September Out and Abouts
October 2026
Saturday morning at Redruth Station. I am 15 minutes early; in my youth I was always late but no more... The Station has a festive atmosphere: dads and sons on a day out, trips to London and beyond setting forth, old friends greeting, even a buddhist monk in white robes. Station manager is smiling as is Caroline with a steady stream of tea drinkers. She has new celebrity photos on the café wall including G4 (winners of the X factor apparently) who on meeting her, immediately gave her tickets to their concert at the Regal.
I am off to Looe for the Festival of Words to meet up with the Women Speak Volumes team. It's our second outing this month. The first was to the Budleigh Salterton Book Festival as part of the Word Kitchen, a two day gathering for writers. It was really interesting with the Society of Authors talking about AI and books. Chilling stuff. Talk of second hand booksellers sending crates of books to California for AI 'training' and then being pulped. Illustrators having their work copied and then being used in 'the style of ...'. The SOA are encouraging a kitemark on books saying 'made by a human'. Did anyone ask for this?
Our session went really well with live, human connection with our audience...
One of our team Clare Owen has recently had her first adult novel published by Hermitage Press, called Creatures of a Brief Season. We were all invited to her book launch at The Bar Silo near Golant where the food and cocktails all had a Moroccan flavour inspired by some of the themes in the book. Lovely evening and a really good read, I can thoroughly recommend. Clare really gets under the skin of her two main characters with a special role for the Painted Lady butterfly ...
Book Launch: writer Clare Owen in orange dress with WSV's Helen Thomas & Jackie Taylor
Budleigh Salterton: Pippa Marriot, WSV and Word Kitchen organiser navigating the tricky road to publishing; Jackie reading.
Back to Looe. Great journey with the branchline train waiting at Liskeard for us. Always a joy to arrive in Looe by train. Brisk walk to Hannafore Hotel under a mackerel sky. Delighted to encounter a statue of Nelson the bull seal who took up residence in Looe Harbour in his later years. The Festival of Words is really friendly and ambitious for a small town. Lots of chats, enjoyable readings. Am always amazed how different stories resonate depending on the audience. And we sold a few books. Had a lift back to Lostwithiel with time for a stroll along the meandering River Fowey before the train home.
Looe Harbour; Nelson the Seal; The WSVsw book stall
Tony and I had a fun day out in Plymouth meeting friends. They arrived by train from Newton Abbot and met us on the platform with their two, well behaved, dogs so we headed to the Hoe. There we encountered the painter Beryl Cook trail of characters from her paintings to great amusement. Her retrospective at the Box over the summer was a huge success and Plymouth is championing her as their own. We should follow the trail one day; it would, without doubt, lift the spirits.
My sister, Caroline, came to visit in August to see Connie in Goodnight Mister Tom at The Minack Theatre.
We did the return visit a couple of weeks ago to Derbyshire. This time we drove, partly because Caroline had had a terrible train journey down on the infamous Crosscountry service and also because without a railcard, train travel is really pricey - Connie being in that middle phase without one. Driving meant that we could visit the oasis that is Gloucester Services. We may have struck lucky, but there seemed to be slightly less traffic on the road than I remember.
Staying with my sister and her husband means lots of walks with dogs, two contented donkeys, good food and chat with wine flowing, plus the delight of spending a day with great niece and her parents. We visited some beautiful Derbyshire villages such as Hartington with its famed cheese shop and Winster, both in the High Peaks, as well as Matlock.
Happy spaniels rooting in the woods; a 3500 year old standing stone discovered in a clearing; Hartington
Hardwick Hall on the Derbyshire- Notts border was built by The Countess of Shrewsbury or Bess of Hardwick (picture above) in the 1590s. It is very grand. The architect and stonemason was Robert Smythson who created a building with 'more glass than stone' to manifest the wealth and status of a woman who was very close to Queen Elizabeth and second only to her in wealth. Four marriages had ensured her fortune. The Hall was given to the National Trust after WW2 in lieu of death duties. For sixty five years they have preserved, conserved and displayed some great paintings, including one of Elizabeth the first attributed to Nicholas Hilliard, tapestries and furniture with enormous care and skill, as well as creating a wonderful garden. The part that was wanting for me, was the storytelling. It was confusing and also very simplistic. There is quite a focus on Bess's relationship with Mary Queen of Scots. She was in fact her captor for seventeen years and they would 'while away the hours' together doing needlework and embroidery. There is a Mary Queen of Scots room with her coat of arms and one of her tapestries. So I assumed she had been captive in Hardwick Hall. I later found that she had been captive in Chatsworth which is not far away, where Bess had lived when married, and had been executed ten years before Hardwick Hall had even been built... It was confusing. Also, we were told that Bess was a great letter writer with 250 in the archive but not a single one was on display, even as a copy. Instead, there was an animation with a voiceover reading extracts. I should have read up before I went. Despite my reservations, it is a very impressive place.
Hardwick Hall from various angles; Queen Elizabeth 1st; Embroidery by Mary Queen of Scots including the Scottish thistle alongside the English rose.
Back in Cornwall, the Bal Maiden has been out and about. She visited Wheal Uny as part of the Redruth International Pasty Day where the chimney stacks also smoked. For several weeks she has been resident in her natural habitat at Wheal Martyn China Clay Museum. She can also be found at:
Lowender Peran Interceltic Festival 16-19 October in Redruth
Truro Cathedral from 27th - 29th October
St Dennis lantern parade 28th November
Thank you to everyone who shared their photos. If anyone has any journeys they would like to share, am always up for suggestions. For those who enjoy cooler days, enjoy the change in season.
Comments