Birds and Porthmeor Beach.

Today has been another sunny day ending with the sky shading from pink to purple with orange in between. It was sunny with a cooling breeze as I went for a leisurely walk to town wearing my straw hat. First stop was at the vets to book Speedy in for his annual vaccination next week. Then to pick up our prescription which once again resulted in a long wait and I'll have to go again to pick up the things they didn't have. I had my usual look around the charity shops but nothing took my fancy. I called in at Wilko's as I needed 12 long screws for the tv unit. As well as buying packets of nails etc there is a pick-n-mix section where you can fill a small or large bag for a set price. I got the screws I needed and some spares and then carefully filled the bag to bursting with long screws and big hooks which are always useful.

Now back to St Ives.

This is Porthmeor Beach, the largest of the town's beaches if you don't count Carbis Bay which is a little further on. A perfect beach for surfing with a lot better surf than Borth. However being the Atlantic rather than the Irish Sea it is also colder. 

As a child I would often be taken to visit Mrs Sanders, an elderly lady who lived in a cottage built right on Porthmeor.  Her cottage was the white one (below) on the left with what looks like a doorway on to the beach. This was actually about 3 ft. above the sand and led to a low room below and to the side of the sitting room where there was another doorway. Mrs. Sanders befriended my mother and took a great deal of interest in the artists who had come to live in St Ives. When she died not only did she leave me her piano which I kept right until we left London in 1993, but she left the cottage to the local arts society for artists to rent with the stipulation that my mother had first refusal. However my mother decided not to stay in St Ives much to my regret. To have remained in St Ives living on the beach would have been perfect for me. Never mind, we're on the way to living in our own beach house.

This is where we sat to eat our pasties.  

It wasn't long before we were joined by sandpipers and sparrows. Pasties are crumbly  and I'll admit to feeding the birds surreptitiously so as not to attract any seagulls. The sandpipers were quite brave and took small crumbs from my hands. 

While we were walking around the Island I spotted a flock of feeding gannets, a few of which can be seen below. I tried hard but failed to catch them as they dived into the water like missiles sending up a distinct spray of water. 

Here the geese were flying south this morning very noisily and I didn't notice any going in the opposite direction in the afternoon.