We woke to the low rumbling of thunder this morning, a 'grumbling' sound not those fierce bangs and strikes of lightening we normally get, then the soft sound of rain, so it does not look like we are going into town, as LS hates the rain. The joys of moving is of course the working through utility companies, stopping debits and changing addresses, redirection of mail also. The boring bit as I would call it. Hail is now lashing down.
I chose the top photo today because at one time we contemplated moving to Cornwall, the ruined engine house in Minions was a familiar sight. In fact when we arrived at our pub room, and looked out on the bleak moor, rain pouring down the first thing I saw was a ruined engine house clinging to the side of a hill, it looked so surreal.
We had not wanted to move near to the sea, houses were far more expensive there anyway, and of course touristy. Wandered round the towns but found them also a bit bleak, but I did love Bodmin Moor, and inland there was such pretty wooded valleys to live amongst. But Cornwall suffers on one point, and that is distance from family and London. The A30 road breaks up Bodmin Moor it is something you always have to traverse to get into the towns, and presumably one day will become a motorway. The economic depression in Cornwall is also obvious in some of the towns, and we both took against bungaloid estates as Daphne du Maurier describes them in her book - Vanishing Cornwall. They were built from the 1960s onward, and some look pretty depressing, why is it that house building cannot always be perfect. Stupid question, but even Maurier only puts the 'pretty' side of Cornwall in her book. I think my greatest disappointment was 'Jamaica Inn', ugly, everything for sale for the tourist, one could not find an iota of Cornish romance in the place. I just sat in the car second time around we visited and watched a lone man walk up the moor in the far distance envying him being far from the madding crowd.
Still Cornwall is megalithic heaven, stone circles, standing stones and cromlech dot the scenic moors, but I notice from my photos that the weather is more often grey than sunny....
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| Duloe Stone Circle |
.Agree about those bungalow estates Thelma. We called to see friends in Lincolnwhen we went through on our way to Suffolk. They live on a vast estate of bungalows - everyone is retired and folk around them are dying off one by one. So depressing. Also agree about Cornwall - beautiful as it is on the coast, inland the areas are quite depressed as work is short apart from in the holiday season. I think you have made the right choice.
ReplyDeleteDecided to reread Maurier's book on Vanishing Cornwall, it struck me that we are quite happy with the historical side of things but the actuality often disappoints. Some of these estates you can get lost in, with their avenues to the left and right of you.
ReplyDeleteThe pity of Cornwall though is that it has no manufacturing and no money spent by central government to improve, when that railway line washed into the sea, it was the only one into Cornwall, ridiculous.