The Holy Well of St Grada and The Holy Cross

                                           
   The Church of Saint Grada  and The Holy Cross   -  Grade  -  on the Lizard  Cornwall
                           Across the field footpath and a little way down the lane ....

over and down the stone steps , there is a rope to help you descend  !

We came to visit the Holy Well of Saint Grada and The Holy Cross .

To scoop out the fallen empty candle holders from the Sacred waters ...

and make sure all is tidy .

We came with candles ,flowers and prayers for Peace and Healing .

The Holly Wreath that my dear friend  put there is lovely.

Though I have often been into the Church , this was my first visit to the Well .

                   I stupidly brought a little bottle of water to fill the vase !  doh !  lol !

 But was glad to be able to tip that away and gather some of the Holy Water to take and  bless my home with .

Time to Plant Shallots

Plant shallots on the shortest day and harvest them on the longest ....or thereabouts .
  I did plant them out into the open veg bed a few days ago , I went to a lot of trouble digging in compost ,horticultural grit and covering them with grids and surrounding them with chicken wire ....and over night three went missing ....just totally vanished !

These are precious , given to me by a good gardening friend ! So I have taken them all up and replanted them into modules , just to get them started ,up in my unheated greenhouse .
 I will plant them out later on , around the end of February , beginning of March .
  These will be harvested around August .

It was good to get out and take a little walk about the garden , it,s mild , wet and very blustery today. The Rhubarb is coming up !

I,ve topped up the bird feeders , must get more peanuts . It has been so mild that the Gunneras have not died back yet , this little Robin is feeding on it's seeds . Arum Lilies also still in full leaf .
 We went to the Christmas Mass at St Michaels Mullion yesterday evening , a good turnout and lovely to sing the well loved Christmas Carols ..We need more practice singing ! We also need someone to play the organ ! Happy Christmas Father John  !
You did a great job !
 We also gathered wood for the fire , off the beach this morning , some beach combing treasures, rope , shells , a tiny glass bottle ( no message in it though ) pretty stones and let the dog have a romp about down at Poldhu Cove .
  Oh ! Well ! I'd better get back indoors to all the festivities . My lovely Christmas table has been transformed into Paddington Station !
                                    Hope you're all having fun ! x

Happy Christmas All !

                                                     Happy Christmas Day !

Well I still have no idea what this thing is , but I knew when I saw it that it would make

                                                    .......a great Daisy Fork  !

Happy Christmas Happy Solstice

I thought you might like to see Helston,s Christmas lights today . Some times we venture out of Mullion and go into Helston Town. It wont be long before we're all getting ready for Flora Day again..when 1200 children dance the Flora Dance all through the town , all dressed in white. Flora Day is always on the 8th May except if it falls on a Sunday , so 2016 Flora Day will be on a Saturday 7th May...and I am SO excited about it as my little grandson will be dancing in it for his first time age 4 and a half ,with the children of Parc Eglos School . ( Grandma Daisy Debs did SO enjoy the Christmas School Play ,,,with all those sweet little Red Riding Hoods and Big Bad Wolves , pixies and angels , so much cuteness ... I cried all the way through it ! : )

Trying to be clever with the photos  , got into a right muddle ! Now have this big space to fill !


Helston , your  Christmas lights are beautiful and I ,m so glad you have kept Christ in Christmas !

The shop windows are all looking lovely too .

 Happy Christmas to you all !

As a Woman of the Earth I also rejoice at the returning of the Sun and the beginning of another season of productivity in my garden , especially my vegetable garden and greenhouse . Happy Solstice !

Sheep Update

                       Great news , the sheep have been reunited with their owner !

                                             Look at that sweetest adorable face !

   My dearest friend Jessica came to say hallo ...and I have been giggling about the sheep all day !

Fortunately they didnt have too far to go and were quite happy to follow the bucket of food ........ er .....husband is following too !  : )    lol !

Sheep in my garden- update

 So now that the sun is up and on closer inspection .....I'm fairly sure that they are boys !

               .......and I,m glad to say that someone is on their way to collect them  .

                    They seem quite happy up in our field and are very friendly too .

Sheep in the Garden !

Making Holly Wreaths and Piskie Shoes

 Here I am ...hiding behind a bunch of holly branches that I have just pruned carefully out of my beautiful Holly tree . I always like to make my own simple Holly Wreath.

I should be able to make two or three from this bundle...one for a good friend , one for my sweet daughter and one for me .

No sooner have I laid the holly on my kitchen table ...than my little helpers arrive !

The deal is this .....they help me to make the Holly Wreath with a little bit of Cornish Piskie fairy magic ..........

                                     .........and I will make their dancing shoes !

The long stringy branches are fairly flexible to twine around themselves into a circle . I tie them around firmly with garden twine at several points ..if the branches are not so flexible I would use some wire...and tie a lovely red ribbon on ....at the top ...or at the bottom .   You can add other things onto it too ...but I like to keep it simple  to hang on my front door .

My Charmouth Fossils

                                                          Charmouth Beach

Cold ,wet,wild and windy here in Mullion today , so I thought I.d have a sort through the bag of bits and pieces that I, d picked up on Charmouth Beach a couple of weeks ago.

Not much this time as you can see and some of it was so covered in thick shale mud , that I thought I,d just tip it all out and let the rain wash it off . Tiny ammonites pieces of belemnites, the bits of old terracotta pots ,which I gather and smash to go around my pots of cacti. ..a couple of ammonites in the harder shale , which I,ll give to my grandson .

Good to get him interested  .

.....and then I remembered seeing this sticking out of the mud flows about a third of the way up the beach in the top photo . I remember thinking " that looks like bone ". I tried to wash off the shale mud in the sea , but Shale mud is the thickest stickiest grey clay like mud....you dont want to step into it or you will be stuck fast ...which is why fossils are so well preserved here ....in another few thousand years  , people will come and find fossilized wellies and feet !
  So back home ,after two weeks of heavy rain the shale still has not washed off !
I had to scrape it off and then brush off the rest with an old nail brush ........
.....and ...do you know what ? !.......I think that it might just be bone !
 I have found lots of vertebrae here ichthyosaur and one huge plesiosaur vertebrae,  but this I will need some help in identifying .
   Very excited ! I will take it to the museum in Lyme Regis next time we are there....or maybe someone can identify it for me on here  ?