Bo, Buffy and Barney.

Treats for good little dogs!.

Sunday afternoon was glorious weather, Dom who has Bo, Munch who has Barney and myself with Buffy decided to take the dogs for a good walk, We set off from Treyarnon Beach at around 2.00pm with 3 very happy and excited dogs. This blog is just about capturing random moments of the event as we had decided to walk all the way to Padstow along the coast path.

A quick pace along Constantine.

We carried on around Trevose Headland and past Mother Ivey’s towards Harlyn, on route the dogs had a treat for being mostly well behaved!

Towards Harlyn we could see Stepper point away in the distance so we resumed the walk at a smart pace as we still had a long way to go. Despite the sunshine we didn’t see any other walkers.

The late afternoon light was a photographer’s paradise, I only brought along a

small camera, which couldn’t do justice to the surrounding nature!

The sheep keeping a watchful eye on the dogs.

I love this picture on the style, I wanted it to look oldie worldie as it could have been taken a long time ago.

Buffy (left) then Barney, then Munch on stile.

Atmospheric high tide.

More treats for good little dogs

We carried on along Harlyn Beach, very quick chat with some friends we bumped into and up towards the cliff path towards Trevone.

Heading for Gunver Head

Distinctive landmark

By now the time was around 4.30 and we had at least two and a half hours to go before we got around the next headland and into Padstow, the light was really lovely and still no one around except some obliging people on photo above right to give a sense of scale.

More amazing dramatic landscape.

Bo having his picture taken by Dom

Finally we rounded the corner of Stepper point, for the last leg of the journey along the Padstow Estuary, Dom is seen here by tall round structure that could have been used for spotting herring, none of us were sure, but it is the landmark you can see from further up either side of the coast.

Buffy, Barney and Bo still roaring around the beach at Hawkers.

The light was beginning to fade fast as we went along the estuary beach for the last bit of the walk, the dogs still had so much energy roaring up and down the large stretch of sand.

Arriving into Padstow

Staggered into the London Inn!

Three thirsty walkers downing a quick pint after their 15 mile walk and three knackered dogs collapsing under the table (Bo on seat), they probably did 30 miles with all the running around, We got collected by Ollie who had made Bolognese at home, perfect end to a really enjoyable walk.  Ps excuse the dodgy layout of this particular blog, I had so many images that I wanted to include that I couldn’t control the layout of them!

Susie x

The detail on this Kodak camera is exquisite.

My daughter Lucy has become a camera fanatic and is fascinated in old cameras with bellows and has made herself a pinhole camera.I went through the attic and found an old German Super Ikonta bellows camera that my Father used to use, he always said that Zeiss lenses were in his opinion the best.He was a very good photographer and I later  started using his darkroom when beginning photography at college. He once had a Hasselblad Twin Lens Camera and sold it to an ex manager of the Beatles, I was very small when this chap drove all the way down to the South coast of Cornwall to collect it! The Ikonta camera still seems to be in good condition and we are going to get some 120 film and give it a try.

The camera I have photographed is one I bought in an auction so long ago I had forgotten that I had it, although the bellows are split and tatty the camera is beautiful to look at and it is sad that the 131 year old Kodak company  has filed for bankruptcy as giant rivals such as Hewlett-Packard are now taking over. This makes me nostalgic  of my student days when kodak film and paper ruled my life at art college and my bedsit smelt strongly of bromide!

Nostalgic for old prints

I have just done a range of  vintage effect prints as I love the timeless quality and some are now on my website The Padstow Mussel Co mostly of Trevose Lighthouse using compositions that could once have been postcards. I have a few more to add and they will be in a smaller size, but it does make me feel guilty that these are computer generated and are printed on my Epson 4900 printer not an old Kodak enlarger!. I have a complete range of them on my print room wall as they give a wonderful ambience and feel. This is my current favourite way of printing although I still love the original colour and classic black and white prints, I am now on the lookout for anything that I can turn into an old looking print so don’t sit still for too long!

Definitely Spring

Went for a longish walk with dog Buffy this morning, it seems surprisingly mild after the cornish cold snap. The rest of the country might be under thick snow but here on the North Cornish Coast there is a definite feeling of Spring. Buffy and I set off from Harlyn car park and walked across the beach to Mother Ivey’s Bay, the cottage there called Mother Ivey’s has a field at the back of it that curses people if they disturb the ground, this was because a long time ago a fisherman tipped a large amount of pilchards into the field as waste instead of giving them to the poor in Padstow and Mother Ivey put a curse on it. I made quite sure Buffy and I gave the field a wide berth!

From there we continued up towards Trevose Head, saw the occasional grey seal but not much else, we went past the Padstow Lifeboat station and along to Trevose Lighthouse. From there we continued down past Boobys Bay and across Constantine beach, at the end of the beach turn left and walk a short way up the hill and there is another public footpath sign on the left which takes you up by Trevose Golf Club. Buffy on lead for short bit of road turning left and dodging golfers “teeing off” to your right then picking up the footpath that goes across the golf course and takes you to the top of Booby’s lane. Turn right and head on past the two campsites and left on to the road at the top of Harlyn where the cute lambs posed for a photo shoot.

A  hundred yards later there is another footpath sign on the left that that takes you across a field and a path that takes you back on to the road for a short distance that brings you to the little bridge and  the carpark. The whole circular trip is around 6 and a quarter miles and around 3 hours, perfect Sunday stroll, only glad we are having roast chicken not lamb later on!

Always along for the ride.

When picking up the girls from the school bus on weekdays at 4.00 pm this collie  can always be seen in the back of this truck parked outside The Spar shop in St Merryn, Padstow as the dog’s owners also have children to collect. Apparently it likes to travel in this fashion and I love to see it on most days. Last week I gave the people inside the truck a copy of this photograph, I have no idea who they are, and they were quite surprised when I tapped on their window gave them this image!

I like the composition of the picture as you can just see the beach shop logo in the top left background, and the emptiness of the village this time of the year, in stark contrast to the Summer months when the queues in the shops can be huge, colourful surfboards for hire, beach balls and bucket and spades for sale and the general hustle and bustle of tourists in town!

very dramatic squall

Today my friend Ashleigh and myself skipped off work to come up past Boscastle and look for seals. Armed with an Ordnance Survey map we found a footpath that led us to the part of the coast that we thought might be good for seals, the day was cold and the weather really changeable and dramatic. This photograph of  a rain squall coming towards us looked a trifle daunting, we watched it come towards the valley below us.It looked like a tornado or water spout. As it passed by we only got the lightest spatter of rain. We were taking a breather as we had just climbed High Cliff, 731 ft, the highest point on the coast path in Cornwall. No wonder we found it hard as it was a pretty vertical climb.

The killer hill High Cliff!

me shooting out to sea

We continued along the coast towards Crackington Haven which was really spectacular if fairly hard going, we came across some moor ponies who stared at us and stumbled across a dramatic beach called The Strangles, the formation of the cliffs were amazing and you can see a small arch under some rocks, there is a pathway down but we decided to come back and visit there in the Summer!

View over The Strangles

After a bit we consulted the map and decided to return back the way we came as we were completely unprepared to how arduous the walk was.All this time we saw no seals or even a seagull, only earlier on we saw a gung-ho Monty Halls wannabe with collie by his side.

Ashleigh checking her co-ordinates!

After 4 hours we got back to where we started and the late afternoon sun brought out amazing the most amazing colours in the cliffs and scrub.We struggled back to the car down a very muddy track and once back in Boscastle fell into a warm cosy pub called The Cobweb for hot drinks and food, dragged ourselves back into the car and drove home.Heaven!

Back to where we started.

Very strong winds!

Yesterday  Buffy and I went and climbed RoughTor and Brown Willy, despite being a Sunday we saw very few people which is hardly surprising as it was pretty damp, and very windy! I haven’t been up here for ages as we are usually coast bound but felt climbing up the two highest points in Cornwall on Bodmin Moor would be great exercise. It is another world from the coastline and it feels like you could walk forever to discover secret very old places. The stone formations are amazing, incredible granite tors higher up and bogs in the lower areas.

Wuthering Heights

While on route to Brown Willy I came across this derelict building with wonderful granite walls and the fabulous tree lichen blowing in the wind, just to the left of the photograph shows Brown Willy farm, none of this would look out of place in a scene in Wuthering Heights, despite being Bodmin Moor not Yorkshire Moor. I wish I could have got closer to explore but it was fenced off and a sign said it was part of the farm.

After climbing both Tors, Buffy and myself struggled back to the car in the fierce winds and drizzle, as the dog was lagged in mud we both went home for baths! Definitely coming back here to explore more….

This triggerfish was found by Dom from Explore The Shore around Christmas time when several of these can be found washed in on the local Cornish beaches, this one is unusual as the eyes are intact and very fresh,usually they are missing their eyes and there is a hole through their eye sockets which is handy if you had the brilliant idea to hang them up in the garage to let them dry out and mummify. Unfortunately after three years they still stank and oozed goo and attracted loads of flies and I had to admit defeat,  We don’t live in a very hot dry climate where this might have worked! so if you see someone carrying some stinking fish tied through their eye sockets,surrounded by flies and seaweed , it won’t be me!

Triggerfish are now found around our coasts from October and are increasingly more common due to the waters becoming warmer, they migrate from the Mediterranean. They get their name from the stout spine on their dorsal fin, when hiding in crevices from predators the trigger fish raises its first dorsal spine, locking it in position with its second spine in the rock, when the predator has given up, it then depresses the second spine, which acts as a trigger to release the first.

Triggerfish have sharp incisors to chisel holes in mussels and other molluscs, fish in Britain can be 30-40 cm in length and live for at least 15 years.

Trevose Lighthouse

This is the shot I managed to get on Monday looking through the tamarisk hedge, the rocks in the background show the Quies from a very different angle from what you usually can see from the surrounding beaches. I have not adjusted the colours in any way and it was amazing to have gannets flying around just above the sea. There were a lot of them around and strangely no seagulls, other sightings on that day reported up to 300 at some spots. This image works very well in black and white which was what I originally was looking for, so hopefully new tea-towel coming soon…..

Monday at Trevose Headland, North Cornwall

This Monday was one of the most beautiful days to be out side, the sky was an intense blue and the low lying sun sparkled off the deep blue sea. I went for a walk with my friend Ashleigh around Trevose Lighthouse and down the foot path to Boobys Bay. Pretty good exercise for me as my camera bag weighs a ton and really makes walking hard work so I felt that it was a good bit of training for my up and coming trek to Everest Base Camp in April!

There was no one else around that bit of coast except for the skylarks singing away, when out of the light wind it could have been early Summer. The surfers were out in big seas with the waves rolling in and catching the waves along side huge white horses chasing behind them.

Starting my collection!

Well I can’t put it off any longer, my training starts in earnest this week as the post Christmas rush has died down and so has the wind! My trek to Everest Base camp starts on April 15th when I fly to Kathmandu for 3 weeks. It has dawned on me that there is just over three months for me to get fit enough to endure this challenging trip. I am getting very excited as well as nervous about the whole thing and although I have walking boots that need more breaking in, the kit list seems never ending so I am starting to take advantage of the sales.

While out walking the coastline it will at least be an opportunity to take my camera when training in this area, I am very lucky to live close by wonderful coastline views to inspire me to keep going with the added advantage of walking off the post Christmas pounds!

I intend to update my progress regularly on the training so that it will motivate me, although will not probably be very exciting to everyone!

Its raining outside so might start inside on the cross-trainer!

Susie x