The Lighthouse & St Mawes

Three years living in Falmouth and I have gazed longingly across the waters to the lighthouse at St Anthony's Head, just around the headland from St Mawes, without ever visiting it. Which is fair enough as I haven't had a car in Cornwall, and even if I did it is a very long way by road.

But now I have been! Although it wasn't a sunny day, the views were lovely across to Falmouth, Mylor and St Mawes. Of course the lighthouse was pretty cool up close too – although it is fenced off.

First, Falmouth harbour from the day before.

Little St Mawes castle viewed from near the lighthouse.

Trees! 

Nice little secluded beach down there.

Lighthouse!

Cormorants on the rocks in front of the lighthouse.

Gotta photograph a hand drawn sign.

A guide from the bird hide as to what you can see – Falmouth.

St Mawes – Pendennis castle in the distance and St Mawes a little closer.

St Mawes Castle.

Serena

Whilst in Falmouth we went in almost all of the galleries in search of the perfect Cornish painting/illustration for my parents. The two they chose were specifically of Falmouth; although the artist, Serena, has a series of other Cornish towns and villages, mostly featuring streets, houses, boats and the sea.

These two are Falmouth.

Padstow.

Truro.

Mylor.

St Mawes.

St Michael's Mount.

St Ives.

Images from: Cornwall Art Galleries

Stop-off in Bude/Boscastle

Before going to Falmouth last weekend, we stopped off in Bude for the night. Partly to be in the North of Cornwall for a change and partly just so I could go in the sea pool. The weather was glorious and it was lovely to be back in Cornwall.

Bude.

Friends of Bude Sea Pool.

Sea pool – the swim was lovely.

September sunshine skies.

Boscastle, the next morning.

And then onwards to Falmouth…

Out of Hibernation

Greetings! I have returned from hibernation, otherwise known as Cornwall. It was an amazing holiday which included tourist-ing, walking, sea swimming, catching up, eating, drinking, test-driving (not at the same time as drinking), graduating and partying.

As usual, I took a hell of a lot of photographs and so I will split blogs by the day within the holiday… and not post them tonight. However, here is an animated gif I made of my friends and I at our graduation ceremony on Friday.

Kernow!

I am off to Cornwall tomorrow. First to Bude and then on to Falmouth on Saturday. I won't be back for 10 days and don't expect to blog whilst I'm away, although I will be taking lots of photographs. I will also be graduating during this time, so expect lots of photo-blogs when I'm back.

Meanwhile, here's a beach I drew when I was 7 years old.

Cat Art

This week's amazing Oxfam book purchase, The Cats History of Western Art. I was very surprised that nobody had already bought it – so I bought it myself. In fact first I was wondering why it was under humour and not art… until I picked it up. Who doesn't love cats in famous paintings? I can't find too many of the paintings that are in the book online but here are some other gems.

I found these and many more: here.

“Most of us love trees.”

Lauren Tooze knows me so well. This lovely How to Draw Trees book arrived in the post today accompanied by a lengthy letter including a recipe for banana and lime cake (which I will be making tomorrow) which instantly brightened my day.

The book looks amazing, although I haven't had a proper read of it yet. Not only is it a neat size and nicely laid out inside, but it is also what I would consider as antiquarian/collectable at Oxfam and worth looking up. Incidentally, that's what I've been doing this afternoon at Oxfam – including photographing said books like I've done here. Only my photographs for Oxfam are better!

“Most of us love trees. They are our friends in many ways.”

Wood Lane

I met three of my lovely graphic girls in London today and when we saw there was a station called "Wood Lane" on the Hammersmith and Circle lines we just had to pay it a visit. Our day had already been fairly unplanned and spontaneous, so a trip to Wood Lane, London, was a good end to a great day. 

If you didn't know, the Falmouth University town campus (that used to be the old art school) is called Woodlane. So it was very appropriate for us.