holiday tales part one

Tina, Julie and I went on our holidays to sunny Cornwall.  Via Glastonbury.  We managed to cram all our stuff into the car and set off full of anticipation. Julie wasn't well and Tina hadn't slept so some of the anticipation wasn't good!  There was a little hiccup on the way as someone had done the unthinkable and gotten themselves killed on the M5.  The road was closed for investigations.  There followed some whining about the holdups and detours whilst thanking our lucky stars it was someone else and not us.

We found Glasonbury and the hotel, which was situated right next to the Clarks discount outlet, so we found that too ;)  Julie had done a sterling job of navigating whilst feeling under the weather so she went to her room for a little sleep and Tina and I popped into Glastonbury for a looksee.  We parked in the Abbey car park full of anticipation for the ruins, but Tina refused to pay the £6 entrance fee so we went shopping instead.  The shops were interesting, full of things I might have liked but every one seemed to be burning incense which made my head spin, the prices finished me off!  We did find a couple of charity shops and Tina came away with a big bag of interesting stuff.   I bought these.  They are around 1inch square and I think there were 80 in the bag.  But they were a bargain at around 3p each.  

The next morning we took Julie to have a look at the shops and then set off for mevagissey  We took the direct route which entailed driving through the little town with it's picturesque narrow steep streets with brick walls and buildings and nowhere for vehicles to pass and I don't do hill starts on account of having lived in flat areas where there aren't any!  Goodness I was very brave.  Tina closed her eyes and I do believe Julie said a naughty word. 

I borrowed this image from keithlard as I didn't take any pics on account of I was driving. 










We arrived safely (and without harming either humans or animals on the way) and found the farm where we would be staying, it was absolutely charming.  The studio is a huge space with 6 bedrooms on the ground floor and a huge living area/studio upstairs.  We were a little early and the tutor was a little late on account of being stuck in a flood.  We chose a single room each and sort of waited. 

Other students arrived and we said the usual hello's etc.  A late arrival put the cat amongst the pigeons as she insisted she had to have a room in the studio.  She looked at us in turn waiting for someone to agree to move.  One kinder lady moved her things out and moved to a room in one of the cottages.  The LA (aka late arrival) then announced that "I go to bed early and I need peace, so there will be no noise at night.  No walking around, no using the kitchen, no tv, no drinking, no using sewing machines, no radios, no making cups of tea, no going up and down those stairs and no slamming of doors!"  Tina, myself and Jenny put our boots on and walked down to the beach, we had a lovely hour beachcombing before it became too dark.  When we got back to the studio, the last student had arrived (and found the unoccupied room in the studio to be very comfortable, thank you) and also the tutor.

We had a very quiet evening.


Next day was due to be 'go to the beach and take photos, beachcomb and sketch).  Sadly the tide was in until 5pm so there was nothing to do but trundle around Mevagissey, eat fish and chips whilst sitting on a bench over looking the harbour. The space on the bench was mine, and I have no idea who the chap is, but he was happy:)






The following day, Sunday,  was dyeing day.  Onion skin, red cabbage and indigo.  Whoohoo.  There had been a little misunderstanding about food so four of us were designated to go food shopping.  I admit, I didn't drive!  When we got back to the studio the dyeing was in full swing, everyone had had such a good time that the indigo vat had died, the onions were depleted and one batch of the cabbage had produced nothing.  After lunch the indigo vat was topped up and more onion skins boiled and I did manage some interesting pieces of fabric. 

The big storm.  Parts of the country were having a hurricane and we were supposed to, we waited but gave up and went to bed.  Boy did it rain though! 

Monday was a stitching day.  It was a hive of activity with thundering machines, some painting quietly, some gently  musing and a bit of chatting.  I procrastinated.  Then there was some giggling and some whining. Some watching of lambs being born.   It rained again.

Tuesday was the day we got too stressed.  We booted up and went off down to the beach for a walk to blow away cobwebs, headaches and other stuff.  Sigh.  The path to the beach was flooded.  Not a paddle through flood, a up to your elbows, can't get through kind of flooded.  A little despondent we went back.  Julie face was a mirror of mine.  I suggested we went out for the day.  So we excused ourselves and bunked off to St Ives.