Sunday 28th Sept 2008

Got back from Cornwall on Friday evening after a torturous drive back lasting 8 hours. Nick did all the driving and didn’t stop so that was some going by him...don’t think I would have managed the whole drive without stopping. Below is a brief synopsis of the holiday. I label the photos where I can.
Can I just add before going on that Cornwall is amazing and we had wall-to-wall sunshine the whole time...amazing!

Thurs 19th Sept 08
Set off to Gloucester as stayed overnight with Nick’s friend Gin who is a lovely girl. Initially we got lost and Gin had to come and find us. Luckily she has a bright yellow VW Beetle so it was easy to spot. Gloucester looks a good town to explore someday.

Fri 20th Sept 08
Set off to Exeter at 6.30am to meet up with Jane and Noreen at “Darts farm” in Topsham (a little village just outside Exeter.)Farm shop was great and we got some giant free range eggs and thick cut bacon for the holiday. Thy also have a great Aga showroom.

http://www.qype.co.uk/place/187396-Darts-Farm-Ltd-Exeter

http://www.aga-rayburn.co.uk/southwest_topsham.asp

From there we drove to Carbis Bay to the cottage close to St Ives in Cornwall. The cottage is called April cottage and was so picturesque. Soon found out the Aga wasn’t switched on which was a little disappointing but there was another oven to use. Quick explore of the house and then off to the beach to explore. See the house by clicking the link...how great is that! From the house we could see the sea.

http://www.classic.co.uk/holiday-cottage/desc-1871.html

Sat 21st Sept 08

Took a day trip to land’s End which has spectacular cliffs and scenery but is a little spoil by the visitor centre...I mean we really didn’t need a Dr Who exhibition here. The on to Porthcurno to the museum of telegraphy...which despite the title was actually very good.

http://www.porthcurno.org.uk/

Sun 22nd Sept 08

Went to the lost gardens of Heligan (near St Austell) I have to say that the walled vegetable and fruit gardens were good but the rest of the gardens didn’t seem all that great. Still nice birdsong on the website and Nick made a big roast dinner when we got home.

http://www.heligan.com/flash_intro.html

Mon 23rd Sept 08

Off to St Michael’s Mount at Marazion (close to Penzance.)Excellent day out! The island is located very close to the shore. Spectacular views and what a great place to be able to live in. We took a boat out but walked back along the causeway. The causeway is only exposed at low tide for a few hours each day. We didn’t wait for the causeway to dry completely so off came our boots and we waded through the last few inches of freezing cold water.

http://www.stmichaelsmount.co.uk/about.htm

Tues 24th Sept 08

The hot weather throughout the holiday is strange but so welcome. We are all tired and in bed early and poor Jane has a cold. We’re having a quiet day today. I think I had a bit of a cold or something too...maybe an allergic reaction to the sunshine. I’m sat in the garden looking out to sea with the wind and waves merging into a melody of airy roars. It is very peaceful. No songbirds but maybe that is the seagulls keeping them away. Tonight I cooked a lamb tangine for dinner. I later earned the name the “Darwen poisoner” for it but suspect it was a rogue Cornish pasty or too much wine on certain people’s parts. We’ve had some good food this week and Nick has cooked most of it. Bit of a busman’s holiday for him really. It’s been great to be able to use the computer while we have been here. Nick and Jane seem to have been playing Mah-jong all week.

Weds 25th Sept 08

Went to Goonhilly and had a great time whizzing around on Segways. We both want one now. I wasn’t sure about Goonhilly but it was a good trip. Would definitely go back.

http://www.goonhilly.bt.com/

After that we went to “The National Seal sanctuary” which proved a bit of a disappointment and really a rip-off. £12) Wouldn’t go back there again.

Thurs 26th Sept 08

Saved the best till last and today we went to Kynance Cove which was just breathtaking. Spectacular cliffs, white sands and rock pools.

http://www.cornwall365.co.uk/cornwall/places,2,Kynance-Cove.html

If that wasn’t enough in the evening a bald eagle crashed into the garden tree mobbed by around a hundred crows and seagulls. The whole episode was like bedlam and so extraordinary to say the least. The eagle thrashed around in the tree and then headed off pursued by the mobbing birds. We later found out he had absconded from the local bird of prey centre in Hayle.
Hope you enjoy the pictures...back to work tomorrow...

Sometimes I can enact a hurtful thing
Just by saying wrong words in haste
But your silence in reply to my idiocy
Tells me more than I could ever learn
From that peace I know that I am sorry
I ask, but don’t expect you to forgive me

Enjoy a little bit of Cornwall (looks Mediterranean doesn't it?) and a photo of the house...cool!!!

Thursday 18th Sept 2008

Off to Cornwall this afternoon once I finish work so may be incommunicado for a week. I am taking my Pc and the mobile internet connector so I may continue posting if there is a signal. I hope so as I will be taking lots of pictures this trip.

I shall make it my aim to banish your average days and give you only bright, perfect days filled with love and wonder.

I know i must be going on holiday as I had a terrible night’s sleep last night....excitement mingled with a little trepidation as today is the last day of a big audit at work. Everything comes at once...

Hope you’re well and bon voyage to me.

It is quite the most beautiful of nights. The day began with a dense fog followed by sheets of rain and has evolved into the dry clear night I find now. I am walking through the wooded part of the cemetery and the night sky is traced behind the filigree of arching branches of the beech trees. It casts shades of violet and black and the grey clouds float onward through the sky like vaporous icebergs on a collision course to the dawn. The world hangs dark and heavy at first but lightens as I walk and my eyes widen to the little light there. Above a solitary bright star through the maze of twisting, arching fingers of these tall trees shines. I walk the clean, cool air and I am so wrapped up in thoughts. The little light that there is reflects off the marble headstones creating visual stepping stones to lead me through the night. Where do I go? I am not sure, but it is forever in your direction or in the garden writing to you there. I shall enjoy that so much. To sit and record the world and show it to you when you aren’t there to see it yourself.

Safe and soft comes the thought that a life lived through a dream is never close enough. I am glad it is so for now our dream grows and colours on the horizon. Every day come it a little closer to us and even now the little remaining time before we can touch it and make it whole sees it shift and shimmer undergoing another metamorphosis into something even greater and nobler than the day before. The wings of time bear our great gift eagerly and we for our part must wait and watch and be content for the time to pass remembering all the time that the love grows stronger and stronger.

A whisper enters within my mind as I sleep fast in great dreams of my love. It taps away at the unconscious man I live within till I rouse and leave the man with his dream. And where would I go? To follow the whisper that takes me to you waiting patiently on the edge of space and time for me to come. And oh, you are so beautiful to me and I rush into your soul like a cascading waterfall into the pool below it. We wrap our love and desire into a new awakening and sate our love among the stars. Then you take hold of my hand and show me the world. It becomes our world now and I shall love it so because it has you upon it. Somewhere in the world a man sleeps and dreams of you safe and warm under the covers in the fastness of sleep and while he sleeps his soul leaves and finds you. For it could not bear to be without you ever. Wherever you go I shall be there.

I got this wonderful smile within my heart
Yet most cannot see it or know it is there.
It is my beautiful secret shared only with a few.
It means when I am sad or feeling unfairly treated
I look within and feel the warmth that radiates there
For the special people who bring joy and laughter to life.
It would surprise some (but not all)...if they knew
That this tall, quiet man was sparkling with joy within.
For I can look within my heart and it is forever summer.
Clear blue skies, time spent resting against oak trees
While the songbirds create complex masterpieces
Which soar to the heavens and wrap around dreams.
Spiral endlessly upward through the whitest clouds
Into the cool rarefied air’s that lie still overhead.
See the glimmer of honeybee wing or drops of dew
Reflected in shafts of auburn light
Filtering through the cool green leaves
To dapple the forest floor with dark and light.
Sweetly haunting me and soothing away
Any breath of doubt, making the smile within
Don’t ever go away now you are a part of me.
I feel you tonight, your spirit wrapped around me
And comfort of your touch drives away emptiness
Of one alone who waits for that sweet night
When I can but hold someone
Within my arms and never let go.
To gaze upon a sweet sleeping face
With a heart full of pride and joy
Know that nothing could ever make me
Hurt this wonder held close to me.
For if you were here asleep ever
I would watch over you and nothing...
Would ever hurt you
While you were in my care.

Rich and vibrant hangs a picture of yesterday framed in rosy hues
Yet scratch the gilded frame and see the image crumble into ash
For that which is in the heart from a life past recedes into history
And is but an echo trailing along a breeze of gentle remembrance

For memories are made complete and time absorbs the pain till there is…
Only honeyed musings and laughter from all the pain that was once real
How we strode through life like giants welcoming all the new experiences
Till it seemed only joy and hope was there within the circles of the world

How soon we fell and reaped the pain that befalls us all, sooner or later
Silent nights filled with tears that fell with every heartbeat into rivers of hurt
That swam along worried brows into the sea of inconsideration and loss
For the world gives, then in the sum of a sorrowful equation takes all back

Health and youth and innocence peel away like layers of frost under the dawn
Loved ones leave and never return and our hearts harden like ripening walnuts
Hard and bitter within and yet comes the day that wisdom finally matures and…
Within the hardness and protective shell flows the sweet oil of forgiveness

For yes the world wounds and takes, making us less than thought and hoped
But love does come again to unexpectedly sweep away the apathetic notions
Till the luckiest among us are healed and wholed into a spring garden of birdsong
My love is you and our garden is evergreen for we are now the lucky ones…

What hangs within the balance of a mind that is breaking under the strain of an impossible day is the love that evens out the scales. So that madness and the impotence of rage are calmed and transmuted to joy. That I am home and you are in my thoughts and the world feels better.

Time has no sense of tomorrow for all her energy is in today
So the time is precious between us and shall never come again
Then shall I take every second I am given and while there is life
Shall give each one I have to you my special and precious love
For time may descry the future but mine is within your arms

Arise from sleep and travel across land to the sea lying still and cold between the isles. Look over the water and take a wish and send it out to sea. For soon shall you be looking over the water with me and amid the roar of the water and wind listen for that wish I made today. It is the whisper of love to you my sweetheart from far away. It shall reverberate endlessly across the oceans till the second you hear its call and then once heard shall die away having fulfilled its promise. For we shall be together once again in body, spirit and soul. So for tonight I send my love and place my spirit at your side as you close your eyes to the day and take to the dreaming. I am with you always and never shall I leave now for you are mine forever.

For in the descent of the sun in the solar plane another year is lost with it a glimpse of wonder for another year. Nights shall now lengthen and the Beech leaves will wither and burnish under an autumn sun. Long ago I asked you to take a walk through the moonlight into those magical places that hearts create. Now having took that journey I find I need more and ask for your hand through the rest of my life and to whatever destinations our hearts may fly to. For there is magic and wonder in the world and it lies within our softly beating hearts.

“If only everything in life were as reliable as a Volkswagen”
Trilled the ads on TV but if it were true then I am afraid that I…
Should never have prospered or lived long enough to see adulthood
For all I have suffered is inconvenience and regret
That V *** DCW is my worst car yet

“Self defence lessons from Polo so the advert said to me”
Then my good VW Company I would now have to say
I unknowingly shot myself in the foot or the head
70mph on the motorway’s fast lane the engine stalled dead
And if I close my eyes now I can see my life flash past again

Judging you by your car that I bought so little time ago
With the high hope of workmanship and quality service
I now realise that the wonderful three year warranty
Was just there because there must be so many faults
Such as windows don’t work and the garage staff laugh?

For these little episodes humorously break up their day
When the customer suffers and they dont have to pay
No courtesy car is has ever been offered or available
The legendary Volkswagen service is to me only a fable
I am in short dissatisfied and though it sounds extreme
A VW car that worked without fault is to me but a dream

And a dream it shall remain for as long as I am able
My hard-earned money shall never again come to your table
I shall never again buy your smooth, wistful advertising
For life is fleeting and the tarmac world to explore is vast
But in a VW I’m afraid to the end of my drive it wouldn’t last

The night came swift and wet to the hearths of the north
Yet never shall it enter within the heart of this one man.
Who fearless before the dark remembers your face

For the heart is born aloft by the sentiment of memories
The higher the cold winds blow down upon me
The warmer I become for they carry your laughter

I close my eyes and I hear your sweet, loving words
That are and always shall, be my comfort and eternal joy

For when the wind blows you are with me in the dark

This is humour in case anyone gets the wrong idea (Nick you'll remember this)

The day is re-born after the nights have passed cold
A heart arises and asks where is my someone to hold?
From works toil to secure fortune I stretch a day’s hours
Yet all I want really is you and I, amid a garden of flowers
To sing and dance, to make love, hold, kiss and caress
But preferably my dear without you wearing that dress

For the rain has found once again its way home.
Summer aged leaves dance in its water waves
That shimmers wreathing along leathered branches.
Yet if a raindrop can travel a thousand miles as...
A vapour star born high upon Atlantic winds.
Cannot my spirit hold you from far away?
For I have need of your touch right now.

Soft and welcoming entwined around my heart

It has rained for what seem forever and is pouring down now. You want some of it? Well just asking, although you have probably enough of your own I would think. We’re heading towards autumn; darker mornings and evenings and much cooler winds. It is quite warm this morning and I have the window open. The wind is lifting the curtains and letting the cool morning air in. I can smell the trees and the damp earth and it is a wonderful taste of the outside. How I would rather be out there now than having to go to work. Maybe one day if I am very lucky I shall.

Calm rides in dusk on a darkening sky. No wind blows or rain falls upon now blackening grass that a moment before lay glinting green under the last rays of the sun. A ghostlike evening shapes and takes upon it the eerie stillness of the underworld. No birds sing, nor dogs bark and for the briefest time I feel alone. Then comes the tempest and it trumpets nightmares of feathered, violet cobras wreathing through obsidian clouds to spit silver venom relentlessly upon the earth. I feel the power and malevolence and I am humbled like the ant before the looming oak tree. It was a good storm tonight.

Slowly comes the changing of seasons
Borne on warm winds of passing summer
That is blowing within the shrinking days

See the arachnids come to yellowing ceilings
To dance stealthily among the nights lengthening
For the time is ripe and the nights cool and fertile

With flying ants that reach for the dusk of August
To escape in clouds their humming nest of siblings
To alight on cool grass and tear at useless wings

For the world moves to the autumn once more
Star-filled skies spinning silver webs among indigo
Of dreams and harvests and always of rebirth

For as the air cools and the stars brightly shine
So to does the world softly exhale and in it’s sigh
I hear the whisper of love and it calls with your voice

Could our souls meet while we sleep? Certainly...but think rather that maybe they already have but only now choose the moment to reveal their alliance to us. I firmly believe things happen at certain points in a life because they are supposed to.

So where would a soul journey? Anything and anywhere is possible and yet even as the thought begins to take form it dissipates. For I feel your soul slip within mine to disseminate it’s structure and allow a new form to be created…and if joy, laughter and honour have a corporeal presence it would be this. I know not its shape, nor size, no colour. Only that it is a perfect environment filled with all the seasons of the world in a harmonious melding of ethereal zones. It is alas, only for the time we sleep and yet it is there forever and though our union of souls must separate still I take a piece of you with me and whether waking or asleep you are a part of me forever.

Bills, work and domestic tedium run through my mind. They are vying for precedence against the watercolour image of you I paint with thoughts. I lay my head on the soft damask pillow and exhale. The world takes pity and these long-lashed eyes close tight shut to release the soul to the night.