Slept in this morning, had a breakfast scramble made with coded eggs (each one individually stamped like a Sunkist orange), and spent much of the day arranging plans for tours around the area--making phone calls, rifling through brochures, and trying to coordinate bus times. I'm glad the dining table at the cabin is big.Buses are good here, but gauging the schedules based on holidays, Sundays, Saturdays-only, not-on-schooldays, and only-on-schooldays travel can be confusing.
I tried hard to arrange a way to see a performance at Minack, an amphitheatre built right into the Cornwall cliffs, but the trip requires three buses that don't make the right connections, so I finally bagged it.
The rest of the day was relaxing--mostly meandering around the village. I stopped to inspect a blue silk bag hanging from an iron hook in someone's driveway. Inside was a thin gold necklace with a gemstone charm. Either it's an alternative to the Royal Mail or the Mullion form of lost and found. It had been claimed later in the day.
A handsome garden gate indicated the former site of Lloyds Bank in Mullion. The building looks like it's now a private home. "Will you be sleeping in the vault tonight, dear?"
I ate a picnic lunch at a pocket park called Mullion Garden. I was careful to keep my food away from an overly interested gull that had stopped for a drink in the water fountain.
The garden is near St. Mellanus Church, a small place with a ca. 1420 start; the current building is dated 1691. Most of the tombstones in the tiny cemetery date from the 1800s.
My dose of social interaction today came in the form of an art class at the WI Mullion (Womens Institute of Mullion). It wasn't a class, exactly, as the teacher was out for the day "visiting a hospital," as one of the participants explained. The students were all women in their 60s or older. They meet once a week, every Wednesday 2-4, to paint and chat. Cost is a 50p donation per session, which they collect and give to the teacher at Christmas. They stop halfway through for biscuits and tea and warmly welcomed me as a drop-in.
I’m carrying only a small selection of 12 colored pencils, but did the best I could on some hedgerow flowers I had picked to sketch. I had no pink, and that seems to be the color of early June here. It was fun to take time out to draw, especially among other women who enjoyed painting. I think I'll buy a small box of watercolors to use sometime on the trip. These are more versatile since I can create the colors I need.
Everyone is flying the red-on-white Cross of St George flag to root for England football--the World Cup competition is over the next few weeks, and football fever (and its commensurate product marketing) is noticeable everywhere. It's like a Superbowl times ten. The games are hosted in Germany this year. England plays Germany Saturday; I plan to watch even though I know little about the sport right now.
Ate dinner at the cabin--a homemade stir fry of chicken, peas, onion, tomato, and fresh peach, washed down with a Doombar beer, a locally made ale endorsed by the St. Mellanus vicar. He happens to be relocating to Australia in a month. Maybe the beer is better there.
