There and Back

This particular year (2025) appears to have been a very fruitful one for all sorts of `fruits of nature` - I guess a damp spring and a long dry, warm summer have all contributed to this wondrous crop on all the hedgerows in the countryside. Here are just a few images taken on the countryside around where I live and walk. Rose Hips - common enough but prolific this year. Snowberry (Symphoricarpos Albus) - is considered an invasive plant in the UK because it can spread aggressively and outcompete native species. It was introduced by the Victorians for game bird cover and now forms dense thickets through its fast-growing root systems, suppressing the growth of surrounding plants. Blackberries - a fruit which most of us a familiar with but which were only introduced into America in the mid 19C A Pyracantha (Firethorn) hedge is a dense, evergreen, and thorny hedge that produces white flowers in late spring, followed by clusters of red, orange, or yellow berries in the fall, which attract ...

Just two or three days left on this amazing coast. So onto Mowenstow beach and then the Church of St Morwenna and St John the Baptist. But first the beach. One of my abiding memories of the beach here, is the waterfall over the cliff edge onto the beach. The first image is from the top of the cliff, and then from beach level. Then a couple of images of general beach views - left and right. There are many rocks on the beach here and it is interesting to se the wave breaking around them as it receds. The church of St Morwenna and St John The Baptist Having not heard of St Morwenna, I looked in the guide book and also online. Online , the story is: Morwenna first appears in a 12th-century life of Saint Nectan that lists her alongside Endelient, Mabyn and Menfre (among many others) as a daughter of the Welsh king Brychan. She was trained in Ireland before crossing over to Cornwall. Morwenna made her home in a little hermitage at Hennacliff (the Raven's Crag), afterwards called Morwenst...

The home we booked for this holiday was larger than we needed, but the photos and reviews swayed our decision - we were not dissapointed! It was brilliant, possible one of the best we have stayed in. A couple of images of Tidewood, our holiday home A view from the balcony  - just fancy looking at that all the time! A slightly zoomed image showing the Old Smithy, the lovely thatched inn which was our nearest neighbour, with the sea behind it. On the wall of the local, the Old Smithy, was this Victorian post box. Not too many of those about now. So now that we are here, where shall we go today? - Bude! Like most of these places, we had visited here before, but we hadn`t walked along the beach in the direction we did today. It was interesting, as the rock formations on the beach and the cliffs behind, give another dimention to the normal Bude image of loads of sunbathers and surfers. There were however a lot of surfers today as there was a competion on, but fewer people sunbathing. T...