Early Burns Night

Although Burns Night is not officially until the 25th January, the Jubilee Inn at Pelynt was holding the celebrations last night.

Jo had organised such a successful evening last year that the members of the MX-5 Owners Club had requested a repeat performance this year. As this weekend Jo was due to be at her godson's Christening the job of booking it was given to Fiona who is the webmistress of the Cornwall MX-5 OC and she also very handily lives just across the road from the pub!

We set off from home about 2.30pm in blazing sunshine which is normally the perfect weather for a 5 but Mike's eyes get very sore in bright lights and so it wasn't ideal. He did well though and we reached the pub and checked in. Hamish instantly knew where he was and dragged me through the door and up the stairs to our room but he got a bit confused when the lady stopped at room 16 and didn't go on to room 14 where he'd stayed last year!

It was a much nicer room though and after unloading the car what did we do? We settled down to watch the FA Cup match on TV of course!

We'd been invited to Dennis and Fiona's for pre-dinner drinks and so after dressing up in our tartan we told Hamish we were going shopping and leaving the TV on for him we set off to their cottage. Whenever we leave Hamish we always say we're going shopping and then he knows we'll be coming back! I know daft really but it seems to work even when we don't have any bags of shopping on our return! After drinks we all walked over to the pub and met up with the last two members to arrive by taxi. Ken had had a nasty accident last year and is still not able to drive. We'd been given the same table as before and the room was beautifully decorated with blue and white ...

We began with Cullen Skink which is a broth made from smoked haddock, potatoes, onion and parsley ...

The haggis was then presented and the ode was recited.



We all had a dram of whisky to toast the haggis but I'm not a whisky lover so Mike got two drams! The haggis then arrived with neeps and tatties and a whisky and wild mushroom sauce. Very yummy!

We'd had a choice for our main meal and both of us had gone for the Shetland roast lamb which was also delicious ...

For desserts we'd chosen bread and butter pudding for Mike and strawberry pavlova with strawberry coulais for me. The photos of these are not very good - pale food on a white plate is not easy to capture ...


After coffee and mints I was beginning to feel like a bloated whale! A group photo of the table at the end of the evening ...

We then popped upstairs to get Hamish and he came down to the bar with his tartan bow on ...

After a last chat and farewells we turned in for the night.

This morning Hamish was looking as if it was hangover time!

We went down to breakfast and I couldn't believe that I could eat so much again! We wanted to get away as early as possible but we had to scrape the ice off the car as there had been a very heavy frost ...

After saying our goodbyes we loaded the car and got away about 9.30am. The sun was behind us when we left and it was a much better journey back. Hamish travelled on the parcel shelf and was looking forward to reaching his home ...

He'd been a little angel all weekend - bless him.

Lapwings

A couple of days ago I was looking out at the tide coming in to the harbour and I spotted a couple of lapwings feeding on the water-line. As the tide approached they moved up and when the harbour was filled they disappeared. While out walking Hamish around the harbour this morning I spotted one of them on the grass at the side. If you click on the photo you should be able to see it ...

It took off and flew into the outer harbour where it joined its mate ...

I've always thought that lapwings were found feeding over farmland and have never seen them in the harbour before but according to the Reader's Digest Book of British Birds they can appear on sands and mud-flats along the coasts in winter. I hope they stay here for a while as they're such lovely birds to look at.

Snow at Last!

Portreath seems to be in a little world of its own because while listening to the radio and hearing about all the school closures and problems on the roads in Cornwall we have seen no white stuff - until this morning! I couldn't believe it when the curtains were pulled back and there it was covering the harbour ...

It seemed to thaw a bit but then the sky went dark and we had an almighty hailstorm ...

It then snowed on and off during the morning but it didn't stop Hamish going for his morning walk and leaving his footprints ...

We really needed to get to Tesco at Redruth so after lunch when the sun was shining and the roads were wet we set off and there was no trouble getting there. It was very quiet in the store and I was pleasantly surprised that the shelves were full as I was expecting that deliveries would have been hampered by the weather. Someone had been having some fun in the snow on the car park ...

On the way home we had to leave the main road and go to Illogan to collect a prescription from the surgery and this bit of the journey was a bit dodgy. We had a slide going up one hill but luckily made it to the top and then parked ...


It was pretty straightforward from here as it's either level roads or downhill and so we made it back home all in one piece thankfully.

Christmas at New Year!

It was Christmas all over again today! Jamie collected Pam and then we had presents before a full Christmas lunch.

Hamish couldn't understand why we all had gifts to open and he didn't but he had great fun ripping up the paper. In the afternoon Mike's sister Lesley arrived and then Paul and Fred looked in to collect Jamie, Phill, Simon and the dogs. They all went for a walk on the beach while the rest of us had a quiet time at home. When they returned it was cuppas and Christmas cake for everyone. A lovely day but I'm so going to suffer as I've definitely eaten too much! Before lunch ...

Late afternoon ...

Three good boys ...

Falmouth and Pendennis Point

Jamie, Phill and Simon arrived at 4.30 this morning having driven overnight from Luton in minus degrees and through snow. I was so pleased when I received a text to say they were almost here that I didn't care that I'd been woken up! After a lazy start to the day it was suddenly suggested that we pick up Pam and head off to Falmouth. I rang Jo and asked if they'd like to join us and they said yes. There was only one slight problem in that the boys' car had no windscreen wipers working as they'd packed up just before arriving here. After several phone calls to garages to see if the car could be looked at and the most common reply being 'bring it in late next week', Phill finally managed to find someone who'll check it out for him first thing Monday morning before they drive back in the afternoon. Luckily it was a beautiful sunny day today and no rain in sight! After coffee and toasted teacakes in our usual spot overlooking the harbour and a quick shop in Trago we all drove up to Pendennis Point for ice-creams ...


Just for a change we walked down from the lower car park ...


No oil rig moored off this time ...

We saw what looked like the remains of a table and seats with an interesting hole in the rock just behind it ...


Phill climbed down to the rocks ...

and I couldn't get over the beautiful view looking towards St Anthony Head ...