See the Gallery for more photos.
Saturday 24 December 2011
Christmas Eve walk
See the Gallery for more photos.
Thursday 22 December 2011
Minor crisis averted
Staff shortages in the Museum at Christmas meant that a temporary volunteer had to be called in to help out reading The Lighthouse Keeper's Christmas Lunch to some passing children. We were all impressed by the stylish outfit.
Tuesday 13 December 2011
2011 Annual Review
We spent last Christmas Day on top of Cornwall’s most westerly hill, eating our smoked salmon lunch in bright sunlight. We have continued to discover our county throughout the year and have welcomed guests large and small, from far and wide. Our ‘photo album’ is packed with pictures of blue skies and seas, of walking, paddling and crabbing expeditions, ice creams and tractors.
In April Kate satisfied her wanderlust by visiting Hong Kong with a group of girls from Truro High School; her first foray so far east. Jonathan was more conservative and in May took time out to show a Slovak and an Austrian friend around Cornwall’s gardens at their best. Their visit coincided with one of the highspots of the year for Peter at last asked Rebeka to marry him. Not one to do things the easy way, he tricked her into visiting the Minack theatre where they first met; walked her down the auditorium through soft Cornish rain to the overture of Iolanthe in which they had played the lead roles; got down on one knee and offered her a ring. Peter - who is now a director of a toys and games company - and Rebeka, a doctor, will be married in Marlow next September.
In amongst visits to and from our two lovely grandchildren we took a real holiday of our own, cycling from Vienna to Budapest. Friends and family will be surprised that we suddenly took to such an unfamiliar mode of transport but the going was easy: some might call it flat. We simply followed the Danube downstream and downhill dropping 55m in 250 km. The route took us through sleepy villages in three countries, into wonderful spas and museums and for lunch with friends in Bratislava.
Both of us continue to work full time, Kate teaching a medley of subjects – from French to 5 year olds to Latin to 15 year olds - and Jonathan doing what he can at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. His patience is sometimes tried by people who have never experienced a recession talking about ‘issues around mosiac funding’; saying ‘that was then, this is now’; and preaching about ‘partnership’, ‘blue sky thinking’ and ‘thinking the unthinkable’. The advantage is that he can still play boats occasionally and we have done just that when the conditions have been right.
The main focus for the year was the family and we were visited regularly by our offspring and their bright, adventurous and growing children. Emma and Wyl live in Datchet – with Wyl teaching in Slough – and have a very camera-loving Alana (nearly 2) who has introduced her doting grandparents to the joys of Abney and Teal.
Claire and Nick live in Epsom and are both happily working in the public sector. Olly (now 2) is engaged in comprehensive research into the tractors and diggers of the UK which will no doubt lead to a book.
At the other end of the family, and the country, Jonathan’s parents are still going strong, propping up the local church in Suffolk. They have now met all their great-grandchildren.
We found time to indulge our love of music – regular concerts, Rusalka, Gianni Schicchi and La Boheme as well as singing a very bass pirate – sail Curlew and row a pilot gig. Jonathan was even called on to narrate a historical re-enactment to celebrate Falmouth’s 350th anniversary. The result was somewhere between a Horrible History and 1066 and All That: rather strange for a former pure physicist.
We were all looking forward to welcoming another grandchild to the family but sadly, a couple of weeks ago, Emma and Wyl lost their son Kit thirty-one weeks into the pregnancy. We are all mourning with them, confident of the future because of the love that surrounds them.
Another year is around the corner and we wish you all good fortune. Mylor Bridge continues to be open to all provided you do not mind stairgates, tractors, camping cots, a dolls’ house, coupled with wonderful Cornish skies, seas, beaches, boats, weather and a warm welcome.
Our love to all our friends. Kate and Jonathan
In amongst visits to and from our two lovely grandchildren we took a real holiday of our own, cycling from Vienna to Budapest. Friends and family will be surprised that we suddenly took to such an unfamiliar mode of transport but the going was easy: some might call it flat. We simply followed the Danube downstream and downhill dropping 55m in 250 km. The route took us through sleepy villages in three countries, into wonderful spas and museums and for lunch with friends in Bratislava.
Both of us continue to work full time, Kate teaching a medley of subjects – from French to 5 year olds to Latin to 15 year olds - and Jonathan doing what he can at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. His patience is sometimes tried by people who have never experienced a recession talking about ‘issues around mosiac funding’; saying ‘that was then, this is now’; and preaching about ‘partnership’, ‘blue sky thinking’ and ‘thinking the unthinkable’. The advantage is that he can still play boats occasionally and we have done just that when the conditions have been right.
The main focus for the year was the family and we were visited regularly by our offspring and their bright, adventurous and growing children. Emma and Wyl live in Datchet – with Wyl teaching in Slough – and have a very camera-loving Alana (nearly 2) who has introduced her doting grandparents to the joys of Abney and Teal.
Claire and Nick live in Epsom and are both happily working in the public sector. Olly (now 2) is engaged in comprehensive research into the tractors and diggers of the UK which will no doubt lead to a book.
At the other end of the family, and the country, Jonathan’s parents are still going strong, propping up the local church in Suffolk. They have now met all their great-grandchildren.We found time to indulge our love of music – regular concerts, Rusalka, Gianni Schicchi and La Boheme as well as singing a very bass pirate – sail Curlew and row a pilot gig. Jonathan was even called on to narrate a historical re-enactment to celebrate Falmouth’s 350th anniversary. The result was somewhere between a Horrible History and 1066 and All That: rather strange for a former pure physicist.
We were all looking forward to welcoming another grandchild to the family but sadly, a couple of weeks ago, Emma and Wyl lost their son Kit thirty-one weeks into the pregnancy. We are all mourning with them, confident of the future because of the love that surrounds them. Another year is around the corner and we wish you all good fortune. Mylor Bridge continues to be open to all provided you do not mind stairgates, tractors, camping cots, a dolls’ house, coupled with wonderful Cornish skies, seas, beaches, boats, weather and a warm welcome.
Our love to all our friends. Kate and Jonathan
Sunday 11 December 2011
Christmas is coming
A wet weekend close to Christmas produces all kinds of things to do. First, you have to 'find the Christmas decorations' which means climbing into the loft, tripping over your children's precious droppings, exam papers and childhood toys, carefully categorised in crates and boxes which have never quite made their way to their owners' houses. Somewhere, in a dark corner, is a small box of obscure ornaments that one has never had the courage to throw away and which, if one did, would produce outcries from the same offspring along the lines 'but we always have the fairy on the mirror and then you forget to take it down until about Easter. It would not be the same without it.'
The imminent arrival of mobile grandchildren also an effect on our quiet ordered life. Evenings and weekends have been filled with visits to jumble sales for suitable toys, on line searches for travel cots, the installation of stair gates and fire guards, and a full health and safety assessment in the knowledge that anything movable will be moved. One is allowed a last lingering look at the television zapper as episodes of In the Night Garden and Abney and Teal are squeezed onto the digibox, taking up space for unwatched but reasonable adult viewing such as Downton Abbey and David Attenborough’s latest spectacular. The zapper will surely be hidden under cushions, beneath armchairs or lost in the doll’s house before long.
Then there are the Christmas lights. These seem to work first time which is a major step forward on the ones we bought all those years ago which just about lasted one Christmas and mysteriously lost the will to twinkle when stored in a loft. Now the challenge is to get the timer device to work the right way round and not turn the lights on at midnight and off again at teatime the following day.
Finally there is the Christmas letter which has to be cleared by three inveterate and literate editors, each of whom objects to what has been said/not said about them/their brother/sister. But for the result of that work, you will have to wait a week or so.
The imminent arrival of mobile grandchildren also an effect on our quiet ordered life. Evenings and weekends have been filled with visits to jumble sales for suitable toys, on line searches for travel cots, the installation of stair gates and fire guards, and a full health and safety assessment in the knowledge that anything movable will be moved. One is allowed a last lingering look at the television zapper as episodes of In the Night Garden and Abney and Teal are squeezed onto the digibox, taking up space for unwatched but reasonable adult viewing such as Downton Abbey and David Attenborough’s latest spectacular. The zapper will surely be hidden under cushions, beneath armchairs or lost in the doll’s house before long.
Then there are the Christmas lights. These seem to work first time which is a major step forward on the ones we bought all those years ago which just about lasted one Christmas and mysteriously lost the will to twinkle when stored in a loft. Now the challenge is to get the timer device to work the right way round and not turn the lights on at midnight and off again at teatime the following day.
Finally there is the Christmas letter which has to be cleared by three inveterate and literate editors, each of whom objects to what has been said/not said about them/their brother/sister. But for the result of that work, you will have to wait a week or so.
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