Post 5/2025. Carbis Bay, Cornwall UK. Windy. Muddy. Overcast. More rain than needed. Who’s complaining? Not me. We arrived on schedule and have had a warm welcome. Marilyn and Steve had us over for morning coffee. On Sunday we attended St Anta & All Saints church. On Wednesday Lynne kindly took us along to do our big shop (the heavy, bulky and multiple grocery items). Cheers, we’re here!

Walks have taken us into St Ives, to afternoon tea with Ann in Lelant, along lanes and fields to a café at Lance Lakes, to coffee and toast at the former Una Restaurant, and errands around Penzance, to where we travelled by bus. Today it’s a walk to Birdies Bistro on Griggs Quay, Hayle.

Early on we did a backpack grocery shop. First stop: Costa Coffee, part of the Tesco Supermarket. Friendly barista. Interestingly, we met her again that evening at Becks Fish and Chips where she serves drinks. “I know you,” she said after a brief pause. Small world.

It’s a pleasure to be settling into Cornish life again. Life in the freshness of the out-of-doors. Life in the company of friends. Life in the offerings of the wider community. Life as a home from home venture.

This morning I came across a comic strip posted by Ecological Consciousness on Facebook. It shows Calvin in all caps saying, “WE SEEM TO UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF OIL, TIMBER, MINERALS, AND HOUSING, BUT NOT THE VALUE OF UNSPOILED BEAUTY, WILDLIFE, SOLITUDE, AND SPIRITUAL RENEWAL.”

Calvin puts in words thoughts and feelings that come to me as we wander along footpaths here. Quiet. Birdsong. Wild vegetation. Freshness. Mud. Horses. Views. Pace. Conversation. Life grows from connections to what is universally uplifting, true and restorative.

This week I read In Expectation of a Kingfisher: Land’s End to John O’Groats on foot, by Ben Evens, 2016. Evens did the walk from March to June 2009. Such an End-to-End adventure can be measured in miles, encounters with friends and strangers, physical endurance, meal and lodging arrangements. Evans, then 68, had time to make it a mostly leisurely trek, giving himself 8-16 miles a day with a few rest/visiting days.

Each day he kept track of wildflowers. Most days such sightings ranged from 60 to 80. He took some time along the way to stay with former classmates from Sidcot School, a Quaker co-ed day and boarding school in Somerset, for ages 3-18.

A few times Evens gives a mini-summary of his thoughts on such an undertaking.

“Somewhere in the next mile I just went through an open gate into a field and lay down in the sunshine and did nothing except daydream for a while. Thinking about this whole venture I wondered if there was a sense of timelessness? I had escaped from the realities of home routines, but each day I had to keep to the reality of the target of place, but not always an obligation of time. There were moments when I let the world drift by or allowed my legs the privilege of doing the walk themselves. without my brain interfering, and letting my imagination wander where it would. I couldn’t escape, except momentarily, from the realities of the world – I wanted to enjoy the realities of whatever presented itself to my eyes, ears, nose. Also the fact of having no strict deadlines each day meant that in respect of ‘time’, life was pretty well stress free.”

At the end of his book, February 2016, Evans concludes, “If my story has inspired you to get out and have a go at something a bit more adventurous than your normal pattern, then go for it. And Happy Walking!”

Boots on!

-John