Reminiscing...

So, I'm back in Cornwall for two more weeks tying up loose ends, getting the cast off (tomorrow!) and finishing work before I head back up to Oxfordshire to join Mr P for good in our new home.

Today has been such a beautiful day. It was a "woolly jumper sunny" day as coined by my dear friend Eileen. It was too good a day to be sat indoors, so this afternoon I trotted off into Penzance to do some chores. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, the daffs were up and beaming at me and there wasn't a breath of wind in the air.

Penzance by air

Town was really quiet but it was nice to potter and appreciate all the places that have been familiar to me whilst growing up through my childhood, adolescence and adulthood over the past 30 years. It's where my family live, it's where my friends live, it's where my husband is from. It's where I've loved, laughed, learnt and lost.


Penzance Harbour

I've lived away before, when I went to university. Scarborough to be exact. I liked Scarborough as it was beside the sea. Yet I used to love coming home from Uni on the train as I knew as soon as the train went through St.Erth that Mounts Bay, St. Micheal's Mount, Penzance and the sea would come into view and I knew I was home.

The Mount

You see, for me, the sea has played a huge part in my life. I am drawn to the ocean. I even spent 5 years living on an island called St. Mary's on the Isles of Scilly where life really does evolve around the sea!

The Isles of Scilly

And today it was perfect.

I made my way down to the Jubilee Bathing Pool, or Lido (check out the link with the history of the pool and the old photos!). I spent every summer here as a child. It's where my dad taught me to swim, it's where I hung out as a young girl, spending everyday of the summer holidays (rain or shine) swimming... I love this pool. I only hope that it continues to remain open in the summer as there aren't many Lidos left in the UK. Behind the pool is an area called Battery Rocks. This is where my dad and I used to swim and also go rock pooling!


The Jubilee Bathing Pool

I walked from the pool all the way along the seafront on the Promenade. The tide was on the turn and on its way back in; the sea was so clear that I could see the pebbles on the bottom; the waves would gently lap the sea wall and refract back out into the ocean, only to be brought back in again with the next wave.

The prom - towards Newlyn

I walked along the pebbled beach, picking up thin pebbles to throw into the sea in a skimming motion. We used to do this when we were little and skim pebbles and count how many times the pebble would bounce on the surface of the sea. I'd never get any higher than 8 on a good day! Dad could manage 14 bounces easily!

I sat on a large granite slab which is part of the reinforcements as the prom often gets battered by high winds and high seas in the winter which are amazing to watch. It was nice to sit and remember, to sit with the sun on my face, to sit and savour the smell of the sea as there isn't much of that where I'm moving to!

So, a new adventure and a new chapter of my life lies ahead. Inland. I'm going to be turning into a land lubber. I'm going to have to embrace the land, the hills and the inland waterways. Yet for me lakes and rivers aren't the same as the sea. And there definitely is no surfing either!

The sea for me will always be home. And I am going to miss it.

Until the next time,

Nic xoxo