Wednesday 5 November 2014

Sculling, St Ives and on...


Last Saturday we went down to St ives to watch a sculling race. I’d interviewed Giles Gilbert, an oar maker in Porthleven, recently, and he and Jonny Nance from St Ives are very keen to revive the art of sculling - which is propelling a boat with one oar, standing backwards in a punt.

It was great fun to watch - each team had about six members who each took it in turn to scull the boat round a flag and back to the beach, where the boat was hauled in, the next member jumped in and was pushed out, and started again.

After that we investigated Porthmeor Beach and Porthmeor Studios, as renovated by MJ Long, another person I was fortunate enough to interview. After that spot of culture we repaired for a coffee and a scone where I’m afraid to say Moll was given her own crumb of scone with a tiny dollop of cream, topped with a pipsqueak of jam, by Mr B.

Mind you, she ran it off on Porthminster Beach which was completely deserted and the pale gold of the sand was absolutely wonderful as we ran up and down it like children.

The following day we took our friends upstairs out for a day out - car boot, auction viewing, and on to Polly Joke beach which was my dear Pip’s favourite beach - and quite by chance, his birthday.

We ended up with a drink in the Bowgie to round off a lovely weekend. As their news on Monday was much worse than expected, thank goodness we’d all had such a good day on Sunday.

Onwards and upwards…..


4 comments:

Dc said...

Sometimes, onwards and upwards is the only thing to do. Glad you had a lovely day despite their news. We too like our deserted winter beaches, so calm and reaffirming!

Flowerpot said...

DC - winter beaches are wonderful aren't they?!

Chris Stovell said...

I'm another winter beach fan - I get a bit possessive about 'ours' in the summer when tourists are enjoying it so, selfishly, I love it when no one's there in the winter!

Flowerpot said...

Chris - they're much better in the winter aren't they?!