Big ship and Luggers

A rather nautical theme today - all photos taken from the balcony. Even before breakfast we were treated to the sight of Saga Ruby coming in past us to take a look at Mounts Bay. I was rather busy, but could not resist the sight of two Luggers and Snowdrop all heading straight for us - they usually either go round the area of The Mount, or right out to sea. In order for them to turn, we were treated to the sight of both Ripple and Happy Return "Dipping the Lug" in order to turn away from the coast - a real treat as I've only seen photos of it before.
I was wrong when I said that I thought the Painted Lady invasion was over, we've been inundated today both the front garden and the back garden, we must have had a hundred or more passing through and this evening they were racing around the big Cedar tree - their flight getting very manic.

Snowdrop

The classic boat Snowdrop sailing past us with one of the regular fishing punts heading out for his usual spot near the flashing buoy.

The Ripple

I really hope I've got this right today as both Luggers were out in the bay at the same time.
I'm pretty sure that this is the beautiful Ripple, as she is somewhat larger than the Happy Return. She looked quite a sight as she came straight towards us this morning.

Dipping the Lug

In such a simple design of boat, in order to turn, the main sail (the lug) has to be dropped and turned round the mast (as I understand it !)
Down comes the lug - on The Ripple it really is huge and must be quite a handful.

All the way down

Round she goes

Must take a fair bit of strength to haul this huge sail back up the mast.

Up it goes

As she now turns, the Happy Return is still coming in towards us

Happy Return now dipping the lug to turn

They all set off out of The Bay

Sorry to be a bit boring today, but the sight of these beautiful boats really lifts the spirits.

Cruise Ship Saga Ruby

Saga Ruby on her way past Mousehole at 9am. she just slowly cruised past St Michaels Mount & back out again ! She's not listing her destination.

Another glorious day.

Another glorious day - wall to wall sunshine. The wind had lessened this morning, so it felt even warmer than yesterday, although it got up again for a while later this afternoon. The invasion of Painted Lady Butterflies seems to be over, there were lots on the Valerian again this morning, but by this afternoon we were down to 3. Still hoping for a Hummingbird Hawkmoth !

St Michaels Mount

The Mount looking good in the morning light.

I assume that these brave folks are walking on the Causeway - that water is still freezing !

The lovely curve of the bay round to The Mount

Mounts Bay

Mounts Bay from Marazion right round to Newlyn.

Cygnets

Nice to see that three Cygnets have survived so far, not easy to see as the reeds are growing very fast !

Yippee - Hottentot figs

Our Hottentot Figs are flowering at long last, when we first got them we planted them in the garden, but they did not thrive, so we moved them down onto the sheltered wall below the garden and they love it ! They survived all the cold and frost and have lots of buds ready to flower.

The coast looking nice and green this evening.

Skybus

Don't see a skybus over us normally and this one was quite low, late this afternoon/

Isles of Scilly cargo boat, Gry Maritha

Gry Maritha cruising round the bay this evening, waiting I presume for the gates to open so that she can enter the wet dock. She had propeller trouble which has made a mess of her normal schedule.

Painted Ladies everywhere !

There were Painted Lady Butterflies everywhere today -eight or nine at a time taking advantage of our wall covered in their favourite - Valerian.

Our little bit of Scilly !

This our wall which is along the Churchway Footpath, we tried to make it like the wonderful wall on the walk along the lane from Holy Vale to Pelistry on St. Mary's. The recent sun has really brought it into flower beautifully.

Not really any big splashes, but the white spray is a lovely contrast to the deep blue sea we've had all day.

Whoosh - the wind sweeps the spray away

The strong Easterly winds are driving the waves into the beach at an unusual angle, the bonus seems to be that all the seaweed in the foreground is being swept round the corner and hopefully kept away from the beach.

Happy Bunnies !

Taken from the end patio looking out over the fields

Not such happy bunnies !

The field has been seeded and fleece put one to keep the birds off and the anti-bunny fence has been put all the way round this and the next field so these little chaps only have their Cornish Hedge wall and the footpath left.

Morning visitor

This large Scarab type beetle plopped onto the balcony this morning - looking at that front leg I think he had a heavy landing !

Nearly ready to go !

All three of our Crow chicks taking a look at the big wide world from the top of our Pine tree, won't be long before their "maiden flights" If they're the same as last year they will still come back to the tree each evening for many months,

Trying out those big wings

Gentle grey evening

Lots of very different types of sailing out in the bay - not much breeze though to help the lugger out by The Mount.

The Stereden Va Bro

Her paintwork looking much improved since I last saw her - she looks wonderful in full sail.
She is moored in the wet dock on Gry Maritha's normal berth - she is in the Dry Dock at the moment. Hope Scillonian III can take enough cargo to keep the half term break holidaymakers happy !

Strange cloud formations making it look as though we've gained a mountain out at sea !

Not really Perranuthnoe !

Well ! I've been missing for a few days as I was dragged kicking & screaming across the Tamar and up country to Jim's place of birth - Berkshire. We stayed at the superb Swan Hotel right down by a backwater of the River Thames with many miles of walks in both directions on the Thames Riverwalk. On Sunday we went to the Highclere Castle Country Fair - the weather was almost too good as it was very hot and we had to be careful as Charlie Pointer really feels the heat in his old age ! On Monday - although the forecast was for torrential rain and thunder storms - the weather seemed to be OK so with waterproofs in rucksack, we walked up river to The Beetle & Wedge (used to be a riverside pub now a an up market eatery !) No idea why neither of us took a photo - probably too busy enjoying our light lunch & cool drink before walking back in unbelievable heat & humidity - ready for a thunder storm - but no storm ! It didn't rain until we were having dinner & had stopped by the time we took the dogs out later.
The journey both there and back did nothing to encourage me to leave Cornwall again this year. On the way there we got stuck around Exeter as we had not thought about the Devon County Show traffic and on the return trip the lorries were back on the roads and far too much of the route is still not dual carriageway.

Stonehenge - from a distance

We stopped off at Stonehenge - not to visit the "stones" as dogs cannot be walked around, but to give the dogs a quick walk on the lovely meadows that are behind the car park as they are full of Skylarks.

Skylarks

We walked the dogs accross the meadows behind the car park and Jim was thrilled when Crows passing overhead sent several Skylarks up with their lovely melodious song to distract the marauders from the nest position ! As they came down into the grass he managed to get this shot - that he didn't know he'd got !

The Swan Hotel, Streatley

This is where we stayed for the weekend - ideal as the Thames footpath goes off up river from the grounds and just a walk accross the bridge sends you off down River. All through beautiful countryside.

Not many folks around on Tuesday,

just before we left for home !

The River Thames

Looking up the river on a glorious day

The tripper boats have certainly changed since I went on one as a child - this was taken on Tuesday morning - over the holiday weekend they had done much better business !

Boat dog in charge !

Boats just arriving in the Lock - this one with the dog keeping an eye on things from the forward hatch ! The Locks on the River Thames are still manned by lock keepers as they are so busy and I assume it's such a big river it needs to be done professionally to prevent accidents etc.

Riverside Meadow

Beautiful Buttercup & Iris meadow alongside the River - Tilly flushed a Muntjack Deer from the corner of the field - not sure who was the most surprised - she responded to the whistle and left it to run off - was seen by the hotel staff walking along the drive the next morning !

Great Crested Grebe

These were everywhere - popping up when you least expected them - we watched them as we has breakfast, fishing in the backwater alongside The Hotel.

The Grebe on the right looking a bit jealous as the other one got the fish

Coots on their nest

Took this on our last morning after it had rained overnight - these Coots were desparately trying to build up their floating nest which was just "fixed" onto the Willow branch.