Post 9/2024/Cornwall, England. If I didn’t know that rain is water falling in drops from the clouds then I could be susceptible to a conspiracy theory that the recent ever-present clouds with peeks of sun are the result of somebody throwing a wet blanket over normal goings on. Ha.

I’m not aware of any such theory saddling the climate, however such somebodies might well discount the human effects on climate change that has been going on since the start of the industrial revolution, more obvious since the 1950s, and accelerating in recent years.

I admit, an over-supply of cloud and unsettled weather does dampen the spirit and curtails one’s activities. Today’s forecast for Cornwall and Devon includes rain, hail, and spots of sun. We met with all three conditions, repeatedly, in a 6 mile walk to and around St Ives.

Raingear saved the day. Nice lunch at the Lifeboat Inn, popped in at the St Ives Lifeboat station store (celebrating 200 years on Monday), then back to the library for a spell and walk home.

Monday walk

Drink more water

What’s to help with the unsettled weather? Poetry, songs, stories, walks, conversations of the kind where people agree to disagree on what can be done to ameliorate the effects humans have on climate (though nevertheless keeping on loving and caring for each other) are needed to inch us toward doing better, much better, concerning the environment that affects all living things, today and deep into the tomorrows.

On BBC Breakfast this morning a presenter had a segment about drinking more water. Why, we even have water on tap, so there’s no excuse for not caring for ourselves by drinking up. We need to humour ourselves about the serious and sublime that surrounds our connection with nature. We can do small things that make a big change for the better, Monty Don said in a TV segment last night on gardens in southern Spain.

Rain in Spain, hurricanes in Hampshire–alliterative learning

My mind turns to the musical, My Fair Lady. Eliza Doolittle’s tutors are teaching her to enunciate “properly.” The phrases have nothing to do, as far as I know, with meteorological reality. It’s a phonetic exercise singing, “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.” After multiple tries Eliza gets it, she loses her Cockney accent.

Eliza also masters this phrase: “In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen.” Long live elocution lessons. They’re right as rain, another phrase that has little to do with wet weather or hurricanes. Google it. It has several positive meanings.

Sit outside

My niece Rachel has reminded me that I once talked about pausing in nature to look, listen and absorb the scene–rather than stop, snap a photo, and move on. Excellent reminder. I snapped the photo below last year here in Cornwall and did sit for a short time on an adjacent bench. I must learn to sit for 20 minutes or more and pay heed to nature around me. Thanks, Rachel.

Round trip walk from Penrose Estate to Porthleven

Last Saturday dawned bright and clear and stayed that way for most of the day. Steve and Marilyn sent a WhatsApp message asking if we’d like to join them on a day out. Indeed! We did, walking from the National Trust café on the estate to Porthleven where we enjoyed lunch before heading back (5 miles).

Thursday, day in

May your March be happy, as we wait for less changeable weather. Keep smiling, like the people whom we met on our walk today did, acknowledging that we are not in this meteorological anomaly alone.

-John