We're back from Cornwall

In fact we got back on Saturday evening, but had an Art Room business meeting that took up most of yesterday.

Then to add to it, we had no internet today, when I was at home all day.
It is the only day in the week that I have no other things on.
I used to go to a lip-reading lesson in the morning, but that is no longer running.
I miss it, but am glad to have the free time.

I did read my way through a backlog of e-mails including some UKHK that I had ignored when they arrived.
My inbox looks a lot healthier now.

But I couldn't do some of the things I had been counting on doing.
I did all the things I could think of to get it up and running, but forgot that making a phone call had sorted it out previously.

I am still pecking away with only the index finger from my left hand in use.
The swelling is starting to go down, and the flesh is almost the normal colour.
That finger is still much warmer than all the others.
It feels a bit like a chilblain, and is very sensitive to cold weather

I did a couple of loads of washing, and that is still on the line, as it rained sometime after I had hung it out.
As far as I am concerned it can stay there until tomorrow.

I made bread, and it should be ready to bake now.
The long finger on the left hand hardly gets involved when kneading the dough.
It is amazing that I can do some things that would have been impossible a week ago.

As for our time in Cornwall, it was fantastic.
I first went with my family when I was 17 or 18.
It was the last family holiday I went on.
The rest of the family have been down there several times since, though.
My father had wanted to retire down there from London, but died 19 years ago.

We had fun, ate a lot of good meals, gave a few bus drivers a purpose in life, and had a couple of fantastic coastal walks.
It took us pretty much all day on Monday to travel down, and the same again on Saturday coming back.
Part of that trip was on a rail replacement bus from Plymouth to Tiverton Parkway.
That wasn't fun, as it was packed, and we took about 20 minutes to drive a few hundred yards away from the station, as there was so much traffic.

I did do a lot of knitting on the journeys there and back, and Ian's sweater is growing.
The last time we were down in Cornwall must have been about 10 years ago.
So we visited the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the Eden Project for the first time.

At Heligan, we arrived on foot, having walked along the coast from Mevagissey via Pentewan.
I had one of the best bowls of soup of my life there, spicy pepper and tomato.
We had just enough time to see most of the gardens before they closed.
It was dark at the bus stop in the car park, and we were relieved when the bus pulled in on schedule.

The following day we went to Wheal Martyn near St. Austell, and then on to the Eden Project.
The china clay industry is well documented in this old pit, and walking to the top of the site brings some current workings into sight.

We had discovered that we could get a bus from Lostwithiel, where we were staying, direct to Wheal Martyn.
What we hadn't counted on was the tour through some northern estates of St. Austell picking people up to go shopping in Tesco's, or in the town centre.

The same bus service goes past the Eden Project, so on our return we were dropped off nearby.
We walked down thus getting a reduced entrance fee as we had walked in.
We didn't have quite enough time at the Eden Project, so might be tempted to make use of the annual pass.
We had another anxious moment waiting in the dark for a bus to take us back to St.Austell.

There we had a drink in the hotel that had suggested to us that we might not like to stay there as they have karaoke on Wednesday and Friday, and it gets noisy.
Having seen the size of their amplifiers, perhaps they were right in losing our business.

Going down there so late in the year is great, as we saw hardly any other tourists.
We had great weather, sunny with strong cool or cold winds most of the time.
The only rain was on Tuesday in Penzance, and we ducked in to Iriss of Penzance for five minutes on our way back to our hotel, missing some of the worst of it.

As we were dripping, and in a hurry I wish that I had done some homework first.
I would have liked to have seen the Gotland yarn that they have on their website.
Gotland is one of the best breeds that I have spun.
The colours are varied, going from white to black with fantastic dark greys.
It overdyes well, and has a bounce that is fun to knit with.
It is also very warm when spun finely as it holds so much air in the frizz that coincidentally resembles my hair.

Next time we should go for longer.
I was just limbering up to walk further each day!