Post 6/2025. Cornwall UK. Hail March. New month. It’s anything like the weather proverb: “In like a lion, out like a lamb.” Gorgeous day. We did a three-plus mile walk along Church Lane to the West Cornwall Golf Club and then back on the upper, sometimes still muddy, footpath above the expansive Porthkidney Sands Beach. Gives fresh meaning to the word, gorgeous.

On Monday the sun, like today, shone gloriously. It meant a day out in Padstow with Steve and Marilyn. We walked on the Southwest Coast Path, had lunch at the Old Custom House, found some fascinating facts and artifacts in the small Padstow Museum, and on the way home looked out over the Atlantic at Trevose Head and its lighthouse.

Poster: Padstow, 8th March, 1844

Text from the exhibit: “The economic conditions at the beginning of the 19th century, with the decline of mining and the agricultural depressions, led to much hardship and poverty. . . . Padstow was an important port of departure for emigrants. Between 1829 and 1857 6,000 people emigrated, mainly to Canada.”

My ancestors

The 19th century emigrations in England parallel the story of my ancestors. The Bender forebears came from Germany to Canada in the early 1830s. My Kennel forebears emigrated from Alsace-Lorraine, France, in the mid-1800s. They immigrated to Waterloo and Oxford Counties, Ontario, seeking freedom of religion and new economic opportunities.

The story of displacement and ill treatment of Indigenous peoples always has to be kept in mind. Thankfully, Canada in recent years has been dealing more positively with Indigenous peoples. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has produced positive results. It is an ongoing process to repair relationships and create a respectful future together. The full picture deserves attention of its own.

Today I make only a general reference to that story in noting that emigration/immigration has been a long-time force across the globe. Movements of peoples has taken place because of adverse living conditions, belief in a better life elsewhere, and by force, as in expelled or removed involuntarily.

I need not comment on what is happening in forced migrations in our world today. Thankfully, reliable news coverage gives us details of what is happening at the whims of would-be gods, mortals who have lost the plot of proper living, giving themselves over, instead to the gods Mars and Mammon. I think and pray about the unnecessary chaos so created and also for those making the mess. The latter is harder to do, yet I try. This quote from Proverbs may be out of place, but bear with me.

Proverbs 30:29-33. “There are three things that are stately in their stride. four that move with stately bearing: (30) a lion, mighty among beasts, who retreats before nothing; (31) a strutting cock, a he-goat, and a king secure against revolt. (32) If you play the fool and exalt yourself, or if you plan evil, clap your hands over your mouth! (33) For as churning cream produces butter, and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.”

Walk to Halsetown

We were minutes too late for lunch at the Halsetown Inn. They stop serving at 2:00. Not to worry, we had Tregenna Castle in mind on the way home and gladly found out they serve until 4:00. Soups and a shared sandwich.

Almost time to pop a fish pie into the oven. Cheers for a new month, a new Sunday, a new week (new walks).

-John