Ahh May What a wonderful month that was.
It began with a trip to the London Museum – Docklands to see The Secrets of the Thames exhibition with Charlotte. An exhibition of over 300 items that have been lost in the Thames and rediscovered by mudlarkers, from priceless ancient artifacts to mobile phones and false teeth it was certainly an extraordinary collection!
In the 18th and 19th centuries, poor Londoners hunted the foreshores of the Thames and sold whatever they found to keep body and soul together, they became known as mudlarks. Primarily they were looking for items that had fallen off the trade barges like coal. The tidal river, the mud and disease made it a dangerous pastime. These days it’s a hobby and passion for those who scour the shoreline looking for objects and not just anyone can do it, you need a special permit from the Port Authority. This regulates how and where the mudlarks search, they must also report important finds.
It was a fascinating exhibition with some truly incredible objects, some so tiny you marvelled at how they had ever been found.
There was also a whole section about the mudlarkers them selves showing pictures of their collections and notebooks.
From 1600 to pretty much the modern day it takes in merchants and sailors, poverty, World War 2 and the formation of the Port Authority.
The floor covering sugar and the slave trade was very informative; I found it sobering and incredibly moving. Sailortown the recreation of what the alleyways around the docks would have looked like was like a thing out of nightmares, particularly for someone who is claustrophobic, no wonder it was so damn easy for your average unsuspecting sailor to be relieved of his wages or naïve pub goer to find themselves pressganged!
The collection of photographs and particularly the paintings by Graham Sutherland in the Docklands at War section were very powerful.
Galleries finished, the shop browsed, and some lovely moon earrings and badge purchased it was time to find lunch.
It was a glorious hot day, so we settled on one of the many restaurants along the dockside. I was intrigued but not tempted by the floating pods complete with your own chef! We both chose fish washed down with a cheeky glass of wine before heading back into the centre of London and taking a leisurely walk back to Paddington to catch our respective trains home.
That weekend Himself and I went out for another long walk, this time to test out my new mini flask! As mentioned before I seem to have an in-built teaometer as Himself calls it, that without fail goes off at around the 10 mile mark meaning I get cranky in a way that can only be cured by tea, something that is rarely available in the middle of a field or up a hill!
I do have a flask, but it is huge, and I wasn’t sure about transporting it to Cornwall and also fitting it in my small walking rucksack.
So both Himself and Soo suggested checking Mountain Warehouse for a smaller one. They had a lovely teal one in stock so we decided to try a long walk to test it out. The weather started out warm, so I left the house in a t-shirt and with no other layers, a rookie error. It got cloudy and once we climbed Blewburton Hill the wind was bloody cold. Thankfully the new flask worked and my tea, drank sitting in a tree for shelter, was piping hot.
Finally, Cornwall had arrived. As soon as Himself got told no further treatment was needed, we booked a week in his favourite place St Ives to celebrate. Sadly, the lovely little place we stayed at before is no longer available, so I trawled Aspects website for another apartment that fitted our checklist. I found the perfect apartment on our favourite side of town and with a sea view, in an old B&B that has now been converted into 6 individual self-catering flatlets. We arrived late Saturday afternoon to find the town absolutely heaving which was a surprise having deliberately booked out of season to avoid crazy busy. It turned out it was the annual food festival on the beach which we did have a wander around the next day.
We unpacked and popped out to the Co-op for bread, butter, eggs and orange juice to cover breakfast. The agency had kindly left tea, coffee and milk plus a packet of posh crisps, biscuits and a very welcome bottle of wine that got put straight in the fridge for later!
How's that for a view from your bedroom window?
Dinner was chips on the beach followed by a mooch out towards Zenor until the light started to fade and I thought it was prudent not to get stuck on a cliff top in the dark on our first night!
The next day after breakfast we walked to Tesco at Carbis Bay to do our food shopping for the week. It was brutally hot and I was cursing having put jeans on! I was a sticky mess and felt like climbing in the freezers by the time we got there. We got a cab back to the apartment, put away the shopping and I took the opportunity to get into more appropriate attire before we headed out to Portminster beach to check out the food festival before going for a lovely walk on the cliff tops toward Zenor.
The Monday was a bit grey and chilly so perfect for an exhibition I was super keen to see at the St Ives Museum ‘Sea Change - St Ives Artists 1914-1930’
Good lord that place is crazy. The librarian/vintage collector/history lover about died at the state of the place, and particularly the exhibits.
The potential is enormous, but it desperately needs someone to take it in hand. They appear to have every item they have ever been given out on display, so everywhere is cluttered to the point of looking like a hoarders house.
A lot of the items are also coated in dust which can only do damage long term, and the thing we both found most confusing/distressing is there is no rhyme or reason to what is where. There is no historical timeline or delineated sections, so WW2 is mixed in with Victorian and tools next to clothing. Oh if I had the money and the time how I would love to make it what it has the potential to be!
That aside I was in seventh heaven looking at the paintings and happily took a load of pictures until we both spotted a strictly no photography sign just as we were leaving -oopps.
We had a wander around St Ives island and found a little craft fair where I bought a pair of crescent moon earrings.
We also visited pretty much all the shops. I forgot to bring body lotion so bought some made locally plus postcards and a few other bits and pieces. I also commissioned a necklace from one of my favourite shops Made by Caroline. Caroline uses reclaimed metal and resin to make unique pieces and I always buy something from her. This time I spotted a moon brooch which I asked her to make into a necklace for me. I also bought a whale brooch and a ceramic cat brooch in another shop.
We went out for dinner that night to Peppers the only Italian restaurant in town before heading to The Sloop Inn for a few drinks where we were kept entertained all evening by one of the bar staff who was a scouser and seemed to magically find all the customers from the North of England and then engage them in banter.
Tuesday was the day we had chosen to try third time lucky and see if we were finally going to get to walk the St Michael’s Way. Lunch packed, new flask full and sun cream slathered on we caught the bus to Long Rock and from there walked to Marizion and St Michael’s mount to do the walk backwards so we could finish up in Carbis Bay and from there walk the extra mile and a half to St Ives.
There are 2 lengths of walk one just over 13 miles and one just over 10, the guidebook says it takes all day which to be honest we scoffed at as as a rule 10 miles is 3-4 hours at most even at my pace.
The guidebook of course was quite right!
The mostly uphill terrain meant it did indeed take us pretty much all day, we did also include the recommended detour up Trencrom Hill for the views. It was also a good spot to eat lunch and crack open the flask, the contents of which I basically inhaled.
It was a wonderful walk encompassing many different landscapes, from wetlands to woodlands, open fields and farmland to craggy hills and of course the sea at each end.
You do have to cross a rail line and a busy main road that the pilgrims wouldn’t have had to contend with, but it was well worth it. Himself now wants us to get matching tattoos of the shell emblem that denotes this pilgrim route. It’s kind of crazy to think it ties in with the Camino Trail.
Showered and changed we cracked open the bottle of fizz I had bought in the hope of celebrating finally being able to tick this one off the list.
Once back in St Ives we spotted they were doing a premier of The Salt Path film that evening in the little cinema and as I was keen to see it, Himself checked availability and managed to get two tickets. Sadly, despite it’s great cast, the film was not good and varied wildly from the book (which I loved.) Also, the scene in the book that happens in St Ives, was not filmed in St Ives, so got a very disgruntled reaction from the crowd which did amuse me. We decamped to The Lifeboat for drinks before heading home for the night.
The next day we had decided to set aside for the other big walk we had planned, St Ives to Hayle and a pub in the little village of Phillack on the outskirts of Hayle called The Bucket of Blood!
I can’t remember what it was we were watching on TV where it was mentioned but as soon as he heard the name Himself had to go there.
Hayle was much bigger than I expected and we called in at the huge Asda for Himself to check the range of beer, he was on the hunt for one in particular.
There is a nature reserve and wetland at Hayle which we passed on our way, somewhere for another visit.
The Bucket of Blood was well worth the hike and the final slog uphill. It’s a gorgeous pub and one I would happily visit again, the food looked great as well. We were sorry to leave and head back into Hayle to catch the train back towards St Ives.
Trudging up the hill to the apartment we passed a tiny shop selling ice cream from a local dairy, so I bought us both one and it’s some of the best I have ever eaten.
It certainly made the steep climb more bearable.
After dinner we went for a mooch on the beach to watch the sunset, there were an astonishing number of jellyfish but I did find some lovely bits of seaglass.
Friday our last full day dawned all too soon. In the morning, we walked into St Ives to pick up my necklace which I was delighted with and did a bit of holiday shopping, before walking back out to the Carbis Bay Tesco as they had the cheapest fudge for Himself to buy to take into work.
On the way back we called into The Cornish Arms for a pint as somehow we had come out in the wrong place when doing the St Michael’s way and missed passing it then which was when we had originally planned to call in for a beer.
We took our shopping back to the apartment, made up a flask of tea for me and added that and the rest of a large bottle of coke for Himself, plus the packet of posh biscuits and our books into a bag and headed to Porthmeor beach for the rest of the afternoon.
Our final dinner was an eclectic mix of everything we had left over to eat minus breakfast for the next day and things for sandwiches for the train. Needing to walk that off we went to walk on the beach so I could look for some more seaglass.
Himself tried to persuade me to go to either the Rum and Crab Shack or The Sloop for a drink but as the next week was half term and the town was rapidly filling I didn’t fancy either.
We had to leave by 10.30am, so whilst I did the final breakfast washing up Himself nipped down to the bakery for cinnamon buns (my big weakness) for the journey home, and a loaf of delicious fresh bread for when we got there.
Our train journey home was thankfully painless and we back in the house by about 4.30pm. Sunday was spent doing laundry and a food shop before the next bank holiday Monday dawned.
We were up earlyish to jump on a train to Oxford and then a bus to Witney. I messaged Soo and Gav as the bus left Oxford so they could catch the same one and we messaged Melissa and Dan when we arrived so they could meet us for lunch.
Once we were fed we left the boys to visit a few pubs whilst we checked out the places that were open for Art in Action.
There weren’t as many as we would have liked, I think because it was the last day, so we decamped to the pub too and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up and drinking beer. I can’t think of many better ways to spend a chilly and wet bank holiday!
So that was May and what a glorious month it was.
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