Always lovely to see the Hawthorn trees coming out in their spectacular blossoming, after a winter of them just showing off their--equally photogenic--twisting and gnarled, skeletal and austere-looking structure during their days of basic survival. This is what they hang on for, with their skewed and precarious looking positions, out in the windiest and harshest… Continue reading Hawthorn Blossom Time
It is the third anniversary of the day when this humble little blog, not really attended to with much in the way of care in the previous six or seven months, was featured on WordPress Discover. It went mad for a few days. Like from about 30 followers to 8 or 900 mad. Since then,… Continue reading An Anniversary and Other News
First time back on the beach. Post the initial 'too-late lockdown', after 'too early lockdown lift' and into lockdown again and before the seemingly incomprehensible tiers apply. Yesterday afternoon was pleasantly Covid and holiday-maker free. It was March 2020 the last time we set foot on here. Seems an age ago now but the pleasure… Continue reading Back on the Beach
Out for a walk, under the big Cornish sky. Click on the image for a full screen version.
Today, I am answering a letter from a reader.It is from a Mrs H, in Cornwall. "Dear Bear,I wondered if I might make a request? Don't forget it's bin night on Friday.Also, have you got a 'normal' photograph to show us by any chance?Not one like the whooshy abstract things you do--and I do find… Continue reading Nice Picture
There is a woods behind the beach of Crackington Haven, East Woods in the Ludon Valley--the Ludon being the stream that cuts down through it.It's a good and proper native woodland that is managed with only a light touch, letting nature mostly just get on with things itself. So fallen trees stay where they are,… Continue reading East Woods Light Show
It doesn't snow very often in Cornwall. To relations living in a more northerly UK latitude I joke that it's because we are near the equator here, compared to them anyway. This was the second hit in a couple of weeks, the last one hung around for two or three days and we were genuinely… Continue reading Wintry Warbstow
When the tide is out at Sandymouth, just north of Bude, the huge expanse of beach is full of little pools. Looking back towards the cliffs you can see how they are made up of layered rock just like our own at Crackington, although the rock itself is a softer type. I was lucky that… Continue reading Sandymouth
The north edge of Crackington Haven is dominated by the headland of Penkenna. When you are down walking on the beach you can see ant-like people silhouetted against the sky sometimes, walking along the footpath on the top. From sea level it looks very precarious but, although narrowing to a point and dropping steeply and… Continue reading Penkenna
The fishing boat here is called Beeny, after the tiny hamlet of Beeny which is just a handful of miles north of Boscastle itself. It seems to be well tied up which is probably wise given the now famous flooding event at Boscastle in 2004. Beeny, or the National Trust owned coastline that stretches north… Continue reading Beeny at Boscastle
There are days down at Crackington Haven beach - and a lot of Cornwall - when you can barely stand up as the wind is funnelled in towards you and the waves are whipped up. On the sides of the beach you may get some shelter from being in the lee of the cliffs but… Continue reading Stormy at Crackington Haven
These are the photographs of Showery Tor I took after I finished getting buzzed by the RAF. It is the same collection of granite, weathered into these unlikely looking piles by simple wind and rain, just from different angles. Every time I visit I will get different moods of the Moor and falls of the… Continue reading Showery Tor, Bodmin Tor
