Photo diary: Cornish holidays

And whoosh, our week in Cornwall whizzed by in a flash... you count weeks and days until the holiday arrives, and then it's all done and it's time to go home...

I hope we can still go all together to Cornwall for another couple of years, but then who knows. Children grow up, have their own lives to live and their own plans and ideas.

We've been staying for holidays in Perranuthnoe every summer since Eddie turned one year old. That year my Mum visited with us. We stayed in a small cramped cottage, and I have fond memories of Eddie seeing the sea for the very first time. He wasn't impressed. 

Sasha loves Cornwall. We have a social story (photos, symbols and short text) about going to Cornwall, which he enjoys to read on a daily basis. He is mesmerised by the sea. The waves tell hims stories, and he waves his own arms as a conductor to the sea orchestra.

For Saturday evening we booked a table at the Godolphin Arms in Marazion, just opposite St Michael's Mount. The view is amazing, and the food was decent.

We ordered drinks (I had half a pint of the local ale called Tribute, as it made me think of Hunger Games and the tributes), and were admiring the view. There was a light breeze from the open window.

Whenever I am going to look at this tranquil image, I will remember what happened next during our dinner. My husband coughed and startled Sash, who got scared and flew into one of his anxiety attacks, hitting himself on the head, shouting and crying.

We were sitting in a kind of a side room, with just one long table for our company, and nobody directly next to us. I was very upset that such a lovely evening turned ugly so fast, and even more upset on Sasha's behalf as he was genuinely distressed.

Thankfully, the anxiety attack didn't last more than ten minutes, but we hastened to finish the meal and leave the place. And then my darling boy was calm and smiling, as if nothing has happened.

Our days in Cornwall fall under the same routine. In the first half of the day we go to the sandy beach in the village for surfing, running, football etc. 

In the evening we often take a scenic walk along the coast towards Marazion and St Michael's Mount towards the rocky beach.

I'm sure it's not called the rocky beach, but that's what we call it. It's a beautiful walk with the views over the Mount's Bay. It might be a bit repetetive, but the familiarity is part of Sasha's equilibrium, he doesn't easily take to changes, and we do love this walk. 

Sometimes we stop by in the local church of St Michael and St Piran. This is the image of St Piran above the entrance door inside the church.

I can never get bored of looking at St Michael's Mount.

A couple of years ago I read a book about the raid on Penzance by the Barbary pirates in 1640, when 60 locals including women and children were taken captive during the church service and taken as Christian slaves to Algiers. The pirates sailed past St Michael's Mount, but deemed it too much trouble to attack and instead went into town for an easy prey.

Eddie had a blast, surfing, laughing with his friend P, who stayed with us.

For years now, ever since Eddie was three years old, he and I have been doing an "obligatory" jumping on the beach photo. One of us is getting taller and more handsome, another one is getting shorter and chunkier, but at least I can still jump. 

I'm glad that my boy doesn't mind taking part in something silly like that and doesn't seem to be embarrassed by his mother.

On Friday we packed our bags and said Good bye to our cottage and Perranuthnoe. For the last several years we went to Newlyn to have brunch before a long journey back home. 

This time we decided to visit Padstow instead. The town was just one seething mass of tourists. We did manage to get a table at the Greens of Padstow, with the lovely views over the estuary. It was stifling hot to sit outside, however, the food was tasty.

I didn't want anything too heavy, and opted for a salad of burrata and tomatoes. 

This photo was taken on the last evening of our holiday - the sunset over the Mount's Bay. Eddie said the sun looked like something out of Star Wars.

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Photo diary: Project 385, week 28

American history of the XXC is one of Eddie's subjects for the next year's GCSEs. The Prohibition is one of the topics they cover. We decided to watch The Untouchables together. I've seen it many years ago. It's still good, and Kevin Costner is a poppet, he looks so young in this film.

We ordered Domino's and enjoyed the film.

I love seeing flowers in the garden and in town.

A few days earlier I had an email from Ocado that my Ocadoversary was coming soon, and I could spend a tenner on chocolates or wine. Gavi was on offer, and I got a bottle basically for a pound. I will squirrel it until our trip to Cornwall later this summer, so that we can enjoy it in "our" cottage one evening.

Another scorching week, and I have to water all potted plants every evening and top up the water baths for birds. The blackberries are still either in bloom, or green, though I have seen ripe berries on the hedges in town.

Not sure what this insect is, but it has "alien" eyes.

One of the sketches I did in the last week for Penandinkchallene, with a warm cup of coffee prompt. This is a super quick selfie with a cup of coffee. To be fair, even coffee doesn't help much in this weather. I don't sleep well, when it's so hot, and crawl around the house like a zombie.

Picked up this huge fig in the garden, it was very sweet. This is the first ripe fig of the season. I can see more on the tree, but they are still quite green.

When I see a bright flower, I say to myself "and a splash of colour" in Rabbit's voice, from Many adventures of Winnie the Pooh, when he tries to decorate the stuck Pooh's backside.

In this weather we tend to eat tapas-style food, with salads, fresh fruit, cheese, olives etc. On Saturday I did make an effort and cooked a shakshuka, with aubergines, sweet pepper, olives, tomato sauce and eggs. 

Hope you're doing well, against the heat wave.

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Photo diary: Project 365, week 27

It's been a long week, as my husband was away for seven days (Thursday to Wedneday). Sasha misses him and tends to be more anxious, taking it on me. It didn't help that it was so hot as well, and in Sasha's eyes, it's all my fault, I'm responsible for the weather. 

I did a quick drawing of a Japanese boy with a floating carp balloon in my watercolour notebook. 

Filling in my notebook with some reading challenge stats. In the first half year of 2025 I read 52 books, including 7 non-fiction. Pretty pleased with that, as it's the most I've read of non-fiction books in years. Hoping to add to this number.

I also started a new reading challenge, run by our local Waterstones. You need to read nine books in nine weeks, following the prompts (Read a work of translated fiction, Read a book with a BIPOC protagonist, Read a locally-set book, etc). 

By reading 52 books, I completed my Reading Challenge on GoodReads. 

 My top favourites are:

A Life's Music by Andrei Makine;

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins;

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré;

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre.

The last one is non-fiction, and is very well-written. I have been reading it about 15-20 pages at a time, as there is a lot of information to absorb. Philby was the right bastard, and the secret service is a dirty business anywhere. Whatever side you belong to.

With all the hot weather I've been watering my potted plants every evening. Spotted this little butterfly on the blackberry bush, and checked out online if it's the blasted moth who nearly destroyed our boxwood hedges. It doesn't appear to be the horrible moth.

I love the scent of phloxes. It's one of my Mum's favourite flowers. 

Another butterfly in the garden.

My blood test results are back, thankfully, no action required, but the health issue is still there, so need more tests.

On Friday Eddie went to London with his school to see Noughts and Crosses at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. He studies Drama as one of his GCSEs, and this play is one of the subjects they study. He came back from his trip after midnight, rather tired but happy. 

Though it was an evening performance, Eddie managed to get sunburnt, and woke up with very puffy eyes. He did have a hat, but seeing a photo that the school posted on Facebook, looks like none of the silly sods were wearing hats.

A splash of colour in town. 

We had a relaxing day, not doing much: took Sasha out, did a bit of shopping and watched The Rain season 1 on Netflix. It's a bit slow going, and not as good as El Eternauta, though it is quite similar in genre (post-apocalyptic society, survival in the aftermath of the virus which wipes out the majority of population). There are 3 seasons. Not sure if we keep watching beyond the first one.

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Photo diary: Project 365, week 26

 Wide awake until 5am, started nodding off around 6am, and then it was time to get up. You know the feeling, when you stare at the clock through the night, willing the morning to come sooner, so that you could at least get up and start the day, as you can't sleep anyway.

It's going to be a very long day, and I have too many things to do. Sigh.

Looking back at our week, there wasn't anything special happening. Since it's so hot, I water potted plants every evening.

Lavender provides a meeting point for butterflies and bees.

On Monday I tried one of the recipes from a vegetarian cook book, which I bought in the charity shop several years ago. I have picked a few recipes to try from the book - named 330 Vegetarian Recipes for Health - and asparagus ricotta flan was one of them. I used Jus-Rol shortcrust pastry. The filling is a mix of ricotta, eggs, Parmesan, yogurt and spices. It was quite nice, though I should "sink" the asparagus deeper in the filling, as the very tips got slightly dry.

On the lookout for some second hand books, I checked out a couple of charity shops. Didn't find what I was looking for, but saw these two beautiful Indian costumes. If I were younger and slimmer, I would totally buy this pale turquoise outfit, with its elegant silhouette and light shimmer.

I'm very slowly going through season 3 of Yellowstone, only watching a little bit at a time.

I had a bag of sweet cherries taking space in the freezer, and decided it was time to cook something with them. I made a sweet cherry- red currant filling, and my own sweet shortcrust pastry too (which I don't often choose to do). It was delicious, and my guys loved it. 

On Thursday I had my blood tests done (waited for almost a month), and asked Eddie to meet me at the clinic after school, as I was a bit wobbly on my feet. He accompanied me home, and on the way back we saw the lovely Mischief. He's forever lounging on the mini-bridge, and I feel like I should be paying a toll to cross the bridge.

Friday, and the much anticipated Squid Game season 3. Eddie and I watched two episodes almost as soon as he came home after school. 

We finished watching it yesterday. I wasn't happy with the ending. It's not the first time Netflix botches up the ending of the popular show, just look what they did with The Umbrella Academy (still haven't forgiven them for that). 

However, reading reviews online, many people loved it, and thought it was brilliant. Go figure.

One of the ink drawings I made last week. The Penandinkchallenge prompt was a turtle on wheels, so I decided to draw a Steampunk-style turtle. I was looking at the steam engines' photo on my phone from our visit to Arts& Metiers Museum in Paris.

Our local Waterstones is a dangerous place. I'm very easily persuaded to buy new books, especially when recommended by one of our lovely booksellers.

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Photo Diary: Project 365, week 24

 A typical English weather this week - it cannot seem to make up its mind, whether to be sunny or rain in buckets, so we often had both most days. Whenever there was a sunny break, I popped into the garden to do the weeding, and trimmed the Virginia creeper at the house front. While working, I spotted this moth.

It is likely an Eight-spotted forester, but don't take my word for it.

We were taking Sasha out, and my husband asked if we could go anywhere else but Cafe Nero, as he's a bit fed up with it. Sasha is happy with Coffee 1, as they have his favourite Coke and nice cakes and pastries. 

The pistachio craze continues, and there is a new Pistachio cream bun available in Coffee 1, which Sasha has chosen. It does look pretty good, though that's some serious amount of cream.

And if you visit Costa, they have a new pistachio chocolate cookie. I had a reward on my Costa card for a free can of iced coffee, and bought a cookie to take with me. Eddie and I shared it. Not too bad, quite chocolatey, though the pistachio flavour tastes rather artificial.

I'm happy with all the pistachio offerings, as it's one of my favourite nuts (that, and hazelnut). 

A clematis in town...

I was looking forward to the Strawberry Moon on Wednesday, but alas, the Moon was hiding from us in the clouds, and we couldn't see anything special. I ventured into the garden several times through the evening and early night, and it was dark dark dark. Did you manage to  get a glimpse of the rare Moon?

This week I've been trying to figure out what to do with the boxwood hedges in the garden. All of a sudden, some parts of it have been attacked by nasty pests. I bought some special boxwood spray to kill off the pests, but not sure what exactly the disease it. It's not the boxwood blight, or miner. I cannot see any worms or bugs, or any insects at all, but a lot of damage. In fact, one hedge looks pretty destroyed.

Any word of advice? Should I remove all the affected bushes and burn them? Or will they be able to recover after treatment?

On Thursday my friend and I arranged to meet for an hour, while Sasha was out with his PAs. We haven't seen each other for over a month, and it was lovely to catch up on the latest news. 

On the way to her house, I ran through the flood fields area. I love it there, it's just so peaceful, with birds singing, and tall grasses waving in the breeze. You can often spot a local cat there, named Mischief. I've known this cat for at least seven years, but he must be older than that. He is a mouser, and spends most of the day outdoors. He is the most chillaxed cat you can encounter, often lying in the middle of the path or bridge, without a care that someone might step on him.

Mischief is a local mini-celebrity, as people often menion seeing him on the local Facebook group.

The weather was funny again on Friday, with a mild rain, and a bit of sunshine. I picked up some of the red currants for lunch. 

I could see some of the apples too, though this year there are going to be less of them. Last year's harvest was abundunt, so this year the apple trees are having a bit of a break.

A few days ago I got a message on Insta from author Shannon Morgan, saying that I won three of her books (all horror). They arrived yesterday, with a lovely postcard. I follow the author on social media, but haven't read any of her books yet. I do enjoy horror.

What else have we been doing? Eddie and I finally started watching The Last of Us (season 1). I was waiting and waiting for it to get less pricey, but it is not happening. Only watched two episodes. 

If you haven't watched it, my unsolicited advice: don't do it before bedtime, or you might have trouble to sleep. It's pretty disturbing.

I keep reading Icelandid Noir, and just finished reading The Clues in the Fjord by Satu Rämö (currently free on Amazon Prime).

And how was your week?

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Photo diary: Project 365, week 23

 An overall uneventful week... After last Friday's trip to the bowling place, I managed to lose my voice, and have been croaking for days, which wasn't the most pleasant experience.

My husband was away from Sunday until Friday evening, visiting Colombia. He likes doing a disappearing act, not telling me exactly where he travels. I knew he was somewhere unsafe, as it's his usual trick just to message me with short sentences, and only told me where he was once he came back, supposedly as not to worry me. Yep, that works. 

 Last week's Penandinkchallenge prompts were all Succulents-related, and I painted fairies of all kinds, including this Ice Plant Fairy.

What a striking shape and colour of a poppy, growing in the street, just next to the stone wall.

Eddie's after-school meal of choice, noodles with a poached egg. He likes Soba the best, but says Batchelors is not too shabby either.

On Wednesday morning we were supposed to have a chat on Teams with Sasha's new social worker. He left me a reminder message on my phone, and the transcription made me laugh. Selena Scary is my new name.

On Thursday my art prize from Manuscript has finally arrived. I won it a month ago, and the package got "lost", aka stolen in transit. I don't know what people who took it expected to find, it's a very niche product. Unless you are into calligraphy and painting with inks, it's pretty useless.

I was delighted with my stash. The shimmer inks are so beautiful, and the glass dip pen is good quality too.

I wanted to try the new inks at once. The Queen of the Night is painted on Clairefontaine Mixed Media Denim paper.

It was such a wet week, raining almost every day. I haven't had a chance to do much in the garden, and the weeds are growing, well, like weeds.

Roses look beautiful in any weather.

One of my pet peeves - when supermarkets do a sneaky ploy to make you buy things which look like an offer, but are not on offer. Passing by the stand in Waitrose, saw the Dettol wipes on offer for £2.50, grab a yellow pack only to realise once I paid that I picked the wrong pack for £6. Why are those packs in the aisle corner of offers? It's clearly a strategy, not a mistake. Super annoying.

Operation De-clutter Children's Books continues. 

I enjoyed At the Sign of The Sugared Plum and Petals in the Ashes by Mary Hooper, and will take them today to the charity shop, hoping that someone else will like them as much. They are probably more suitable for tweens/teens rather than younger children as they deal with such harrowing themes as the Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666 in London. 

Both books are a mix of historical fiction and coming of age stories. If you're interested in the history of medicine, the first book gives a fascinating account of what it was like to live through the Plague and what remedies people thought would work to keep you safe (from powdered dried toads to Abracadabra amulets). 

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