Concluding my mini-series about my long weekend in Cornwall with an account of the return journey.
Welcome to the final post in my mini-series about my long weekend in Cornwall. This post deals with the journey back to King’s Lynn.
THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN
I was initially booked on the 11:15 from Plymouth, which would have seen me get home by approximately 6PM. Unfortunately due to ASLEF having an overtime ban that service was cancelled, and I opted instead for the same train my nephew was travelling on, which departed two hours later.
PLYMOUTH TO EXETER
My booked seat on the new train was not a window seat, but I observed two seats on the other side of the carriage that had been reserved from Plymouth to London, and once enough time had lapsed to be sure that neither passenger was actually aboard I moved across so that I got the good views available between Newton Abbot and Exeter. Thus I went from annoyed at not having a window seat to relieved and delighted. I made full use of it, as the following shows:
The first three pictures were taken from Fort PicklecombeNewton Abbot- the best bit of the route is between here and Exeter St DavidsA stack close to the cliff edge – a view which tells a story of coastal erosion.
EXETER ST DAVIDS TO HOME
The train arrived into Paddington as scheduled, and the journey to King’s Cross was pleasingly rapid. I had a substantial wait at that station before leaving on the 17:39 to King’s Lynn. That service ran well enough, and I made a quick stop at Morrison’s for some bare essentials on the way home. I got home at about 8PM, unpacked and then cooked supper. Although none of the rest of the journey offers quite such views I still got some decent photos…
From the position of these floodlight pylons and the church in the distance I deduce that this is Taunton Cricket Ground.A white horse on a hillside (this is a chalk hill, so this would be constructed by removing grass and topsoil).A rainbow at Waterbeach
Continuing my mini-series about my long weekend in Cornwall with an account of the centrepiece of the visit, a family meal in Looe.
Welcome to the penultimate post in my series about my long weekend in Cornwall. This post deals with the main event of the weekend, although we actually visited the town of Looe twice, on the Saturday to pick up my nephew who had travelled to Cornwall with my aunt but could stay in Looe due to tghe fact that the house my aunt was staying on along with two of her sons, their wives and the two young children (one for each couple), and they had been told that only seven people could stay at the house, so he would be staying with us at Fort Picklecombe.
LOOE
Looe straddles a river, and is divided officially into East Looe and West Looe. Before the reforms of 1832 East and West Looe were separate parliamentary constituencies and each returned two MPs, so this tiny place had four MPs, while big cities such as Birmingham and Manchester had none. The bridge – there is only one – remains a very prominent landmark.
SUNDAY LUNCH
We had a table booked for 11 people at The Sardine Factory, a predominantly fish restaurant, for 12:00 on Sunday (the earliest possible booking at that establishment, arranged due to the babies daily routine – both would be having an afternoon nap immediately after the meal). We had a zoom call on the Sunday morning with various other relatives, then had to visit the allotment on the way to Looe, but we got there in good time and walked in unhurried fashion from the main car park to the restaurant, arriving a few minutes early. They opened on the dot of 12 and we were seated not much later. I found what was obviously going to be a good beer on the drinks list (it was indeed), though the food was less satisfactory at first glance (as someone who is not fond of fish I seemed limited to the burger, as the sirloin steak, which I would have liked to order, was ludicrously overpriced, causing me to rule it out. Then we were shown the specials, one of which was roast beef with all the trimmings and was priced far more sensibly than the steak. I therefore ordered that, and it was excellent.
AFTER LUNCH
While the babies were taken for their post-lunch nap my family group made a brief return to our car to pick up the pots that the plants we had transferred to the allotment that morning had been in (one at least, which I carried, was quite an expensive pot) to return them to my aunt. Then we visited the house where the others were staying for teas and coffees, which were accompanied by a home made gluten-free ginger cake. Then it was time to return to Fort Picklecombe.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
At the Sardine Factory (as you will see I took a good few pictures inside).This pic and the next two (one original edited three different ways) represent by far my best capture of the view from Maker Heights.
Continuing my account of my long weekend in Cornwall with a look at my parents allotment.
Welcome to the next post in my mini-series about my long weekend in Cornwall. This post is devoted to my parent’s allotment, which I saw twice, for an extended period on the Saturday and very briefly on the Sunday morning.
THE ALLOTMENT’S CONTRIBUTION TO MEALS
Save for the Sunday lunch, which was a large meal out, virtually every meal of the weekend featured something that had been grown in my parent’s allotment.
ACHIEVING A BALANCE
Although as already noted the allotment provides my parents with a lot of food it is not all food plants – wildflowers are also allowed to grow there, which means that bees and butterflies can make use of it, and the grass is not cut short, which is important as a number of butterflies rely on long grass for their caterpillars.
A BUTTERFLY RESCUE
There was a butterfly in the shed when I was there on Saturday, and it failed to realize that there was no way out through the windows (they don’t open). My mother attempted to escort it to the open door but failed to do so. I eventually captured it in a flowerpot and managed to keep control of it just long enough to get it close enough to the open door of the shed that it flew away to freedom.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
The last 12 photographs are of the butterfly that had to be rescued. Not strictly allotment related – one of a number of attempts to capture the view from Maker Heights.This picture and the next show the two plants that we returned to the allotment on the Sunday to put in.At the edge of the allotments on the way back to the car.The last three pics are of views spotted between the allotment and Looe.
Continuing my mini-series about my long weekend in Cornwall with a close look at Fort Picklecombe.
I am finally in position to continue my mini-series about my long weekend in Cornwall. Between a busy Sunday, not getting home until almost 8PM on the Monday and work yesterday I have not had much opportunity for blogging. Following on from my post about the journey to Cornwall I now look at Fort Picklecombe, my base for the weekend.
AN OVER REACTION
Lord Palmerston ordered the building of a number of fortifications of various kinds in southwestern England during the mid 19th century, in the mistaken belief that the French intended to invade. Fort Picklecombe was one such, and to make it even more curious the landholder only allowed it to be built if it was made to resemble Warwick Castle. These days it is home to about 100 apartments, one of which, tucked away on the fourth floor of the outer wall, with a glorious view out over the sea, is my parents home.
A CLOSER VIEW OF THE FORT
There are two complete circuits of this part of the fort available, on the third floor, and in the basement, which is also home to a carpark where everyone has a space. My parent’s flat also has a marked outside parking place where a vehicle can be left for up to 24 hours, which is readily accessible from the ground floor. The basement passages are quite narrow, and unlit until someone actually enters one (and even then the level of illumination is not great), but there is the compensating advantage that this ring of passageways is also home to the fort’s library (I did not make use of it this visit but have done in the past). The third floor walkway is much pleasanter in summer, though I can imagine it being horrible on a windy winter’s day. The lifts are among the slowest in the western world and come with recorded announcements that feature high in the ‘statement of the bleeding obvious’ category, e.g. “Fourth floor, lift going down”. What? You mean it is not going ‘up and out’?!
The fort has its own small harbour, and at low tide a number of rocks are exposed, and used by birds as perches. At high tide the smaller harbour wall gets a lot of water over it, while the larger one stays dry.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here is a gallery comprised of photos taken either while in the fort or while waling around the harbour…
A pictorial map of the Nile between Alexandria and Aswan (Syene in ancient times).A comprehensive view of Fort Picklecombe, obtained from the larger of the two harbour walls.The end of the larger of the end of the larger of the two harbour walls – the tide was fairly high, so care was required out here.A nearly complete view of the harbour (I could not find a location from which a complete view was obtainable)A gigantic ferry on its way into Plymouth – the following day I saw one heading outwards.
Starting a mini-series about a long weekend in Cornwall with an account of the journey there.
I last posted on Wednesday and this post explains why. Thursday was a work day, and then Friday was pretty much entirely given over to travel, as I was going to Cornwall for a long weekend with various relatives, while yesterday was also very busy, as today will be. However, I have time to do a blog post now, the start of a mini-series.
MY BASE FOR THE WEEKEND AND TRAVEL PLANS
My parents live in Fort Picklecombe just on the Cornish side of the Tamar and about a mile from the village of Cawsand. I would be staying with them for the weekend so my task travel wise was to get from King’s Lynn to Plymouth from where they could pick me up. This journey is accomplished in three parts – King’s Lynn to Kings Cross, Hammersmith & City line to Paddington (NOT the Circle line – the Paddington served by that line should revert to its original name of Praed Street – it is significantly removed from the main line station, whereas the Hammersmith & City line platforms are structurally part of the main station), Paddington to Plymouth. I arranged to leave Lynn on the 09:42, connecting to the 13:03 from Paddington, which would arrive in Plymouth at 16:12.
KING’S LYNN TO LONDON
I reckoned on leaving my flat at 9AM so that I had plenty of time for the walk to the station, and I actually got away by 8:55. The train to London was a little late leaving and lost further time along the way, but with an hour and half between scheduled arrival at Kings Cross and scheduled departure from Paddington my cross London connection was never close to being in jeopardy. I arrived at Paddington with over 40 minutes to spare, and spent half of that time waiting to find out which platform I needed to get to. Then, since my designated seat was in coach A I had to walk the whole length of the platform before boarding and finding my seat.
Setting off early meant that I could pause to take photographs while walking to the station.Ely CathedralEly Cathedral’s unique feature, the octagonal tower designed by a 14th century prior known to posterity only as Alan of Norwich.
PADDINGTON TO PLYMOUTH
Great Western don’t have the worlds greatest reputation for punctuality, but this time the service set off precisely as scheduled, and ran pretty much exactly as per schedule all the way. This service stops at Reading, then has a long fast run to Taunton before making additional stops at Tiverton, Exeter St Davids, Newton Abbot and Totnes en route to Plymouth. There is one stunningly scenic section on this route, between Exeter and Newton Abbot, where the railway is literally right alongside the sea for most of the way.
PLYMOUTH TO FORT PICKLECOMBE
The last part of the journey was in my parents car, and included making use of the Torpoint car ferry. Although my parents car is small and not well suited to photography I did my best even on this leg of the journey.
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