Saturday. (and today.)

It's been very warm today with the temperature going up to 32C in the afternoon. While it is still dry I got on with some gardening, cutting back the knautia as its leaves are becoming mildewed and taking lots of cuttings of some of the grey leaved plants that have done well in the dry conditions. Hopefully enough will take for me to be able to start changing the raised beds to cope with the hot summers.

Now for our mini break - 

It felt very odd to be leaving Borth in the early hours of the morning and by the afternoon to be in St Ives which has always felt a world away.

We left at 6.30 and I drove the first 120 miles through Wales. All went well until we got stuck in a convoy of Italian motorhomes, eight in front of us and more behind. This was up in the mountains so there was no chance of getting past. Annoyingly they seemed to be obeying the many speed signs in kilometres rather than miles! which made for quite slow going.

We stopped at Magor services from where Pete took over the driving. The motorway and then A30 traffic was heavy but kept moving for the most part. We stopped once more following service station signs that took us to a retail village. We ended up parking in a McD's car park next to a row of Teslas being charged where a helpful chap cleaning the car park suggested the toilets in the M&S across the road were a better choice. Off I went and of course had to have a quick browse through the active wear section. I just had to buy some lovely looking blue and black leggings but sadly when I tried them on later the fabric wasn't quite right. The ankles were tight and the upper part of the legs were a bit baggy (my legs are not skinny). So I'll take them back to our local M&S.

We did some shopping at the Tesco's just outside St Ives before arriving at our apartment. It was up on the hill above Porthminster beach with good views across the bay to Godrevy lighthouse off the North Cornwall coast. From there it was a good 10 mins walk into town and coming back up the steep roads was quite challenging especially for Pete. The apartment was much as we'd seen in the listing and as many reviewers had said some of the sitting room furniture was shoddy and uncomfortable. Luckily the bed was fine and everywhere was as clean as it could be. Unfortunately the doors to the Juliet balcony couldn't be opened which was a shame in the hot weather. The apartment was an attic conversion with only a strip about 2ft wide down the centre of the rooms at full height. The rest of the ceilings sloped down and after a number of hard knocks we learnt to bend down when moving around. 

After unpacking we walked down to The Sloop Inn by the harbour where I left Pete enjoying a beer while I went out for a walk.

Fore Street, the main street in the old part of St Ives, At times it would be completely packed (more than in the photo) and cars and vans drove down it as well. Pete hates walking in crowds especially when people are ambling from one side to another and then stopping to look in the many very nice craft/ clothing/ gift shops and numerous bakeries selling similar cakes and different varieties of pasties. My mantra was 'be like a fish' where like a fish in a shoal I slowly slid my way through the people weaving around any obstruction in a relaxed manner. It may sound strange but it worked and the crowded conditions didn't bother me. Maybe being engrossed in the many memories that came flooding in also helped.

St Ives is surrounded by beaches which were also crowded with people enjoying the sun. I couldn't resist walking barefoot through the harbour beach which had been my playground when I was little. I do miss having a soft sandy beach. 

It may sound that St Ives was a heaving mass of people and in places it was but a few minutes into the narrow streets and courtyards of Downalong and it got much quieter.

(Below) The black arrow points to what used to be my home right by the harbour.

After a walk around some of my old haunts I joined Pete in The Sloop and it wasn't long before Vytas and Sally arrived. Later we moved to The Captain's Table, some very low ceilinged rooms above the pub where we had an excellent meal. Pete and Vytas had catch of the day which was fresh sea bass, Sally had crab linguini and I had a fish chowder with mussels and other shellfish. There might have been some puddings too. Eventually we went back down into the pub and listened to a guy singing and playing a guitar while we waited for a cab. It was a bit loud but he played a range of music. I sang along to Dylan and Donovan songs and Vytas and Sally sang along to REM numbers.

And that was the first day of our weekend.