Grey.

It was horrible this morning, cold and wet, so while Peter went off to row at 7.00 I buried myself under the duvet. I had a long lie-in but unfortunately my various aches and pains mean that lying in bed is basically ..... painful and after a while I'm forced to get up. That's why I'm chasing up the doctors in order to try and get at least some of them cured. Otherwise I hate to think what life would be like if I became less mobile. I made up for my lazy morning by working outside in the garden all afternoon. Although I planned the garden as 'low maintenance' after 15 years the golden marjoram in one bed was being overtaken by grasses. I tried pulling out the grass last year but this year I'm digging everything up, clearing out all the weeds and replanting the marjoram. As a reward for this hard work I finished the day with a mug of tea sitting up by the scree garden. With the wind roaring in the trees and breezes gusting across my face, when I shut my eyes it was easy to imagine myself back by the sea once more.

I.O.S. Sunday.

Sunday was taken up with 2 sprint races each for the men and the ladies' crews. Plenty of trudging across the sand to wish Peter good luck and then back to find a spot on the end of the quay to watch the gigs crossing the finish line. 

A lot of the time I was transported back to my very early days in St Ives. The architecture and the narrow winding lanes could have been 'downalong' where even as very small children we were free to roam. The smells of the sea, the occasional coal fire and the washed up seaweed took me straight back to my childhood. Even the sand on the beach was the same. Having a lot of granite in it the sand is slightly gritty but has a magical sparkle when the sun shines. 

There was an influx of older visitors from a cruise liner that was moored out in the bay. They were on a round Britain cruise and apparently had a rather rough time when they were up in the Hebrides. 

After the final sprints the gigs rafted up in the centre of the harbour to welcome in the overall winners. I do believe a lot of port and other alcohol is drunk at this time. When I looked through my photos of the men's rafting up there was one chap wearing no clothes at all!

Here Peter and the rest of the men's B crew are off for their final sprint. They were happy enough to have moved up one group from last year. The A crew moved from 71st last year (out of 120) to 46th this year (or something like that) so there was much celebration overall. 

More tomorrow. 

Cold and grey.

As I drove to work early this morning  I was not thrilled by the fact that it was yet another gloomy, grey cold day. Then suddenly I was in bright sunshine and my spirits lifted. I had emerged from under the weather front into totally different weather. Unfortunately the clouds kept on moving and by mid-morning things were looking grim again. I had a good morning in one of the reception classes. They were learning to recognise money using real coins and to ensure that all the money was returned to the pot I 'sold' the children stickers, a different colour for each coin. When I finished work I drove over to BJ's and bought the rest of the plants for the hanging baskets. I buy surfinias and trailing lobelia because apart from last year they  always do well. I have tried other plants but they are more expensive and don't seem to survive anyway. This year the trailing lobelia is (hopefully) all white and the surfinias are magenta, deep purple and lavender though the labels say pink, blue and a touch of blue. I got all the baskets planted up and did some weeding in the bog garden before the heavy rain started. I feel like hibernating for the rest of the weekend.

I.O.S. contd.

The weather was constantly changing though after the wet start to Saturday the rain stayed away. By the evening the town was washed in a golden light and while everyone was in one of the pubs I took myself off for a photo stroll.

 The little walled park in the centre of the town contained the most enormous succulents. 

 This is still in town just below the garrison walls.

 And this is why the islands have captured my heart.

Can there be anything more romantic than the drowned hilltops of Lyonesse in the light of the setting sun?

I.O.S Saturday.

Today has been greyer, windier, colder and much wetter than the past few days. Let's hope that wasn't our summer.This morning I cleared away the last of our things from the trip. Luckily Peter had been at home on Tuesday when it was nice and sunny and he got the tent and sleeping bags aired then. I was teaching in the afternoon and then, in the pouring rain, went to the tattoo parlour to have my rose tattoo retouched. I also took in 2 designs that I had drawn for an open bracelet. I can't make up my mind which design to go for but I will have one of them done in a couple of weeks.

I.O.S. Saturday.

When you are camping having fleece sleeping bag liners is wonderful but a slowly deflating air-bed is not. The tent was no more than 100 yards from the sea so all night long there was the soothing roar of the waves and the wind in the shelter belt of pine trees. It took some effort to crawl out of my warm sleeping bed into the damp of the morning which rapidly turned into a steady soft drizzle.

I sheltered from the elements by dropping into the (expensive) shops and then a well stocked temporary charity shop in the church hall. I got a few books to read and tried to find a bench that wasn't too wet.

Before long the weather had changed and it was time for the ladies to race. I went up onto the cliffs below the camp site to watch the start and main part of the race.

For the first race all the gigs form an impressive line up and row the long course back to the harbour. That gives everyone a ranking and for the shorter (by 0.2 miles) sprints they race in bunches of 12. The top 2 then move up a group and the bottom 2 move down a group for the next set of sprints. The 3rd and final set of sprints takes place on the Sunday afternoon and gives you your final places. There are also trophies for the winners in each group.

 You can pay to go out in the spectator boats which travel alongside the race.

It's a lot of fun and after watching the ladies' long race from the cliffs I went in a spectator boat to watch the men's long race.

The sea was quite rough at the start of the race which made it more exciting as the boat bounced up and down and from side to side. Everyone yells for their teams and things get even more frantic as you near the finish line.

Peter was rowing in the men's B crew and here they are having valiantly crossed the finish line in 2nd place which meant they moved up a group. They had a dreadful start to the long race when just before the start one of the pins (the little sticks that hold the oars in place) had broken. They are designed to do so but the pin snapped off leaving the end jammed in the boat. By the time they got it sorted they were 100m behind but even so they overtook a few gigs. They were also hampered by rowing in a borrowed gig. Rival was very heavy and the stretchers (bits of wood that you brace your feet against) were different to the club's gigs. And they had a new cox because we didn't have a second lady who could cox the men's B team. I watched the afternoon sprints from the end of the quay so got to see the gigs crossing the finish line. Lots of cheering for the winners of each group but also encouragement for those coming in last. One crew got extra applause as they struggled in with an oar broken in half. Later on there was a lot of talk about a gig that had been disqualified. Their cox is known for rough tactics and he often steers his gig across rival gigs so that they have to slow down to avoid a collision. This time a collision did happen, the offending boat was damaged and a crew member injured but it was all seen by one of the race officials and they were disqualified. Serve him right.

More to follow.

The First Day.

Today has been somewhat colder with the occasional blast of scorching sun followed by short but heavy showers. All I managed to do in the morning was to wash my hair before going in to work. After work I called over to Sarah's to say thank you for feeding the cats while we were away. The lake geese have 4 goslings and so far this year Neville has not shown any interest in them unlike last year when he and the buzzards killed the lot between them. 

Friday on the Isles of Scilly contd.

Throughout our stay on St Martins the weather changed constantly. One minute there would be blazing sun and then the clouds would blow across and the world became grey. When the sun shone the sea and the sky took on glowing shades of blue and turquoise.

The first afternoon was spent getting the gigs off their trailers and lining them up on Town Beach. Some crews went out to practice for the evening's veterans and super-vets races. 

Each time we walked up the hill from the town to the camp-site we were rewarded with amazing views of the harbour below us 

 and further out to sea were the many islands spread around in all directions.

After taking our shopping back up to the camp-site we made our way to the Mermaid pub and found ourselves at a table with great sea views.

The veterans were rowing the long course, 1.8 nautical miles (a little more than 2 miles) from St Agnes back to the harbour. We watched the final part of the ladies' race with other club members leaning on the harbour wall and eating fish and chips.

 It was a grand sight to see over 100 gigs pulling up onto Town Beach in the evening light.

But even better was the sun setting over the islands to the west. After such an early start to the day we were tucked up asleep in our tent soon after.

Earlier on in the day I had seen this soulful looking dog waiting for its owner outside the supermarket. It was such a sweet and sorrowful looking dog that I'm surer if there had been a collecting tin nearby it would have made its owner a fortune.

Arrival.

We're back home after a glorious weekend on the Isles of Scilly. Home to warm weather and the fresh green of new leaves as most of the trees awake from their winter slumber.

In order to be at Penzance by 5.30 our alarm went off at the unearthly hour of 2.00. All was going to plan until we reached the meeting place where we were to follow a fellow club member who knew the best route. He finally turned up half an hour late as his passenger was still in bed when he went to collect him. Then followed a rather fast 2 hour drive where the micra struggled to keep up with the much newer and faster lead car. We got to Penzance sort of on time and I handed over our luggage while Peter went off to park in the long stay car park. After a long wait a flustered Peter turned up having not been able to pay the parking fee. The meter wouldn't read his credit card and his phone kept cutting out as he tried to use the automatic system. Luckily he was able to get through using my phone but it wasn't a relaxing start to our voyage.

 I stayed out on deck to take some photos of St Michael's Mount and then joined Peter and others from the club in the bar/lounge. Many of our fellow passengers were asleep after their early starts. I expect that most of them would still have been in bed at 6.30 in the morning.

3 hours later the sun was shining and the islands had come into view.

The camp site is up on top of a hill but all the luggage from the ship is driven up and left in a pile for you to load on small trolleys and take it to your allotted space. This year our club was on the other side of the shower/kitchen block so it was a little further to walk to the ladies' showers but we didn't have to walk through anyone else's tents.  As we unpacked Peter realised he had left his club splash jacket at home and the chap who we had to wait for had forgotten his sleeping bag bought especially for the trip so he had to pay out for a new one in town. 

Clouds blow very quickly across the Scillies so the weather is quite changeable. By the time we had put up our tent, the big brown one, the day was looking very grey. I didn't even bother putting on my sunglasses thinking that it was the evening and would be getting dark soon. Really it was only 2 in the afternoon !

More about our trip tomorrow.

Blue Skies.

I could get used to so much sunshine even with the cold breeze. Such a lovely change from our usual gloomy grey skies. The high pressure system is hopefully going to be around for a few more days.

I went into school half-way through the morning, taught one class for an hour and then moved to my Year 2 class for more boat building in the afternoon. One thing the children are learning is that plasticine, softens in the sun and doesn't hold things together well. Also masking tape has a horrible tendency to un-stick in the sun. We used masking tape rather than sellotape so that the boats can eventually be painted but they have to be repaired each week. It's been dry enough at school to let the children play on the big grassy field. This afternoon there was plenty of grubbing around in the dirt and some quite complex structures being built. One was a 'bug hospital' with beds made from small bits of concrete that the children had unearthed somewhere. I had a long conversation with a small boy about how his earwig didn't really need to be taken home but would be much happier being put back under the bushes. 

And It's Still Sunny.

I was all set to have a moan about the trees still being bare on the 1st of May when through my window I saw ........... the bright lime green of new beech leaves. Only in the hedge but surely a sign the trees will be green before long.

The sun has continued to shine and out of the chill wind it has been most pleasant. The cats took the opportunity to soak up the sun on the front patio while I tried hard to wake myself up this morning. I gave up after several cups of decaffeinated instant coffee and brewed a cafetiere of fresh coffee which did the job.  

I did a little gardening and made another batch of flap-jacks which for some reason have turned out rather crumbly when I tried to cut them up. In a forlorn hope to  rescue them I stuck the whole lot back in the oven and I'll let it cool properly before trying to cut them up. I'd better check the recipe next time instead of relying on my memory. I had another afternoon of teaching sandwiched between a staff meeting and then a maths training session. And after that I drove across town to meet Peter so that we could drop into the opening day of Gemma's photographic studio. Gemma lived with us for a while some years ago, she was Linas' girlfriend then and we have always kept in touch. (My micra used to belong to her Granddad ) She studied photography in college and now after several years of working at other jobs as well as keeping up with her photography she is has set up her own studio. It's in a nice airy premises in the upstairs of the railway station. A far cry from the days when Peter worked in photographic studios in London. You couldn't even call them rabbit warrens, they were more like rat holes. Tiny cramped spaces with dark rooms and all the paraphernalia of chemical processing. Nowadays it's all done digitally.

Came home in the last of the sunshine to see a couple of spirited horses in the ponies' field.