Sarahs Blog
13rd February 2012
Quite Possibly the Best Beach in the World?
Porthcurno to Logan Rock at low water on a lovely sunny day, is there a better beach? No really, is there? I’m not very well travelled myself, so can’t make many comparisons, but those who are better travelled than I, say this take beach takes some beating. Certainly, when I took this photo yesterday it felt like a patch of paradise! There was even a group of youngsters having a swim, despite it being February, shrieking with the cold!
3rd February 2012
Please forgive me if I sound a little gushing and over the top here, but the light of the last few days has been and still is overwhelmingly and utterly beautiful. Its beauty has lured me away from all the pressing desk/computer work for a few photo sessions: a couple of days ago to Lands End, yesterday sunset above Cape Cornwall and this morning to Penberth Cove – I hope you like the pictures and they convey to you something of this wonderful, wonderful light.
I long to get to other parts of Cornwall on such days with my camera, but running a small business single handed means there is always so very much to do in the office – so the West Penwith bias in these photos is simply a matter of not having the time to get further afield into the legion of other beautiful parts of Cornwall this week.
12th January 2012
At long last I am out and about again with my camera after the busy selling season leading up to Christmas and its aftermath.
I recently went to St Ives on a drizzly grey winter day – but oh the pleasure of plenty of parking spaces! At the end of Smeaton’s Pier these fisherman had their catch spread out on the pier and were sorting it into boxes – I wonder if they would be able to do so in such a way in the summer when St Ives is full to bursting with visitors?
I really enjoy seeing the same place through the changing seasons, especially places whose character changes so completely in the summer months with the influx of visitors. Walking on Sennen beach the other day in the late afternoon just as dusk was falling, I was the only person on the beach – there were groups of gulls and Bertie my dog was having a brilliant time running, with the wind in his tail, in and out of the water – so different to those summer days with families, sunbathers, towels, tents and windbreaks all over the sand and surfers and bathers loving the waves. Both are good, but they really are chalk and cheese!
17th November 2011
Blogging like buses……
…..none for ages then three at once!
Most evenings I have a walk with my dog Bertie, this one of the gate was taken last week on one such evening not far from home. Oh the joy of living on the north coast for those fantastic evening skies and sunsets – walking through a field on the way down to Botallack my eye was taken by this old, falling apart gate with winter hedgerow on either side silhouetted against the glowing sunset orange back drop sky. A single gull is on the edge of the picture, soon followed by a flock as they glided out to sea.
Returning home at dusk from St Ives the other evening on the breathtakingly beautiful coast road that runs between St Ives and St Just, I was ‘caught’ behind this herd of cows making their way to milking – there were a lot of them and they had a fair old stank along the road before their farm lane. The girl herding them had her job cut out to keep them moving as they wandered from hedge to hedge stopping and grazing as they made their milk laden slow progress in the dusk.
Just in case you think I never leave West Penwith, here is one taken at Calstock, also last week, on my return from dropping my son Dominic back to Exeter Uni. Unfortunately it turned out to be an unrelentingly grey day, so my plans of lovely sunny Autumn pictures of the Tamar Valley were thwarted once again (I’ve been there three or four times to take photos but have always been unlucky with the weather). This one of the river and magnificent viaduct at Calstock is perhaps in some ways enhanced by the grey day, reflecting the inherent power and sombre nature of this huge piece of engineering.
25th October 2011
It’s been all work and no play for me over the last few weeks. I’m not complaining, as it’s a good sort of busy stuffing envelopes with the Evocative Cornwall calendars, diaries, cards etc thanks to a fantastic response to my autumn mailout – long may it continue! I have also spent a number of days selling my wares at various Art/Craft shows including the recent Falmouth Oyster Festival – it’s a great festival with a lovely atmosphere, many thousands of oysters are eaten and much champagne drunk – but personally I still don’t understand what on earth the oyster thing is about, an endurance rather than a pleasure in my opinion! My next show is the Trereife Christmas Gift Fair from Friday 18th to Sunday 20th November www.trereifepark.co.uk
The downside of all this activity is no time for getting out there and taking photos – a great shame as the light is so special at this time of year. Travelling to the shows has given me a few very early mornings with some quite beautiful dawns, but no time to stop and photograph, very frustrating, but a reminder to get up and out early when I have time – perhaps tomorrow, mmmm…..
Meanwhile here is a photo I took in September of a cottage on the edge of the cliffs near Zennor with the waves from the tail end of hurricane Katia crashing past.
Oh yes, nearly forgot, here is a clip from You Tube of my son Mike reading his poem Upon High Hedges from our recently published book of the same name, it is an exceptionally beautiful and poignant poem.
10th September 2011
We seem to have gone from summer to winter in the blink of an eye. Its hard to believe that last Friday I was down at Gwenver on one of those heaven sent summer like autumn days, on a fantastically low spring tide taking a series of truly scrumptious shots. And then there was the kite too, joyfully flying against the beautiful blue sky.
Batten down your hatches this weekend though, the winds up!
5th September 2011
I took this one from my bedroom window! Living as I do in St Just in a tall house with views over the sea, I am immensely lucky to be able to see the sunsets 365 days a year – even grey days when it looks like nothing will happen can surprise with a last minute burst of colour (the poem Days of Grey by Michael Lay, my son, in our book Upon High Hedges, describes this well, his words with my photos). The sunset in this photo was a particularly fantastic one with the dramatic cloud shapes plus the deep fiery colours against the blue sky and a completely calm sea in endless shades of grey.
26th August 2011
I’ve recently returned from spending a fabulous few days camping with friends. We camped near a village called St Mabyn on the edge of Bodmin moor. The real ale helped the relaxation no end, as did the beautiful, people free surroundings, and weirdly, no rain! We swam at one of those fantastic little known beaches hidden along our coast, only there at low tide, and only found after driving along many a tiny lane followed by a bit of a walk – worlds away from the packed summer beaches elsewhere. This beach was on the coast between Port Isaac and Tintagel, somewhere! I bet someone will recognise from the photo?
We also walked up onto Rough Tor – the highest part of Cornwall. My previous visits have always been in the winter in a biting wind, with the top of the tor shrouded in mist. Walking up in our T shirts, then having a leisurely bread and cheese lunch whilst watching the ponies and their foals, was very different! The view was fabulous, we could see for miles and miles, and the rock formations are magnificent and impressive, whatever the weather.
19th August 2011
Have you noticed the heather and gorse at the moment? It is quite breathtaking. Out on the cliffs near where I live at Nanquidno and Nanjizal is stunning – a glorious undulating patchwork of mauve, purple and yellow. It is quite difficult to capture in a photograph the impact made when seeing it in person – the massive stretches of it, yet with so much beautiful and intricate detail and colour. Anyway, I like trying – here are a couple of my attempts.
I recently took a few photos at a Victorian Harvest day, held on a farm above Mounts Bay. A team of 3 heavy horses ploughing, a threshing machine powered by a traction engine, various horse drawn carts and all workers were Victorian clad. It was a great insight into how things used to be done, and a wonderful spectacle for all photographers like me.
7th August 2011
Hey, this is a rare and lovely feeling – I’m pleased, very pleased! Both the Morvah Schoolhouse Gallery Exhibition and Penzance Literary Festival evening went very well. I was apprehensive, nervous but also excited about them both, each being ‘firsts’ for me. As it turned out, they were very well attended – thank you everyone who came - and each generated huge amounts of praise (and good sales!).
The highlight for me was undoubtedly listening to Michael read his poems and prose from our newly published book ‘Upon High hedges’ at the Penzance Literary Festival. His delivery was superb and learning from him how each piece came about was a rare pleasure – we even learnt how to walk to the tip of a longboard (that’s a long surf board)! During the readings I showed my photographs which accompany the poems in the book. Following the success of this evening watch out for our forthcoming video of Michael performing his poems accompanied by my photographs.