Sodden with history (but fortunately not rain!)

Cornish holiday - day 2:

You just can't escape it here. Myth and Legend seeps from every crack in the rock and the ghosts of pirates, sailors, wreckers and King Arthur himself whisper their stories to you across the wind.

Of course, we weave our own yarns too. Today was a high energy experience leaving me somewhat worn and ragged round the edges... I was all for a spot of exercise on this holiday so a morning spent sprinting up and down a beach, clambering over rocks, climbing (at speed) sand dunes and playing a fairly spirited game of football was just what the doctor ordered. In fact, I'm not sure why I bothered taking something to sit on because that was clearly not on the agenda.

Despite the fact that the English weather was apparently glorious in the rest of the country; the far South West kept its blanket of grey cloud for most of the day. But we British are nothing if not hardy and resilient. We still packed the beach and lit it up with a rainbow of windbreaks, bucket & spades and beach balls. Some brave souls even ventured in the sea further than their ankles. However, they were wearing wetsuits. Is my memory playing tricks or when I was a child did we just wear our cossies and put up with the chill?

Aside from the lack of sunshine and waitered-service pina coladas, the beach was perfect. Miles of soft golden sand, rock pools presenting interesting exploration opportunities, rolling dunes, granite cliffs and caves that surely were the home of dragons. Regrettably the rapidly approaching high tide forced us to beat a swift retreat to the cliff top just as the sun was threatening to make an appearance; but rest assured we'll be back again. This time we might just get around to making that sandcastle or perhaps a sand mermaid may take shapely form leaning casually against a rock.

Then, in true Lisa holiday style (aka pack as much into one day as you possibly can), we continued our adventures. Managed to trick my son into an art exhibition where the canvases of this artist particularly caught my eye. Her works seems to have a particularly magical quality about it. Interestingly, although small boy sulked around most of the exhibits, he really liked these ones too.

In keeping with the ne'er do well traditions of ye olde Cornish folk who loved a bit of smugglin' and piracy (allegedly!); I was suitably fleeced a number of times today by car park attendants. £4 to park at Land's End... and that's on top of the £3 earlier at the beach and it should have been £5 yesterday in St Ives but I was donated a ticket by a nice lady who was just leaving. Outrageous. Still, one simply cannot travel to within a stone's throw of the very end of mainland England and not stand on those windswept cliffs and take it all in. And the sun came out so I guess it was worth it after all!

I painted last night which was very satisfying and the acrylics were pleased to get out of the box. Well, I am rather tired now so will retreat to my cosy nest and dream of mermaids, Knights of the Roundtable and dodgy pirates.

Until tomorrow landlubbers...

PS: I love the fact that I can not only post my holiday journal online for all to read but my snaps too (yes, those are my feet on the post below and that above is a bit of Land's End after an encounter with photoshop - note the forbidding grey cloud) - ah the wonders of modern technology.