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Showing posts with label Camping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Camping. Show all posts

Sunday, 7 July 2013

3 Wishes and Cornwall camping

Finally I have found time to write up about my time in Cornwall and 3 wishes faerie festival.

Yes it is that time of year again where we pack up Penny the smart car with all our camping equipment and festival gear and set off west to my spiritual home of Cornwall.

As in previous years we headed to stay with family in Plymouth, who took us for a lovely walk around Stover nature reserve on the Thursday.





On Friday morning we had a hearty breakfast before setting off towards the ferry port and then on to Mount Edgecombe for the 3 Wishes Faerie festival!


Unlike last year, where we just went for the one day, I brought tickets for the whole 3 days plus camping as I felt I really missed out last year.


Soon our little camping village was set up and we went around to meet up with friends, some who I had not seen since last years 3 wishes!



The weather was glorious and everyone was in great spirits. In the evening the fire pit was lit and I was gifted the privilege to play two wonderful shaman drums of horse and buffalo by two lovely ladies. I wish there was enough room in the car so I could bring by own drum.

Fireside drumming. Bliss!
(Thanks Bekki for the photo)


Unfortunately Saturday's weather was a bit bleak but that did not stop us from having fun and dong a bit of shopping at the vendor's.


This year there was the wonderful Eartheart bar which served yummy food and also played host to some amazing DJs and musicians. One such was Sika, whose mix of didgeridoo, chanting and electro music had us all in the mood to dance.




The evening was the pirate and mermaid party!

Me and Esther ready to party


 But the rain put a slight dampener on the nights proceedings and some of the acts had to be cancelled as the stage was at an angle so all the rain (which was quite torrential at some points) was going on to the stage.The Dolmen, the main headline act, was not to be put off and after an hour delay they were able to play with the help of a huge net to stop most of the rain. We danced and the rain held off a little and we were awarded a wonderful glimpse of the super moon.




Sunday for me, was the best day. The rain held off and along with a few other of my friends we went for a Sunday Carvery at a local pub. The looks we got from the other patrons was priceless.


I attended a talk by Terry English, a gentleman and creator of wonderful armour as   seen in films Excalibur, Clash of the Titian and Harry Potter.
What a handful!



 I also went on a tree walk and faerie spotting hosted by Laura Daligan, which was very enlightening and enjoyable.The evenings entertainment was 3 Daft Monkeys who put on a great show. We concluded the night by sitting around the fire pit to drum and sing.
Monday morning came and we packed the tent away and said our goodbyes before journeying off to Bodmin Moor and to South Penquite farm for the rest of our holiday.



Smart packing!

After setting up the tent again with (no) help from the Farm cat, we went for a walk around the area around the camp site. 


Our new tent came with a free kitty!



Soon we came upon the standing stone we went to last year and so we retraced our steps from the stones, past the beech trees, the rushing river and the quarry. A short stroll which ended up being about two hours long!

River on our evening stroll





Tuesday saw us going back to Mevagissey to the lovely Lavender Pillow and the pirate shop to purchase some wares and had some pasties down by the harbour. Afterwards we then went on to Truro to see the funky vintage shop we went to last year but unfortunately it didn't have anything that fitted me :-( 


Wednesday was a brighter day and so we decided to go to Tintagel and do our annual coastal walk to Boscastle which we always enjoy and treated ourselves to a cream tea and got the bus back to Tintagel. I brought myself a lovely turquoise ring.

Thursday we packed up the tent and went to see friends near Penzance and stayed the night with them. We also went to see the mermaid chair in Zennor which was something I wanted to do last year but ran out of time.

Friday came and before going home we went to have breakfast down by a lake and then on to Porthleven, a quaint harbor town with a fantastic shop with local creative artisans. I purchased a beautiful fleece skirt and gloves from feeline clothing. Check out their website: http://www.feelineclothing.co.uk/

Soon we were on the road home, which turned out to be a bit of an adventure in itself,  it is amazing what people do instead of just driving in their cars!





Monday, 3 September 2012

Morris dancing, wedding and classic cars- a round up

I have been neglecting my blog but not because I don't want to! Life has changed a lot since we got the puppy and because my PC is upstairs I haven't been able to get on it while keeping an eye on him and I need to constantly keep an eye on him as he is a little scamp! He sure is getting big though.

So what has been going on? August was a busy time for events, the first one was the Broadstairs Folk week. Now I have lived in Kent all my life and I have never been to this week long event but I will be going again next year.
Folk week is a festival showcasing some amazing local bands and is a big gathering for the Morris dancers. I have friends in Morris dancing sides so we set up camp in a school field with them but because of little Keijo we couldn't spend the whole week in Broadstairs so it was a lot of driving back and forth. Hopefully next year we can spend all week there.
On the Thursday night there was a rock and roll night so I decided to get dressed in my red Hell Bunny dress and put my hair up in three victory rolls. Any excuse to get dressed up. However I did not realise how much of a stir my look would make and I had a queue of gentlemen wanting to dance with me. I had to turn them down as earlier that day I wore shoes which left me two very painful blisters on my heels which made it hard for me to walk let alone dance.
p.s I can't really dance well either. I would love to take jive lessons.

No photos of me dressed up on that night as Leon was too drunk to operate his camera. Here are some photos from the week to give you an idea of the event itself.

Next event was a wedding! My dear friends got married on the 25th August and for the happy occasion I wore my Miss Fortune atomic print wiggle dress which I brought for another wedding in April that did not go ahead.
I managed to dye by hair the brightest shade of red I have ever managed and my victory rolls were perfect!
Rolls of victory
Dress by Miss Fortune, it was a shame I didn't get a better view from the front


Reddest red my hair has ever been!

Lastly on the August bank holiday Monday it was the Folkstone classic and custom car show. Last year we entered are Smart cars in to it but this year we just went as spectators. The show was even bigger this year and because we took Keijo with us every one (I mean everyone) made a right fuss of him.

 A beautiful VW Bus. Matched my handbag!
Any one for ice cream?

 Beautiful Desoto
Me and the dawg.

And that about rounds it up. I promise to update more regularly from now on.

Thursday, 5 July 2012

Cornwall holiday

Gosh I can't believe we are in July already!
Last month was very busy for me as I had a 2 week break in beautiful Cornwall. I feel that it is the home of my soul and I love visiting and we try to go there every year. This year me and my other half decided to make a long break of it and left on 11th of June and didn't come back till the 21st!
We camped on Bodmin moor and the weather got a bit hairy on more then one occasion. One night our tent started leaking so we had to visit a camping store for some waterproofing spray.
My main aim for this holiday was to visit some of the many ancient sites that can be found in the landscape. We managed some but there are many left to find next year!
Now on to photos:
Yes, all that did come out of that Smart car!




 The camp site kitties who made themselves at home in out tent.

This is the standing stone just a short distance from our camp site, the day of this photo we had done a lovely walk around the farm through some lovely wooded areas with a lovely clear running river.

We found The Stone circles called the hurlers and up from them the Cheesewring, a natural formation of the granite. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesewring
While we were here we walked to an amazing disused quarry. I didn't take any photos here but if any one visits the Hurlers then I recommend walking across to the quarry. The deep turquoise water and the sense of calm I felt here was amazing.  While were walking back to the car I realised that my phone was no longer in my pocket. I panicked and couldn't remember if I had my phone with me or not so we drove all the way back to the camp site to see if it was there, finding it wasn't we woke early next morning to find it. It was a foggy wet morning but luckily we found my phone who was no worse off from the cold night alone.

We also visited Mevagissey which is a lovely coastal town with an amazing alternative pagan shop called Lavender Pillow (see links at the end of post) and a great pirate shop too.

A beautiful area we found near St Agnes called the Blue Hills.

Scratch the Smart car enjoying the view



Saturday was 3 Wishes Faery fest day! I had a really great time and I was sad that we only went for the one day instead of all 3 but I managed to do a lot in that time. Here is the inspirational Brian and Wendy Froud speaking about their new projects. The lovely Troll in the middle is Mother Leap.

The Lovely faerie artist Linda Ravenscroft had a drawing workshop which I participated in. She told us to look around and be inspired by the things we find in nature. We each picked up a few objects to use as reference for a drawing. I found a tiny little conker, a lichen covered stick and a spiky conker casing. This is what I came up with:

All dressed up to take part in the word record attempt of largest gathering of faeries in one place. Requirement: Wings, a wand and a Tutu.
World record participators. We smashed the record with over 200 tutu clad faeries!
Evening entertainment provided by Frenchy and the Punk.
And The Dolmen!

On the Sunday we headed to Falmouth to see what the Sea Shanty Festival was all about. groups singing sea shanties, lovely ;)

On Monday we visited Padstow, where our friends Esther and Martin were camping for the week. we walked along the beach and came across some strange standing stones...
and balanced stones
On the next day we all went to Tintagel to see if you could not find the infamous labrinths carved near the rocky road on the route between Tintagel and Boscastle. Armed with a map and a book about ancient historical spots in Cornwall we set off and...


We found them!!

From there we made our way to the beautiful and magical St Nectan's Glen.

Cloutie tree

Our last full day in Cornwall had us seeking out Trevethy Quoit. A beautiful portal dolmen.


From the Quoit we saw signs on the map to Golitha falls so we decided to pop and have a look and I am so glad we did because it was the most beautiful area I have been too.


Only thing while we were there I got something in my eye and I wouldn't stop rubbing it and as a result I ended up get conjunctivitis in my right eye so my walk through the myriad of twisting paths was rather ruined. A trip to the harbour town of Looe and seeing the pharmacist meant I had to take eye drops every 2 hours. We ended the evening in Port Isaac and had a lovely meal in The Golden Lion Pub.

Thursday morning was the 21st and the Summer solstice. I woke up just before sunrise but the moor was coved in a thick mist, so after sorting out my gunky eye I went back to bed.
We managed to get a cooked breakfast before it started raining but we had to pack the tent away in the wet.

By then I was in serious withdrawl of a sturdy roof and a mattress!

More photos of the holiday on my Facebook: 
3 wishes photos:


Links to places we visited/ Shops
Camp site: http://www.southpenquite.co.uk/ Our 3rd year camping here and it gets better all the time. Actual camp fires allowed! (No Caravans)
Lavender pillow shop: http://www.lavenderpillow.co.uk
Vintage/ retro clothing: http://www.enjoyclothing.co.uk/ amazing shop in Truro. Lots of vintage finds from as little as £10!
Willow Moon pagan shop in Tintagel: http://willowmoontintagel.com/