2013 Annual review

A generation is said to be 30 years long. This year we followed this fine tradition by celebrating a 90th, 60th, two 30ths and a 0th birthday.

Zoe arrived on a snowy ‘essential travel only’ weekend early in the new year, a sister for Olly. This brought the grandchildren count to a balanced four: m/f and f/m.

Kate celebrated her 60th birthday in late January with a family party in Kew and, naturally, a Cornish cliff walk with local friends.

The big one followed in March when Felicity began a year of celebrations with a party in Suffolk followed by a succession of visits by the family. The highlight of the celebratory events was a massive Dobson family party on a sunny day near her childhood home.

The two newly 30 year olds celebrated the first year of marriage with a trip to Rome then Greece to become Day Skippers, which Peter managed to slip into his many work trips around Europe and Rebeka between tending kidneys.

The grandchildren dominated most of our leisure time during the year and the house and Cornwall came into their own during a sunny summer. So easy are the children with each other and their uncles and aunts that our photograph album needs captions explaining who belongs to whom. A boat is being prepared for their future adventures.

We did manage to escape for some time of our own, however, completing our exploration of the upper Danube by cycling through some wonderful scenery from Passau to Vienna, where we met some Slovak friends. We then took a night train to enjoy a couple of days in Venice to search for Kate’s ancestral atelier which we had failed to find last year. As always, we were struck by the sheer beauty of the place despite the crowds.

We needed a new potting shed alongside the garage but our builder thought otherwise. After a twelve week programme we had a new large garage with a room on top. The Look Out is designed as a games/rumpus room, office, spare-spare bedroom and general doghouse. We weren’t sure we really needed it but it was not long before we were sleeping there ourselves, leaving the house to four adults and four children.

The garage also came into use sooner than we expected. ‘Mum, we are coming to Cornwall’ said Emma one day. About six weeks later the garage - J’s nice new ‘workshop’ - was full of their belongings and she was settling into a flat as House Mother at Truro High School, where Kate teaches, with Lana in the Nursery: so there are now three generations at the school. Wyl has taken over the Look Out as an office and we are beginning to learn how local grandparents are meant to help.

We did not neglect culture in this restless whirl, making music and singing Patience, attending regular concerts and a performance of Hippolyte et Aricie at Glyndebourne – we don’t think we have attended an opera set in a fridge before - Iolanthe at the Minack, and the pre-production run of Perfect Nonsense, written by Kate’s cousins.

Sadly we did not do nearly enough sailing but that is a regular complaint in these Reviews. We did get out occasionally to enjoy the Cornish countryside so there is life and fresh air in us yet.

The Museum held a Gala Fundraising dinner at the end of the year which meant we had to dust down the glad rags to meet and greet HRH the Princess Royal who has been a great supporter. We have included a picture to show you that we don’t do everything in lycra, walking and sailing boots.

We leave you with a cheery message of love and hope for the year ahead. There is always a warm welcome for you in Cornwall, even if you find yourself above the garage. One day we must try and sort out which of these is which - and whose.

Much love, Kate and Jonathan
PS. There are more pictures here, if you can face them.

Opening the Look Out

The Grand Opening of the Look Out - aka the Doghouse - was performed on a claggy Cornish day over coffee and cakes by the most senior member of the AllGriffs clan who was spending a long weekend in Cornwall. An enthusiastic supporter of the scheme, from afar, she wished the Garage and Look Out 'God Speed' for whatever boat (or, perish the thought, car) was stored therein.

The credits for the twelve week project were:
Original ideas: Jonathan who wanted a garden shed and some elbow room in which to potter; Kate who wanted somewhere to store her grand-children's garden toys; John Toovey who sketched some ideas
Producer and overseer: Felicity Griffin who encouraged the work at every stage
Revised concept: Mark Smith and Rosemary Lynch who decided we needed a proper garage and a room on top
Architect:  Rosemary Lynch who did the hard work of producing plans and dealing with the planners
Builders: Mark Smith and the Marnick boys
Photographer and Reporter: Jonathan Griffin
Foreign correspondent: Felicity Griffin
Funded by: Kate
Fit out assistance: Annette Shaw for calculating the shelving; David Pollard for fitting them; the Menmuirs who felt the garage looked a bit empty and helped fill it
Critical assessment: Johnny Pitt and David Pollard who would not have done it like that
Catering: Kate - you could never believe how many cups of tea and coffee builders can drink
Temporary storage: Nigel and Margaret Stubbs
Mascots: Alana; the shade of Koshka the cat who oversaw the building of the main house
With thanks to: All those mentioned above; our neighbours, especially Jean, Mark, Sue, Tom and Milo; our neighbours who did not mind our cars being parked in the road

And there was on little girl who danced for joy at having a whole plate of cakes all to herself at the party.

AllGriffs Towers

The garage is finally completed and merely awaits its carpet, furniture and 'official' opening. The decking has been cleared of its temporary stuff. Fruit trees in tubs have mysteriously emigrated from Datchet. The three apple trees are laden with delicious fruit and someone has parked his favourite tractor on the lawn halfway through a tomato delivery.

It is all a far cry from the bramble-infested estate of seven years ago.

Cycling the Danube Part 2

Two years ago we took it into our heads to cycle along the Danube from Vienna via Bratislava to Budapest (see here). We so enjoyed this that we resolved to cycle the upper stretch: from Passau (Germany) to Vienna.

We started in Vienna, took a train to Passau where the Danube meets the Inn and Ilz and becomes a grown-up river, collected some bikes and followed the river downhill to Vienna. Our luggage magically overtook us each day and was waiting in our appointed hotel for our arrival.

The going was very flat which is one advantage of following a river and we passed through some wonderful scenery and charming Austrian villages which one would normally by-pass or ignore. We checked out cafes, ice cream parlours and some out-of-the-way churches some of which had suffered from the Baroque tendencies of the Counter-Reformation. We even visit the former Mauthausen work camp but that is an experience that one retains in one's own heart and mind.

Arriving in Vienna we had time to spend with friends and to visit some of the sights - it was too hot for the Hofburg or Schonbrunn Palaces - and then took an overnight train to Venice.

Why Venice when we went there last year? We needed a more restful holiday and we were in search of the atelier of William Henry Tyler, late Victorian sculptor who wrote letters from an address close to San Marco. Well, it was as good an excuse as any to go to Venice, as if one needed one.

It was hot - Italian hot - and the city was very full but we were visitors not tourists and so we ignored the other people and enjoyed ourselves in a city which is a never-ending series of serene aesthetic surprises.

The picture story is here  or, if you can use flash, here

A perfect day

Apart from being the day after the Lions thrashed Australia, and the day on which Andy Murray finally won Wimbledon ... today was special for other reasons.

All it lacked was the friends who have made this place special for us: Rendels, Goldmen, the Anglo-Dutch, jolly Googlers and of course all our family some of whom are not far off an age to start fishing. And, for the record: six pollock (J3, K2, P1 but it was enormous).

There are some more photos here.

When your son rings up from London
Says he thinks the tides look right
And the weather forecast's looking rather good.

And he jumps upon a train
Travels down, he's Truro bound
And you spend the evening eating out of doors.

Then you up and drive to Cudden,
Piskies beach and fishing rock,
And six pollock give their lives from turquoise sea;

Oh the fresh air and the fishing
They can banish what is waiting:
All those pressures that you had stacked up on Friday last.

You're soon absorbed in tussles
(Catching fish needs guile and muscles)
And the thoughts that scampered round your tortured brain
Will soon be passing through the ether
Lost forever from your mind, like a
Chinese lantern fading out on darkest night.

When the sun is still bright shining
As you round grey Helston town
And the evening looks like lasting until spring.

Then you simply cannot ask me
Why we live where e'er we do.
I can't explain to friends who're up the line.

But I thank our lucky stars
That we can do this when we will
For tomorrow's now a much, much brighter day.

Postscript: the day was helped by eating fresh crab sandwiches on the beach at lunchtime and a seafood platter of simply-cooked scallops, mussels and fresh pollock fillets for supper.

Postscript to this: while we do not usual bow to informal comments we are very happy to confirm that no day could be truly perfect without all our family around us, including the very youngest. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to clarify this.  

The Tinner's Way - interlude

A number of people - well, I am sure one of you did - have asked us what the Tinner's Way is. We found it in Belerion, the wonderful book by Craig Weatherill. Here he talks about the ancient trackways of West Penwith and, in particular, the Old Land's End Road (Vounder Gogglas) which goes from Penzance to Land's End; and the Old St Ives Road which joins St Just to St Ives and the coast near Marazion. The latter is the Tinner's Way.

We cannot better his description: No one can be sure just when Penwith's ancient trackways came into being. They were certainly in use during the Bronze Age, with the advent of tin production, and could well have been trading routes as far back as the neolithic period, to carry locally-made stone axes from their 'factories' to points of distribution. 

Both ... have important archaeological sites close by, and much of their routes were used later on when the parish boundaries were marked out. Talking of the Tinner's Way, he goes on: to travel this route ... is without doubt the finest way of seeing the spectacular and lonely Land's End moors.

The route passes by sites like Carn Kenidjack with its neighbouring stone circle and holed stones; Chun castle with its associated quoit; the Men-an-Tol, the Men Scryfa, Lanyon quoit and the Nine Ladies (Boskednan) stone circle; Mulfra quoit and Castle an Dinas. Could you ask for more?

We have also walked St Michael's Way which links St Ives and Lelant to Marazion, and which shares some of the Tinner's Way. The Old Land's End Road is on our list.

St Michael's Way map
Tinner's Way map    

The Tinner's Way - part 2

The Men-an-Tol

We must have been busy for it has taken us over a year to do the second part of the Tinner's Way (see previous posting). On a blustery but sunny day, we parked at the top of the Try valley, beneath Mulfra Quoit and headed off across Bosporthennis Common, supposedly following some boundary stones. All we could see were some posts planted by Cornwall Council warning us of some proposed designation. We  did not know whether to pity the man who had to walk out here and plant these notices, or envy him that he had a day out walking the moors and could call it work.

The path gave out as we approached Brook Cottage, surely one of the more remote dwellings in Cornwall, but we managed to re-join the correct route with a bit of help from a native and his charming dog, heading over the ridge into a familiar landscape under the shadow of Carn Galva with the Nine Maidens on our left, Men Scryfa on our right and the Ding Dong in the distance.

The Ding Dong mine

There could be only one place for lunch where one of us climbed through the hole to cure her back (before lunch): the Men-an-Tol.

From here, it is an easy walk up to the Ding Dong: surely one of the great positions for any engine house, rivalling the Crowns at Botallack and Wheal Coates at St Agnes. Experience reminds us that the path is non-existent going downhill but that is the well-known 'Penwithian disappearing track effect' which says that anything the OS says about Penwith should be taken with a pinch of Cornish salt.

A track leads past another wonderful engine house, through Tredinneck, towards Bodrifty where we discover that someone is trying to develop a Land Rover graveyard with several left out in the open at the mercy of the brambles: reminiscent of the character Landy from the children's book.

Memories of Landy

From here we dived into the undergrowth, emerging at the back of Mulfra Hill from where we could  rejoin our original trail.  

A great day out: three hours and 4.8 miles (without detours). Eventually we will reach Cape Cornwall.

There is a map here and pictures here.

Time for a new garage

The garage, or 'shed' as it is better known, has never been really fit for purpose. Built in an era when an Austin Seven seemed the typical size of a modern car, it has been home to all the clutter that a man wishes to collect as well as a certain convocation of politic worms, spiders, mice and tendrils of ivy and Virginia creeper.

Enough is enough. Our builders do not believe in doing things by half and so the new garage will reach out beyond the telegraph pole and go back further at the rear, taking in the former well. With a room on top, we should be able to park an estate car inside the 'garage' - not that anyone in Cornwall wastes a garage on a car when there is  'junk', boats and boat-bits in need for storage - and rumpus in the space above.

You can follow progress here.

The sun comes out

Where would you rather be when the sky is this colour and the tide is out?

A day on the beach with a young family.

More pictures here

PC lunch with friends

Quite a good place to sit down for Sunday lunch with friends, rehearsing all the old stories.

More pictures here

Spring visits

Spring visits to Cornwall by the OldGriff and to Datchet in some lovely spring weather provide some joyful images of four generations.

The Wall of Winter begins to fall away as the sun warms our faces.

More pictures here.

Easter time

An invasion of one daughter, one son, one daughter-in-law, one son-in-law, one grand-daughter, one grandson ... over the coldest Easter on record. But there was still time for walks, a picnic, some oysters,  Top Trumps Turbo and the coldest Easter egg hunt ever.

The star of the show was 10 weeks old.

More pictures here

Happy birthday to you ...

The eldest living Griffin celebrated her 90th birthday with all the energy she has shown throughout her life. Her two 'young' children were left flagging in her wake as she entertained some of her friends to a small party.

Thanks also to cousin Peter Howard Dobson and his wife, Catherine who also tried to keep up.

There are some more photos here

1303 90th Birthday

'Mrs Griffin, as Raina, made an attractive heroine; she looked charming and carried herself most elegantly.'
Review of the staff play, Arms and the Man, in the Uppingham School magazine 1951

'Mrs P Griffin, who played the part of Miss Neville, was also thoroughly convincing, and gave a first-rate performance.' 
Review of the staff play, She Stoops to Conquer, in the Uppingham School magazine 1952

'Mrs Griffin, as her daughter Gloria, has the hardest part of all. She acted gracefully, but did not altogether convince. I really don't know what Shaw meant her to be feeling from moment to moment, but at the beginning she ought surely to look as hard as nails, and that is perhaps impossible for an actress whose looks are made up of gentleness. But that, as Williams said, is "only the accident of birth". (Not only can Uppingham masters act, by the way, but they can choose for themselves beautiful wives).'
Review of the staff play, You Never Can Tell, in the Uppingham School magazine 1954 

Two girls

Two girls, two bikes, one smile, 30 years.

February half term

A great invasion of two new-born cousins and one of their siblings and some parents.