The lands end peninsula, almost as far south and west as you can go in the uk, a favorite of the second home owner, beautiful, rugged and for most of the year populated only by locals. Day to day life is generally not glamorous, money is tight, life is not easy, especially now and yet today was a day of a strange story unfolding.
The leisure center Penzance, only a few years old, pretty well equipped and possessing both a sauna and a steam room and it was in the sauna that the tale was told to me of a company contracted to provide security to a number of very wealthy families for whom the possibility of kidnap for ransom is very real.
The location of these families was not revealed to me nor was any explanation given for the divulgence of this information. The tale was told by a man of middle years, slack bellied but strong jawed, with an intriguing accent which, in my mind, had brought him from the pacific rim, via north america to our remote and sleepy town. A perfect place to hide?
With remote and isolated properties that do not appear on sat navs and are invisible to all but the most thorough search. Could west penwith become a hideout for the paranoid plutocrats?
I'll keep you posted...

The joys of winter

Lets face it, there aren't many great things about winter. For me it boils down to attitudinal shift, seeing the beauty and positive in a winters day rather than negative and decay or bareness.
Today, late November, cold and crisp with blue skies and sunshine, must rate as one of the easiest of winter days to find easy to like.
For me today was a cycle training day, taking me on an 80km loop down towards the lizzard. I love the feel of the sun on my face, the way the light illuminates the colour of the last few leaves on the trees, the way the land takes on a dormancy that you can sense, laying low and waiting for the (almost) inevitable movement of the earth taking us back towards the light from which all life and everything we have has flowed from.
3 weeks and 6 days to longest night, keeping the vigil.........