the journey home to cover to complete the series.

THE REMAINDER OF THE SUMMIT

At the end of the previous post in this series were about to head indoors for the second time in our exploration of St Michael’s Mount…

At this point we entered the map room. As an appetiser for the next post I offer one picture from there…

After the maps came a display featuring large amounts of weaponry…

remains of spiral staircase — The remains of a spiral staircase

Cornish map with extras — A final map, separated from all the others.

That ended the indoor stuff until lunch time.

THE DESCENT

The descent takes past an emplacement of mini-cannons which are of French Revolutionary origin…

Just beyond this I encountered a Red Admiral butterfly:

Red Admiral I — At first it had its wings folded making ID difficult…

Red Admiral III — …but when it opened them out there was little room for doubt.

Not long after this we could see our next destination, where we would be having lunch.

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 8: Ascending St Michael’s Mount

Continuing my account of my visit to Cornwall, with the ascent of St Michael’s Mount.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest post in my series about my stay in Cornwall. This post takes us up St Michael’s Mount and covers some of the stuff at the top. There will be at least two and possibly three more posts about the day.

BASE CAMP (!)

Among the places at ground level, before the ascent begins are the restaurant where we would be having lunch and a visitor’s centre which provides a comprehensive introduction. After these one passes through a field that contains a dairy cottage before the ascent begins.

TL2 — No sops for creationists here! The straight truth about the formation of the granite of which the mount consists – it was formed longer before the dinosaurs roamed the earth than we are after the last dinosaurs disappeared.

THE ASCENT BEGINS

The climb up to the buildings on top of the mount begins by way of The Pilgrims Steps, continues past the Giant’s Well and the Giant’s Heart and a cannon emplacement. Then comes the first indoor section and a roof terrace where we pause until the next post in this series…

The vicinity of the Giants Heart — And about 50 yards further along The Giant’s Heart.

Wall mounted militaria I — The first weapons display – in the next post you will see another one.

Garden from above I — Us hoi polloi can only view these gardens from above – we never actually get into them.

Roof terrace — This where our next post will start from.

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 7: Walking to St Michael’s Mount

Continuing my series about my visit to Cornwall, with the first of several posts about St Michael’s Mount.

INTRODUCTION

This series has been widely spread out – the trip it describes took place between July 12 and 16. Here is a listing of the previous posts:

Getting There
St Germans to St Ives
A Visit to a Seal Colony
The End of the St Ives Day
Crossing the Cremyll Ferry to Plymouth
Historic Plymouth

Having covered Thursday, Friday and Saturday in six posts we arfe now dealing with the Sunday, my last full day in Cornwall.

THE PLAN

As all five of us (my parents, my sister and my nephew as well as me) were making the visit to St Michael’s Mount we travelled in my parents camper van instead of using the train. We wanted to be underway by eight and achieved this. We were planning to explore St Michael’s Mount in full and then have lunch at an establishment there. Things panned out pretty much as intended. The road journey is a lot less scenic than the rail equivalent, so I am going to recommend unequivocally that anyone else planning to do this use the train – the walk from Penzance (all of which is familiar to me, although we started part way along it, having located a parking place just outside Penzance) is very scenic, while there is a longer walk available from St Erth (inland for most of its duration, instead of along the sea front). Here are a couple of satellite views:

Penzance - St Michael's Mount — The coastal route starting from Penzance.

St Erth to St Michael's Mount — The longer and mainly inland route starting from St Erth. This map also features what is in alphabetic terms the last place in Britain.

THE JOURNEY IN PHOTOGRAPHS

This section ends the post, taking us across the causeway to the base of the mount:

View from the van — The only shot I managed to get from the van on the way from Fort Picklecombe to Penzance.

People crossing the causeway to the mount — A first glimpse of the causeway.

In the shallows — From Marazion the quickest way to the causeway is straight across the beach, and in the heat walking barefoot through the shallows was the way to go.

The causeway and the mount — The causeway.

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 6: Historic Plymouth

Continuing my account of my most recent visit to Cornwall.

INTRODUCTION

Yes, Plymouth is Devon not Cornwall, but my visit to the town was part of my stay in Cornwall, so it belongs in this very spread out series of posts.

THE WAR MEMORIAL

This particular memorial honours those lost at sea as well as those killed in war, because Plymouth is very much a naval town.

Memorial - distant view — A first, distant view of the memorial

Memorial base — A series of close-ups – each vertical bronze panel around the base is a list of names.

OTHER PICTURES FROM HISTORIC PLYMOUTH

There were plenty of other things to see around the sea-front…

Circualr paving pattern — A quirky pavong arrangement…

Eddystione Lighthouse — …and an explanatory plaque

AN ITEM OF SHERLOCKIANA

It will be no news to followers of this blog that I am a fan of the world’s first and greatest consulting detective, so it was pleasing to acquire a photograph with a connection in that direction:

One of Holmes’ most famous cases takes place on Dartmoor, not far from Plymouth.

THE RETURN CROSSING

It was now time to recross the county boundary into Cornwall, one again on the Edgecumbe Belle.

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 5: Crossing the Cremyll Ferry to Plymouth

The latest installment in my series “A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall”. This starts my coverage of Saturday in Plymouth.

INTRODUCTION

My nephew needed some things that we had to go to Plymouth for, and so he, my mother and I took the Cremyll ferry to Plymouth, attended to the shopping and then went up on to The Hoe (subject of my next post).

THE CREMYLL FERRY

Once we were safely aboard the ferry it was time for the camera to do its work:

THE SHOPPING PART OF THE EXPEDITION

We had a substantial walk from the ferry terminal on the Plymouth side to the shopping area, during which I saw a few things to photograph:

The first (or last) pub in Devon — Depending on your viewpoint this is…

Twin signs — …either the first or last pub in Devon

**The Greedy Goose**, this is also the oldest house in Plymouth. I did not get to eat here, but it is a splendid building.

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 4: The End of the St Ives Day

The latest post in my series “A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall”, concluding my account of my day out in St Ives.

INTRODUCTION

In my previous post in this spread out series about my recent visit to Cornwall (Thursday July 12 through Monday July 16) I covered a boat trip to see a seal colony. I now account for the rest of that day after the trip. Don’t forget that a more local view of St Ives is available from The Cornish Maid.

BACK ON TERRA FIRMA

I was back in St Ives at 1:15PM as scheduled, and had two definite targets for the remainder of my time there – find a cash machine and find somewhere not too extortionate for lunch. By this stage the town was packed, and far as I was able to locate there was a but a single cashpoint there, so I had a bit of a wait. Still I eventually got my money and found a place to have lunch.

Victorian house — This building may once have been a non-conformist chapel.

THE RETURN JOURNEY

I was back at the station in good time for my three stage journey back to St Germans (changes at St Erth and Liskeard, and longish waits at both). My father collected me from St Germans and we headed to Cawsand to meet my mother, sister and nephew at a pub there before heading to Fort Picklecombe together. My camera battery just made it to St Germans before giving out for the day after one more picture en route for Cawsand.

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