By Stephie, on Monday 16th November, 2009 at 15:33 pm
It’s Kim’s daddy’s birthday today, but we started off the celebrations yesterday with a picnic on the beach and a visit to Tate St Ives.
It seemed an unusual exhibition to me, a bit different from the stuff we normally see there. For one thing they’d painted the walls brown and tinted the vast windows, all very Victorian and I guess in keeping with the show’s theme of magic. Not sure the exhibition met with the grandiose description on the blurb though. One thing I did enjoy was the large number of drawings and prints displayed, and seeing work by Graham Sutherland – I haven’t seen much of his work for years. It was interesting to meander through an exhibition that presented work in such a wide range of media from installation and film through to more traditional sculpture and painting, which doesn’t seem to happen there very often (such a small gallery I suppose). I came away wanting to go and do some more drawing (immediately), which is always a good thing!, and Kim was fascinated with Damien Hirst’s Unicorn, he couldn’t work out whether the whole thing was real or if it was just “a pony with an antler stuck on” and whether he’d actually had to kill it himself to put it in the formaldehyde! (I hope not?!) Undoubtedly the stuff of childhood dreams, and not something I’ve ever seen on my birthday (or even the day before it!).
I’ll leave you with a picture of father and son on Porthmeor beach outside the gallery – just the place for a cuppa and a slice of chocolate cake! I’m off to bake another birthday cake now, so see you soooooon!
 A great place for a picnic even in winter!
By Stephie, on Monday 23rd February, 2009 at 01:18 am
 Kim and his daddy in the Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden, St Ives Well, half term is over and it’s back to school tomorrow for Kim. He spent most of the holiday over at his dad’s setting up a new fish tank for his birthday, which is in a couple of week’s time. Apparently you have to set it up a few weeks before the fish go in so that you get the right water balance (yawn!).
I thought he needed to to get out, so we all headed off to St Ives yesterday for a wander about and a visit to the Tate and Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden. Surprisingly, Kim didn’t moan about all the ‘culture’ he was being exposed to. Probably because he had a good dose of charity (thrift) shop rummaging to make up for it. I don’t know where this sudden enthusiasm for charity shops has come from, but I suspect it’s sustained by the hope that one day he’ll come across an amazing Lego set at a price that even he might be able to afford on his meagre pocket money. I have to admit that I quite enjoy scouting round as well. Usually for clothes made from interesting fabrics that I can cut up and use for other things. Yesterday I got some lovely red shirting. And there are the books of course. But I still haven’t made an effort to read the paperbacks I’ve got stacked up on my ‘to read’ pile, so I’m NOT going to buy any more, yet…
 Kim lets off some steam! For more pictures of the sculptures in the Barbara Hepworth Museum take a look at my post Pinboard: The Barbara Hepworth Museum.
Don’t forget that the pinboard is Narrative Self’s inspiration page and changes weekly!
By Stephie, on Monday 5th January, 2009 at 22:00 pm
 Trebarwith Strand, near Tintagel This year was probably the best start to a New Year I can remember for a long time. Kim and I were invited to stay with friends for a couple of nights in Tintagel, a sleepy village (in winter) on the north Cornish coast. In summer it’s riddled with emmets stuffing pasties and ice cream and naff tourist shops (thankfully closed for the winter season), and should be avoided at all costs. It’s famous for being the supposed birth place of King Arthur, his supposed castle (in ruins), and a medieval ‘post office’, but the real treasure is the spectacular coastline. I could splatter my sentences with hackneyed superlatives to describe it to you; suffice it to say it’s rugged, exposed, windswept, awe-inspiring, beautiful, elemental… Ahem, pass the gin and tonic – before I’m recruited to the Cornish Tourist Board.
Kim and I drove east on New Year’s Day and arrived after dark to meet up with Hilary, one of my oldest friends. She was down from ‘up country’ and staying with other friends in a rented holiday home in the village. From the outside the Edwardian house looks like a dilapidated, dull, unremarkable abode with a hideous double-glazed front door and a front garden that gave way to concrete some decades ago. On the inside it was wonderfully warm and pleasantly furnished, in a minimal, leather kind of way. We spent the evening sat around the large dining table catching up over red wine and pasta before heading to bed in the wee small hours. Kim, of course, being only 10 years of age, was not allowed to imbibe, so took to swapping trading cards with a new friend until it was time for his bed.
 Kim rock-pooling On Friday we woke up to crystal clear skies and a sprinkling of frost and knew we had to head to the beach: it would be criminal to waste such a rare and perfect winter’s day. Rather than Tintagel itself though, we got in the car and headed down the road to Trebarwith Strand. This act was in itself criminal: we should have walked the two miles. Not so easy though when you’re with friends that can’t wait to go scrambling on the rocks and skimming stones across the quiet tide (‘cos they don’t have any where they live), and who spent much of the previous day walking before you even got there… I’m not complaining though. No, seriously, I’m not! It was wonderful to sit in the sun and poke my fingers in to the soft, unsuspecting sea anemones so that I could feel their tenticles stick to my skin. It was wonderful to explore the rocks and watch my footprints disappear into the wet sand. It was especially wonderful to sit quietly and watch Kim run along the shore line, dodging the waves, pretending to be who I can only guess was Luke Sky Walker.
 Is that Luke?  Low tide This really was the best start to 2009 I could hope for, and I had only three regrets about the day:
- that I don’t have a better camera;
- that the photos I took with my phone really don’t do the place any justice and
- that I didn’t draw instead.
By the time we’d got to the Mason’s Arms in Camelford for dinner though, I’d forgotten them entirely.
Happy New Year.
(Click on the images to see larger versions.)
And just in case you did think this was a page for the Cornwall Tourist Board, here’s something you might find interesting…
Links to pictures and information about Tintagel and nearby areas:
By Stephie, on Saturday 3rd January, 2009 at 20:27 pm
After a few hours wandering around Truro, what better way to end the day than watching the sun go down at Trevaunance Cove? It’s near St Agnes on the north Cornish coast, about 3 miles from home, and is home to a very good pub called The Driftwood Spars, where it’s obligatory to stop for half a Rattlers!
 Low tide and dusky sky  The Atlantic Ocean at Trevaunance Cove
By Stephie, on Monday 29th December, 2008 at 13:07 pm
 St Ives, November 2008  Porthmeor Beach, St Ives, November 2008  The sun setting over Carn Brea, near Redruth, December 2008
By Stephie, on Wednesday 14th November, 2007 at 23:02 pm
I’m crossing the shore in bare feet and my trail disappears behind me, sinking. I have no idea where I’ve come from, and without that how do I know where I should go? I carry an image in my head of a man crossing the beach wearing wings – did he glide down from the cliffs high above, or does he wear them ready to fly away? I suspect he’s already flown: he’s a solitary figure and he walks away from all that gaze at him. There’s a trail behind him that he can’t see, but maybe he just doesn’t want to turn and look. Maybe he’s scared that if he turns there’ll be no footprints and he too would have nowhere to go.
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I'm running a 28 mile marathon in memory of Josie this February. Come and find out why.
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