St Ives 9/22

15/9/22.  Drove to Mousehole.  Lovely village with an enclosed harbour. Had a crab sandwich for lunch.  We walked up to the start of the South West walking track towards Lands End.  

In the evening we went to a concert with Dan Walsh on banjo and Brooks Williams on resonator and acoustic,  both were very talented players and singers.

 Dan played a piece in tribute to  DEBASHISH BHATTACHARYA  the originator of “Calcutta slide guitar”, a very virtuosic piece which sounded most unlike a banjo.  I sketched the Barbara Hepworth outside the Guildhall.  For me this work epitomises the strong theme of art that seems central to St Ives  

14/9/22. Walked down town.  Took the train to Carbis Bay where we had lunch. Then took the train on to St Erth and straight back to St Ives.  Walked around the town again revisiting some galleries.  

In the evening we went to a concert by Rick Chappell and Barry Hunt. An entertaining evening with a mixture originals and covers. The waves were crashing against the seawall below the concert venue and breaking over the pathways. The building, made of stone, shook with crashing waves.

13/9/22. Drove to a dealer gallery sculpture garden we had found on line; entrance by appointment only.  Some bronze, bronze resin and stone.  Mostly smaller than a person and very traditional , so nothing innovative like the waiheke Headland biennial or brick bay sculpture trail.  It was raining so after viewing the offerings indoors the elegant Georgian country house we went out and got our shoes very wet!  We had got there via 3 miles of the famous single lane road where we had to reverse once to let another car through.  

We left and drove to Tintagel village and had lunch of half a pint and a pasty in a cold cafe.  We walked to the Tintagel headland and saw the 6th century and 13th century ruins. The landscape of plunging cliffs, barren rocks and the swirling sea was worth coming all the way for. Also it stopped raining and our shoes dried out and we bought some fudge to eat. The signage around the site was good and had us imagining ourselves as past of the action in the castle.

The legend is that King Arthur was conceived at Tintagel. That seems like too much information, especially since he probably didn’t even exist!  Richard the second, not THE Richard the second of England but of Cornwall built a castle here in the 13th century and played on the myth to give his reign more credibility.   Sue and Richard had been here 40 years ago, she noticed some changes like a lovely double cantilevered bridge.  

Drove back via Tescos where we got the ingredients for a stir fry. The traffic was better than yesterdays. We were going to see Padstow but ran out of time.  

12/9/22. Drove to the Eden Project.  This was started in 1999.  I was surprised by its size, the Rainforest Domes have huge trees and these can be seen from the top by climbing up to a platform.  The trees are well labelled and the gardeners helpful and friendly. Most of the species I have never seen before, like a mahogany tree.  One, Barringtonia, I had identified in Fiji a couple of months ago and I hadn’t expected to see it again so soon.  I would love to live close enough to visit every month  They are, however, planning a garden in Christchurch and in Victoria so I might get to see those on day.

The domes are a very impressive feat of engineering.  They are covered with hexagons made up of three layers of plastic inflated to provide insulation.  It took almost 2 hours to get there but it was worth it.  They have a 8.5 metre tall ceramic sculpture of a Cyanobacteria that shoots out smoke rings of fog in the shape of an “O” representing oxygen  Childrem were having fun trying to grab these.  This was stunning!

Had dinner in the local pub  Sue ordered a starter of whitebait on bread. When they arrived they were the size of small sprats and deep fried in a crumb; nothing like whitebait fried in butter like at home. I don’t think the food was up to much, the couple next to us with the bulldog complained about their food and left without paying. I got a tummy bug.  Will not be going back there.  

11/9/22.  Drove to Falmouth and visited the Maritime museum.  I was not in a happy mood having had to stop and find a toilet on the way.  I found a village Ponsanooth where I thought there might be a cafe where we could have a cafe and a pee. No such luck. But I peed in a public playground in a patch of prostrate plants possibly periwinkles on the perimeter in private. I got my feet wet on the grass.  On the way back to the car and saw the village had a prominently displayed defibrillator but NO PUBLIC TOILET !

The museum was underwhelming, nothing much about the wars for example, but good loos!  The little red boat I sketched is called “Fathers Day” and had an interesting story.  It has two mainsails off the same mast as the boom cannot go across without decapitating the sailer. 

The museum did not seem to have vessels for tours as we have in Auckland Maritime Museum . It did however have something I haven’t heard off before. There was a tank with eight RC yachts and a laminar flow wind setup across the tank. The boats were fairly responsive to the tiller and hauling in. This might the the beginnings of a career in sailing for some kid. They had Ben Ainslie’s Olympic sailing dinghy on display. 

We had a look at some galleries and saw some classic yachts racing on the harbours.  I might have enjoyed Falmouth more if the weather had been better and my socks drier.  I did buy some reasonably price Richter shoes. I brought a pair many years ago in Auckland and they lasted a long time. 

People take boat tours up and down the river but these did not seem to be plying their trade today.  

10/9/22. Visited the Barbara Hepworth museum and sculpture garden.  This was a beautiful quiet place with her home, workshop and works and is there because she set up a trust to display the many pieces and her home before she died.  I wondered what John would have thought of it. 

We went on to Tate St Ives gallery where there was a Rothko and a Pollock to see. More of Barbara’s work too. It is a great building built on the site of an old gasworks which was right on the edge of a beautiful beach! There was an exhibition by Ad Minoliti on gender issues   He had lots of original and low print run “zines” with personal and personal statements on gender issues.   There is something special for me about holding a small book that someone has made by hand and put out there. I wonder if ever I will be brave enough to do that. 

I have just discovered why there are so many NZ plants in St Ives They were collected and planted in the Scilly Islands off the coast by Arthur Dorrien-Smith in the 20th century.  He was a philanthropist and innovator.  

We walked down to the water amongst the marooned boats. There is a street festival on.  We had a drink at the Western Hotel where I sketched  these performers.  There must have been two dozen performers taking their turns. The duo below did “The Letter” Bill Withers and “Only living boy in NY” Paul Simons. One singer started up and after a few versus others would join in accompanying and harmonising.  I saw a weathered hoarding announcing Chris Smithers had been here in June.  That was a concert I would have loved to have been at!

We had dinner in the Cornish Deli which is the third best in St Ives according to TripAdviser.

In the evening we caught a indie folk duo called “Our Atlantic Roots”

. They played in the parish church St Ia. We hoped to be able to catch a bus up the hill after but there was no bus apparent so we walked for about 50 minutes. Fortunately it was not raining. 

 9/9/22  Went to St Michael’s Mount, an island accessible only at low tide by a causeway  We got over and back without getting our feet wet. After we returned the tide went over the causeway and stopped people passing, they had to take a boat.  

The castle was great and there are many rooms and the chapel that can be seen. The garden was full of subtropical as like agapanthus, wild ginger and other plants that are weeds in NZ. There are, oddly, lots of NZ native plants in St Ives and more in the castle gardens. I noticed lots of cabbage trees and flax in every second garden.  The castle had as well, Chatham Is Forget me not, toetoe, Griselinia, Olearia, Pachystegia, Coprosma, Parsonia, Corokia and perhaps others   

We had a crab lunch at Marazion where we had parked the car.  We drove to Penzance and saw the Admiral Benbow Inn which May have influenced Robert Louis Stephenson‘s Treasure island but did not go in.  

8/9/22. Raining this morning and we walked down to the

town between showers. We stopped at the Leech Pottery where Len Castle spent a year and took his learning back to NZ. We went around some of the many galleries. I was admiring some powerful line drawings and the artist, John Higgins, talked to me. 

We had dinner in “The Golden Lion” where the TV had the news of the Queens failing health did not seem too worried.

It seems every 2nd garden here has a cabbage tree or a flax or both. Seems out of place.