Cornwall Cogitation #13, Sunday 1 May 2016--You're never more than 16 miles from the sea in Cornwall. The Southwest Coast Path, running the entire coastline of the Duchy, and Devon, lies one minute from our door in Carbis Bay. Over the years we've covered 150 miles of the coastal path, some of it repeatedly. Inland …
Author: John Bender
Hi, my name is John Bender, retired and loving it. I'm writing to help interested people cross bridges to and from the past. Stories from the past can shed light on life in the present and illuminate the future. We've got a lot of living to do. Let's do it!
Walking fuels writing
Ten photos of a walk out of Truro fuels cogitation #12, 24.04.2016 Cornwall Cogitation #12, Sunday 24 April, 2016--Margaret Forster wrote about walking and writing fueling each other. In her memoir, My Life in Houses (Vintage, London, 2014), she wrote: "It was remarkable to find that walking must somehow be related to writing, that …
Days out
Cornwall Cogitation #11, Sunday 17 April--What better way to experience Cornwall than with Cornish friends. Such days-out graced our doings this week. I'd like to think that fellowship with friends, near and far, is, in the words of Rev Suzanne this morning, part of "God doing something about the painful world we're living in." So I leave for …
From bacon baps to a cream tea
Cornwall Cogitation #10, Sunday 10 April 2016--"From the ridiculous to the sublime," Marty says of the title. From a white coffee and bacon sandwich at Sullivan's Diner in Penzance on Monday to a cream tea at the Carbis Bay Hotel today, we've found pleasure and profit in both the ridiculous and the sublime. During the week we covered 57 …
To Health! One and All
Cornwall Cogitation #9, Sunday 03.04.16--A 30-something-year-old man on the circular path outside Truro, called out, "Do you walk here often?" "Yes," I said, meaning we'd walked this way a respectable number of times in the last three years. "Did you see the place back there that's cleaned up?" Again I said, "Yes." The man said he was happy that …
Coffee, Stop Press, Easter, Great-Aunt Mary
Cornwall Cogitation #8, Sunday 27.03.2016--Café moulu avec value garantie (coffee with value, guaranteed aroma). We used up our package of cafetiere-ready Café Noire. Not to worry, we had a Fairtrade Cafédirect at the ready. Here's a mug raised to you! A week of endings James Martin's cooking show, "Saturday KItchen Live," ended on Saturday, after five and a …
Continue reading Coffee, Stop Press, Easter, Great-Aunt Mary
I’ll put the kettle on
Cornwall Cogitation #6, Palm Sunday 20.03.2016--What better way to end a walk than to have a cup of tea. We put the kettle on, mate, to relax, savor the moment, collect ourselves. There are other reasons to put the kettle on, you'll soon see. Tea to the rescue. Friends told us of a meeting last year where …
Rain, sun, high wind & a calm pace
Cogitation #5, Sunday 13 March, 2016--My pace the week of March 7-13, steady, relaxed, engaged, had many elements to calm any over-stimulated tourist. As if in slow motion, I marveled time and again how sea, fields, hills, lanes, sky and moors are knitted together in the carefree abundance and beauty of God's good world . . . on the …
Mothering Sunday, eat chocolate, feast on foliage and flowers
Cornwall Cogitation #4, 06 March 2016--Mothering Sunday saw more than 200 adults and children packed into St Anta & All Saints. A children's choir sang an animated "If I were a butterfly." At the end of the service all women received a bouquet of daffodils. Flowers and foliage grace gardens and countryside. I've tried …
Continue reading Mothering Sunday, eat chocolate, feast on foliage and flowers
‘Reflective,’ word for the week
Cornwall Cogitation#3, 28.02.16--We're enjoying a slower pace, a more observant mien (whatever that means) and a relaxed yet energetic pace somewhat timed to weather patterns, both sunny and rainy. "Reflective" captures the tenor of the week now history. We do stay up on the main news stories; they're just not the stuff I want to rehash here. I may from time …
It's About Now 