400 + views

Basset Cove and crane Islands, Cornwall. The Southwest Peninsula Coastpath once went straight ahead here. A very necessary fence!

Above Tubby's Head (St Agnes Head in the distance). The tin mines were some way away from the nearest villages and towns. As well as having to descend and ascend many 100s of feet and also walk a long way out under the sea bed, the miners had to get home as well - sometimes another couple of hours walk! After dark this wasn't always possible and a few shelters were constructed to allow the miners some respite from adverse weather conditions overnight. Countless fierce storms have reduced them to mere shells but they wouldn't have been luxurious to start with! It's true they didn't work 24 hour shifts even if day and night meant nothing down below but they did work long stints and at full production, the mines did produce tin round the clock! And we think we live in hard times!

Tubby's Head, Cornwall

Earlier in the day at Algete.

The white boulder, mid-distance, is of course the guano-stained home to generations of Griffon vultures. The Sierra in autumn. Taken from El Cancho Gordo. Sight and sound. Video for youtube beethoven piano concerto 2 finale ▶ 5:48 www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz1m5Y96IBU A joyous 5 minute rousing Beethoven finale. I had to fit in somewhere and here seemed about right, Martha Argerich of course.

A rather overwhelmed fence. For Pam.

La Sierra de La Cabrera in May.

Kayaks are one way of getting to the almost inaccessible beach here! (Portreath, Cornwall) Legend has it that someone traversed that ridge and back in winklepickers and without using his hands. I've looked carefully at the route and can see that it is do-able (but even I would balk at winklepickers!)

Carpets of lavender if you pick the right week between mid May and early June, depending on the weather, how high in the sierra you are or just plain luck!

Ahead are the two summits of La Sierra de La Cabrera, Canchos Gordo and Largo.

Quite spectacular colours for a week or two. (I can't remember if 'quite' in American English means very or is a more non-descript 'ok - ish' because in British English it could mean either, depending on the context. Here I most definitively mean 'very'!)

Wisteria in the evening light. Viewed from the front of the house.

Late May, early June and the hillsides are covered with it. La Sierra de La Cabrera. For Pam.

A pleasant place to visit in May and June in Madrid.

Honeysuckle on the steep path to the nudist beach at Fishing Cove, Reskajeage, Cornwall.

This cloud formation over Land's End looks normal enough from Carn Gloose but was much remarked upon in the national press. I saw the photos on the front pages of several papers, all taken from Sennen or Land's End itself and I'm still not sure why it was considered remarkable!

Asparagus Island, Porthcadjack, Cornwall

La Sierra de La Cabrera. A fiercely hot day, Even the vultures didn't exert themselves Only the idiot Englishman!