Summer - From the Lost Blog

Since the first of September arrived, something shifted on the island. The light changed, became muted and silvery, acorns began to appear on the earthy woodland floors, the leaves began to take on a golden hue and an autumnal chill permeated the warm breeze. It was as if it happened overnight and the resolute, sturdy inhabitants of the British isles nodded at the pale clouds and tipped their hats as if to say ‘good morning autumn.’

The soft, silver light, the empty beaches, the myriad of colours; this is a time of year on the isles that always fills me with such content and a sense of calm and peace. Like everyone, I adore this time of year and I’m so pleased to see it after what has been a summer filled with long, hot days, adventures and plenty of work to keep me insanely busy. On the other hand, it did seem like a cruel hand of fate that the one summer that I’m going to be pregnant for, is the summer where the it cranks up the heat. This meant Cornwall saw a huge peak in tourism and so once the kids broke up from school and the roads became barely usable, I retreated indoors in my lofty apartment by the sea and there I stayed working away through piles and piles of editing, emails and admin. I just didn’t have the energy to elbow my way through crowded towns, battle seagulls for my own food and fight my way for a spot on the beach. I may be an ‘extrovert’ but I still avoid crowds at all costs if possible.

But before I give myself completely over to autumn, I realised that I had a bundle of adventures that I hadn’t recorded, images that I hadn’t stowed away on this space for me to read about and remember fondly later. There reaches a point in September when summer is well and truly let go and so before it’s too late, I wanted to rectify this and make a little compilation of my post cards from summer, and what a significant summer it was for it was the last as just a duo. Next year, Jon & I will have a small human to share it with 

I have this thing about sea pools. I know there’s a great big ocean right next door to swim in, but there’s something charming and appealing to me about these odd little swimming pools carved into the rocks. Growing up, my local beach was Portreath and I always remember loving playing in the sea pool there and finding the smaller natural pools formed in the many rocks and caves around that beach. I’ve been a little bit obsessed with Bude sea pool ever since I saw a photograph of it in some magazine somewhere and one evening, Alex & I decided to take a detour from our road trip back from Devon to pay it a visit. It was early summer but it was a toasty evening & the light was dreamy. Because of the heat, I pretty much kept a swim bag stashed in my car at all times should the opportunity for a dip present itself so I got right in and fulfilled my 3 year long dream. Sometimes it really is the small things…

For me, evening is my favourite time of the day for a swim. There’s something about the light, the calmness… being in the water is truly my happy place and when I’m there I can’t find it in myself to worry at all about anything or feel anything other than peace.

These photos also mark the earlier days of my baby bump! Looking back at them I can’t believe how small it is compared to how it is as I currently type this (31 weeks)

This summer was wonderful because of the amount of time I got to spend with people I love. Since leaving Bath, I barely get to see Jess (one of my best friends) and we went from living together -and if you’ve followed my blog since the Bath days, you’ll remember her being my number one adventure buddy- to snatching catch-ups every few months. But this summer, we’ve had multiple long, hot summer day Cornwall adventures like the old days, sleepovers & coffee shop dates and it’s been the absolute best. So many great memories have been made and fuelled my little happiness meter.

St Mawes Sea Pupper

Alex & I spent a particularly toasty & memorable day drifting about the steep & winding streets of Clovelly. No, we didn’t take the landrover back up the hill (something I’m particularly proud of) and the afternoon was spent chatting for hours, eating cream teas and cake in the pretty tearoom gardens overlooking the sea and pestering cats for their affections. All in all, it was quaint as heck, idyllic and unapologetically white-girl-blogger circa 2012 with our vintage crockery. I kind of miss those days of twee, DIY, write about anything and everything blogs where seemingly every girl had one and spilled out her heart, hopes and dreams and shared her day-to-day happenings and outfits. The blogging landscape is changed over the years and I’m doing my best just to keep my blog for me even when it seems that the diary-esque blog is on the decline. I remind myself that it’s no popularity contest and that the purpose of this space is to record memories & share experiences; simple, uncomplicated.

I first visited Clovelly probably about 4-5 years ago. It was a gloriously sunny day like this one and my Dad and I arrived on the motorbike clad in biker gear and stumbled upon a sweet little maritime festival. The harbour was littered with stalls selling fresh seafood and seaside crafts, there was a band of pirates playing folky rock to the visitors and children racing coracles in the harbour. This is a place of happy memories and is always so jolly and timeless- like a place from an Enid Blyton story, you almost feel like you’ve travelled in time. It’s easy to let your imagination run wild here and feel a little like a child again, lost in the marvellousness and magic of everything.

Another wonderful day of memories was the day Jess, Eivis & I went to Bedruthan Steps and Watergate bay. I love both of these places but have never been in the height of summer but luckily this was back before tourist season properly hit so it was still pretty calm. I love the Watergate Bay hotel’s cafe/lounge because their prawn po-boy & buttermilk chicken burgers are to die for and they also serve alcohol free G&T so this was a good excuse as any to swing by for lunch.

I remember the water was so warm this day and we had an evening swim, jumping in the waves and laughing like idiots. I remember duck-diving and letting the waves tumble me about like I was a sock in a dryer. We behaved like teenagers, splashing, laughing and playing like a bunch of goofballs and once again, the Cornish coastal light cast some dreamlike haze on everything making me feel slightly like I was in some sort of dream and that things were a little too good to be true.

I’ve finally figured out what my pregnancy craving is… it’s ice cream. I don’t normally like milk but I’ve eaten my bodyweight in ice cream this summer. Sometimes every day of the week and even as I write this I want ice cream despite having a Roskilly’s mint choc chip at lunch… dammit this little babe loves ice cream and I’m a slave to her whims.

A very convincing alcohol free gin. I think the brand is Seedlip? It had some gorgeous, earthy spice flavours like cardamon. I really do love spiced & floral tastes and scents and although I’m far from the worlds biggest fan of alcohol because of the tart or strong flavours, gin is absolutely my one exception. Gin with rose & elderflower is my personal favourite 

Tiny ant bathers… I really wanted to swim in this perfect blue lagoon but we didn’t have time. I will add this to my bucket list for next summer although I don’t look forward to navigating those steep steps with a baby on my back. I sure hope she’s up for adventures!

Jon & I don’t get to take holidays. I have a shoot booked pretty much every Saturday between May-October so when we get booked to travel to exciting locations that we’ve never explored before, we tend to hang on an extra day or two to explore and have ourselves a mini holiday. Last year, it was the highlands and this summer it was the Isle of Wight.

Even though we only had about two days to play after the shoot, it still felt like a summer holiday. I loved the contrast of chalky wight cliffs against the bright blue water and we found an amazing swimming spot in Freshwater bay. I was obsessed with the little rock islands here and wanted to stay for hours and hours, swimming and exploring and was reluctant to get out of the sea even when I got stung by a jellyfish. We had a delicious pizza fresh from a pizza van, enjoyed listening to a little trumpet band and found loads of pretty bits of washed up coral and sea weed.

After I dropped my expensive DSLR into the sand on the Scilly isles, Jon made me promise not to take it to the beach anymore until I found a suitable substitute so we took my old Pentax film camera instead. It was great fun shooting on film again back like when I was a kid and it meant that I got to enjoy that Christmas-like feeling when you get your photos developed and get to see them all over again; no instant gratification of digital. Luckily, whilst we were on the isle of Wight I found the mirrorless Fuji camera I had really wanted for ages second hand in a camera store and in perfect condition so I now have a lighter, smaller, more compact, weatherproof camera for taking with me on day to day trips keeping my Nikons safe for work.

Starting to look a little more pregnant here… for quite a long time I didn’t seem to carry the weight on my tummy but instead all over my body. It’s taken me to reach 30 weeks to get a distinguishable baby bump. Every body type is totally different and babies never seem to carry quite the same… not having a distinguishable baby bump all summer has meant that I’ve received a few cutting comments about my weight from strangers, family & not getting a seat on crowded busses but hey ho  I feel that on the whole it’s been a pretty positive experience for me, having got off lightly with symptoms. I’d like to talk a lot more about my experiences but I’ll save that for another post 

Summer 2018 is over now. Misty days have crept in, chilly evenings are a regular occurence and farmers have begun to set off bonfires in the fields which is always a sure sign that autumn has arrived. I questioned how this summer could ever live up to the last but it truly has been just as good; so many long hot days spent in the sea, venturing to some of the best beaches in the country and seeing some truly marvellous sights. I’ve learned this year that I’m not the career girl I thought I was or should be, but instead my delights and pleasures come from simple pursuits; long days spent in the fresh air, feeling the breeze on my skin and spending quality time and conversation with people I cherish. Living my little, cosy life in Cornwall this year has been a dream, everything I’d ever hoped my life would be and I no longer have that odd, empty feeling of ‘life will start soon.’ Life is now, I’m living it every day and suddenly I no longer feel driven and orientated by goals but instead a desire to nurture myself, my soul and my loved ones and build an album of memories and joys to cherish on rainier days.