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Going Nowhere?

This week a dear friend introduced me to Simon Jenkin’s book England’s Thousand Best Churches.  She did this shortly after I had introduced her to one of the gems of the Roseland Peninsular, the thirteenth century church at St Just in Roseland.  I am particularly fond of this church and so it is one of the places which, when showing visitors for the first time, I take great care to approach from the right direction.  We walked out along the Bar, a spit of shingle which reaches  across the creek, so that she could see the church across the water.  She was appropriately impressed.  A series of ‘wow’s and other appreciative sounds confirmed this.  Later we walked round and into the church.  It is a beautiful and interesting place full of peace and history.  Its creek-side setting and semi-tropical gardens are the icing on the cake.

I was astonished that Jenkins only gives St Just one star and have resolved to explore some of the Cornish churches to which he awards 4 stars in order to compare and contrast.  Turning to the page for the Roseland churches I was shocked.  None of them merit more than one star and Jenkin’s summary of the Roseland is ‘A secret annex which might just as well be called Going Nowhere!’  I would like to add to that, please, Mr Jenkins.

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Creed Church.

The Roseland is steeped in history and tales of daring do; its coast is rugged and yet gentle at the same time; its geology is fascinating; its villages have their hearts in tact because they still have sufficiently large residential populations, having been blighted slightly less than some parts of Cornwall by people who own houses but only use them for a few weeks a year.  I could go on and on but, given that one of its charms is that people leave it alone to some extent, I won’t tempt them!

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This is my playground!

 

Having given Jenkin’s remarks some time to filter through my tatty brain I appreciate their accuracy.  Geography makes his comments completely accurate.  Apart from a couple of ferries there is literally one road in and one road out.

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You don’t come to the Roseland unless you meant to!

You don’t come to the Roseland unless you meant to – and I meant to!  It gives me a sense of well being.  It is my playground.  It inspires my work and I am truly glad that I now have the opportunity to live and work here.

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The Roseland inspires my work.

 

 

In Praise of Partners

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Alan has painted plinths, mopped brows, calmed nerves and polished vessels without a single complaint. 

I think I might have over-stretched myself a bit recently.  I have committed to too many exhibitions and commissions in a short space of time and found myself with a bit of a problem.  This blog is in recognition of the part of my team which always seems to come up with a solution to this kind of problem.  He does it with more cheer than I can muster on most normal days and with greater efficiency than anyone else I know.  In fact, he leaves me feeling more exhausted by his efforts than I was before but, quite frankly, I could not have got through the last few weeks without him!

 

My darling husband has not only been responsible for bringing me hot drinks and lightly poached eggs whilst I have been fighting the ‘Mother of all Colds’,

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Sometimes I have been feeling like a scalded cat
he has also shopped for buckets of ice-cream; he has visited the chemist for the most vile cough linctus ever created; he has listened with patience and tolerance whilst I have alternately moped like a kicked puppy and scratched like a scalded cat;

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At other times I just wanted to crawl away and lick my wounds.
he has painted plinths late into the evening; he has waited at our private view pouring wine and engaging our guests with charm and wit and he has polished my vessels.

I have mentioned the wet polishing of vessels before.  It is a painstaking, time consuming, messy, cold, wet, unpleasant activity!  My other half has polished 21 vessels this week – at an average of an hour per vessel.  Well, you do the maths!  Even if I had been well and fit it would have been utterly impossible for me to get done all that needed doing unless someone took from me the load of doing the polishing.  One word of warning though.  He has done such an amazing job on the polishing that he might have constructed for himself a cross that he now has to carry for all time!!

Alan, thank you. I found something which says it far better than I can –  this is for you.