Post 13/2024 Cornwall UK. Christian churches this week observed Holy Week and on Sunday celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. On Maundy Thursday we attended an ecumenical worship service at Fore Street Methodist Church in St Ives, the service presented by students and staff from Cliff College in Derbyshire. The students that day had just completed a 48-mile walking pilgrimage in four locations in Cornwall.

Our week included a day out (last Saturday) at Glendurgan Garden, a visit with friends Jack and Yvonne, walks close to the cottage, errands and lunch in Penzance, reading new books, and a walk today to Hayle.

If I could, I’d omit comments on the constantly changing weather, where few days are completely dry or totally wet. The weather is pretty much top of mind, though, so I can’t avoid some comment. I’ll try to be mercifully to the point in recasting a week’s worth of weather in an account from Monday (see end of blog).

Glendurgan

The flyer for this National Trust garden notes: “Your small guide to a giant day out.” Alfred and Sarah Fox created the garden in the 1820s. It’s still a place that attracts children and adults as it did for the Fox family of 12 children. Steve and Marilyn treated us to this relaxing, engaging, day out sauntering around the garden and small hamlet Durgan on the Helford River, lunch at the garden café, and visit to the Mawnan Parish Church.

Photos from the week

Wither the weather?

Monday

Early, through the kitchen window
Rays of sun,
Bright, bold, beaming, reassure:
"I rise as do you."

A cuppa later the room darkens
Showers pummel the patio
Hedge branches quiver:
What's next?

Sun reappears
Fulfilling the meteorological forecast:
Mostly cloudy, windy,
With sunny spells.

The gardener appears
Dark T-shirt clad
Picks up branches, 
Runs the mower.

In the cottage laundering sets the pace
Oh no, hail lets loose
In hat and coat the gardener mows on
Reluctant to wait it out.

Sun, rain, wind, and hail
Our day's reined in, not lost.
 

A prayer

From Mawnan Parish Church, a Celtic Quiet Place

“What do I do with this short time, God? / I have places to go, things to do, people to see. / And yet you have drawn me to this place and / if I let go of all my anxieties and let You into my / life, what will happen?

“Help me to listen, God, / to your gentle voice speaking in the silence, / in the song of the birds, in the wind rustling the / summer grasses and in the voices of children / as they play in the sun. / And when it is wild with rain and wind, / and I have sought shelter here from the storm outside / and inside my soul, / may your abiding presence surround my / thanksgiving and my lamenting.”

St Anta’s Easter sunrise service on the Carbis Bay beach tomorrow.

-John