Helston

The countryside is at its best at the moment, flowers are bursting out of the hedgerowsthe trees are coming into leaf

birds are singing their little hearts out and the days are getting longer.

My favourite season.

I cycled over to Helston, a good excuse to see if the bluebells are out at Godolphin, (they are just coming but will not be at their best for another week). The road to Godolphin is lovely with footpath signs and stiles tempting me to get off and walk but I was sad to be reminded that Monty is still missing.It must be terrible to lose your dog. I feel sorry for all bearded collie owners as people must look them up and down deciding if they are genuine or not.

I was also saddened to see a stoat lying dead in the roadI moved it to the side and then laid it in the grass wanting it to have some dignity in death. Roads and animals don't mix.

Helston is a nice town built on hills with old fashioned shops,
opes running between the buildings and cherry blossom shading steps climbing up to the bowling club. I was running out of time so took the main road back but was rewarded by this wonderful house with a wall full of pigeon holes, now mostly used by jackdaws.

Nature Walk

On Sunday 10th May
Brian Blowers is leading a guided walk through the beautiful Lamorna Valley and up onto the adjoining cliffsBrian is a local wild life expert who will identify the birds and plants that we will see, he has a wonderful blog which you can visit at www.brianswildlamorna.blogspot.com

The walk will start at 10 o'clock from the Lamorna Wink puband will last for about two hours.
Cars can be parked in the village hall car park or at the Wink and after the walk you can enjoy lunch or a drink at the pub.

The cost is £3 and all proceeds will go to the Hospice. All donations also gratefully accepted!

It will be lovely to see you all at the pub ready with your boots and binoculars.

We can only take limited numbers on this walk so please either email me
or phone to book your place on 01736 796952

* * *

The swallows have arrived, I saw my first one on April 11th, sitting on the telephone wires looking tired but triumphant. the house martins arrived a week or so ago, there are several wheeling over the water at Marazion Marshes. The swifts will come 50 days before the longest day and stay until 50 days after the solstice, a brief 100 days of sweeping screaming joy in Penzance.

Another good thing

Another good thing about cycling is that you see all sorts of things that you would never notice in a car. I might drive along a road a hundred times but the first time I cycle it I will see something that I have never seen before the undressed face of a millstone built into a wall

or a millstone set out like a table or even a nice little water mill complete with chimney and timber framing.

From my bike I have wondered who loved Sarah enough to carve her name into unyielding granite

and stopped long enough to trace my finger around the stone mazeThen there are the smells that you miss in a car, wild garlic, headachy diesel around the heliport, the heavy wetness of cut reeds at Marazion that takes me straight back to my childhood and newly cut grass on the Morrisons roundabout (what is it about that particular roundabout that attracts oyster catchers and black headed gulls throughout the winter?)

There is no parking problem with a bike, I can stop where I like to tread softly along the rabbit mown grass of the marshes at Marazion enjoying the herons waiting like statues for their evening fish as I watch for the first swallows of the year. Stopping for ten minutes in the other direction I can bounce along the pontoons in Newlyn Harbour. I prefer the no-nonsense fishing boats and my favourite could be my inspiration for this epic bike rideand YIPPEEEEE the Ross Bridge is open again.