I Can't Help But Recruit

Riding on trains and reading books is a huge part of the WOW factor of travel in England. As long as the trains are operational, and they don't have electrical problems, and the workers are not on strike, and the toilets inside the train aren't backed up (sorry), you'll have a great time! I did last Friday. The photo above was my first glimpse of St Ives this trip as I rounded the bend near Carbis Bay. I have read all four of Rosamunde Pilcher's major books in preparation for this moment and this view. 

It is all part of my belief that life in Cornwall is not so much a holiday - it is a lifestyle. 

A friend from back home has not yet made it to these shores, so I ply her with photos and explanations  that will guarantee her eventual arrival. Already the magic of Cornwall has begun to draw her gently here. It's only a matter of time.

I would love to be hired by some sort of company that would PAY ME to recruit travelers here. That would be a blast! All these travelers would have to do is to see one teeny, tiny photograph such as the ones on this page, and the recruitment would take care of itself. 

The lady I met at the railway station yesterday (when the train conductor so rudely swept past us) feels this same way. She wants to live here, and she wants to bring her family members. I feel and believe she will accomplish her goal. I saw it in her smile as she spoke of it, and she is young enough to have time to make it happen.

It is 9:53 PM here, and it has finally become dark. There are people outside my open window who are still wandering around on the sand, laughing and talking and even making new friends this late in the evening. Bunches of them have ice cream cones stuck to their faces. They are happy, their dogs are happy, and their babies pipe in with a happy language all their own. Everyone out there has one thing in common, dear Readers, which I think you will understand:

No one wants this week to end.

See you along the way!

the SconeLady

Rosamunde Pilcher's former home, Lelant

Things

Some things happened today, Sunday May 18, 2025:

*I remembered Mount St Helens (45 years ago today) and being on a train the next day, going to a singing engagement. There were inches of volcanic ash laying all over inside the train. Oh - and there were masks. Everybody had to wear a mask.

 *I found fisherman Stuart while he and another fisherman were loading bunches of snapping lobsters into a white van. It was very dramatic.

*I went to church, and the music director's wife hugged me. Then the music director himself invited me to sing in the choir again.

*I walked to the Lelant train station and waved in a begging way to the train to stop for me... but the conductor barreled right on by. Rude!

*A young lady who was also begging the train to stop was a new visitor to St Ives, and didn't know what to do. When trains don't stop for you when they should, it feels like they don't like you, Apparently we were unliked, so she and I dashed uphill to catch the bus. The bus driver stopped for us. On the bus we found out that both of us would like to bring our loved ones to St Ives, so it was fun talking about how we could do this.

*When I got to the cottage I made grilled chicken and vegetables for dinner. It was crowded in the tiny kitchen because there is a huge air fryer on the counter which I will NEVER USE and found to be cluttering up the place. But the grilled chicken and vegetables were good.

*I saw Jean! Jean was lovely, and remembered me, and her daughter made us cups of tea which we enjoyed with the 3 delicious treats from the Yellow Canary which I brought. There was a cinnamon bun, an apple and blueberry sweet pasty, and a chocolate brownie. We cut each of the three treats into three pieces so we could each have a taste of all. The chocolate brownie was the best, very American and moist. The cinnamon bun, however, had very little cinnamon in it so it was scarcely worth calling 'cinnamon '.

*Those were only part of the people I found and the things I did. There will be more tomorrow, and I feel assured that the weather will be just as blue of sky as it has been the whole week. 

*Oh! And at church, the Vicar preached a wonderful sermon. I was thrilled to hear him say that as Jesus was walking toward Calvary, and as the men drove the nails into His already wounded body, He was thinking of healing OUR wounds. 

See you along the Way!

the SconeLady

On The Other Side Of The World

Sunset at St Ives, 2025

 Each evening in the town of St Ives, a crowd of tourists quietly steps down to the sea, to watch the sunset.

I have the privilege of watching this happen for four weeks, because I stay longer than people who have only one week to spare. Some weeks the sunset watchers are teenagers who like to sit on the soft green grass to laugh and chat under the gentle supervision of their parents.

Other weeks, the watchers might be older and tireder, and prefer to rest on a bench while gazing. This group of people have dogs, leaping and nipping and hoping someone will throw them a treat. Or a ball. None of them are on leads, so they are happy during the spectacular sinking of that great Orb. 

It must be fun to be a teenager on holiday in St Ives, what with all the eating, swimming, surfing, paddle boarding, kicking of balls and the endless visiting of everybody's mothers. I know this because when I was a teenager, we spent a week at the beach every summer, only the beach town we had holidays in was called Cannon Beach. It was in Oregon and it had a spectacular sunset just like St Ives.

Our lovely holidays in Cannon Beach took place at a Christian camp that encouraged families to come and "Vacation with a purpose". Because my parents valued this purposeful vacationing, I grew to value it and carried on the tradition with my own children. They adored it all, especially the freedoms they were afforded because they could be trusted. 

I am sitting next to an open window, accidentally overhearing many a tourist conversation. People are herding children, washing off sandy feet, and thinking hungrily of their dinners. The mothers no doubt rejoice that it is "still only Saturday", and they have most of the week to enjoy! It's as if they are dragging their feet to slow the Circles down..

See you along the way!

the SconeLady

Sunset at Cannon Beach, Oregon

"We can't return, we can only look behind from where we came,

and go round and round and round in the Circle game". Joni Mitchell

Bring Him Home

As much as I liked being in London, and loved seeing Les Miserables, and discovered two Gail's Bakeries right smack dab in the middle of Paddington Station, it was SWEET to be welcomed aboard the Great Western Railroad again, destination St Ives.

Les Miserables at the Sondheim

Did I say something about Les Miserables? Yes! I have been obsessed by the story for years. First, it was the book by Victor Hugo. Tremendous! We lived in Oregon that winter, and I recall reading the Kindle version of it while laying flat out on the couch in front of the fire. Much of my response to it consisted of open weeping.

Around that time Les Miserables started becoming a movie. When it did, I saw it MULTIPLE times. The central disappointment for me was that very few of its actors had singing voices. But the story still moved me, and I could rejoice in the singing voice of Amanda Seyfried (Cosette), whose voice soared flawlessly.

During my obsession with Les Mis, I searched YouTube to see if there were any other renditions of the story. Of course there WAS! Alfie Boe played Jean ValJean at the 02 Arena in London, supported by a stage filled with talented singers and actors. This became the new obsession, and I walked ten miles a day listening to Alfie Boe singing "Bring Him Home".  

Dear Readers, I heard and watched it so many times that YouTube took it down! 

Well, they probably didn't do that just because of me. But there were millions of other obsessed people listening and watching Alfie Boe so much that it was all-at-once stricken from the Tube. I still remember where I was when, in the middle of "Do You Hear The People Sing?" it went blank.

Seeing it on the stage at the Sondheim Theatre yesterday brought all that back, with a stage again filled with unbelievably talented people. If you ever have the chance to see it there, DO! The lady sitting behind me wept openly during Eponine's "A Little Fall Of Rain", and I did the same during Jean ValJean's beautiful "Bring Him Home" (we both felt sheepish about it afterward).

The audience stood and applauded for ages and ages. Then they sat back down for a while, because no one wanted to leave. It was fun to talk about it with the perfect strangers surrounding me! I'll never forget it. 

Why will I never forget it? I am convinced it is because of The Bishop. I simply love the Bishop, who touches our hearts the way he touched Jean ValJean's. It is the miracle of Redemption, which is woven throughout the entire story, beginning to end. And oh, how we need that.

See you along the Way!

the SconeLady

                                                  

 

St James Church, London

"They built this without the equipment we have today!"

This is absolutely true! My American friend who saw this photo of St James was blown away by the creativity, patience, and talent of so many hard-working British workmen and women. And it is all to a Purpose, you know. Every nook and cranny in this magnificent church points to the Story of Jesus, giving visitors the path to salvation. You could spend a month in just this room alone, and barely even scratch the surface!

I tiptoed into the church yesterday on my way to see Kensington Palace. I love seeing Kensington Palace, dear Readers, because the Prince and Princess of Wales are there from time to time. The appearances are always unannounced, which makes people watch out for them. I am not the only one with such hopes, because when I did actually seen Prince William in 2022, sudden crowds appeared, all shouting, "It's HIM!"

He was the pilot of this helicopter, (as the Brits surrounding me claimed. They were knowledgeable, confident, and knew more than I did, so I took their word as truth.) You should have SEEN their jubilation! Their noise joined the noise of the helicopter hovering and then touching down not far from our perch beneath the trees. If you want to review the blog post all about William that day in 2022, here it is: https://sconetherapy.blogspot.com/2022/

Entering St James Church yesterday had been lovely because of the prevailing silence. The street outside had been filled with horns honking and planes departing from LAX. Inside, though, had there been a hundred people in there with me, it would have remained quiet. A holy place.

But as I gazed at the graceful arches in the front, I heard something - footsteps. I turned and saw a lady holding a cloth duster, moving from pew to pew removing fingerprints. Not that there were any finger prints available to clean. 

"Hello," I sort of whispered. She smiled the whitest, most genuine smile I thought I had ever seen. Wow. Her teeth were so straight and white I felt that no dentist had ever whitened or braced those teeth. They were simply a gift, as is.

"Do you work here?" I asked her. 

"I do, as a volunteer. You'd be surprised at all the dust that can find its way into this place."

She smiled again, and then went back to her quiet work. Someone that deeply lovely was willing to volunteer her time to shine that already shining place, and couldn't help but smile while doing it. 

Wow.

See you along the Way!

the SconeLady

 

What Is A TeeTotaler?

Clock Tower in Downham Market

I might as well tell you, although it might make you upset at the man I sat next to on the plane. I did tell you that the flight was pretty much perfect, with next-to-no turbulence, and they served us so many meals and snacks that I, for one, became stuffed. The man next to me was comatose the first few hours of the flight, but all of a sudden he woke up, jumped to his feet and yelled, "HEY!"touching the call button. Now that he was properly awake, I noticed that he looked a little bit like Jesus might have looked. That was odd, because jumping up in an airplane and yelling "HEY!" real loud wasn't the sort of thing Jesus would do. 

Our row of passengers sat stock still. Soon a male flight attendant leaned down to ask the man if something was wrong. The man who looked like Jesus said that yes, there was something wrong, something very dreadfully wrong, because the flight attendants were all racists who didn't know what the goose they were doing. He flailed his arms around, escalating up and up until the flight attendant left and got two more flight attendants. 

Dreams of my lovely holiday in Cornwall began to dim.

Soon there were three flight attendants in the aisle being yelled at, and everyone else was getting sick and tired of these shenanigans. In the end I and the lady on his other side got new seating assignments. The man collapsed into the entire row, now empty of all but himself, and slept.

I have only one other note to add to this drama at 40,000 feet over the Pond. There were several empty beer cans laying around the man's feet. Great Scott! Where had they all come from? No wonder he was in such a State.

Which reminds me of something, dear Readers, that might shock you. Get ready for it: Airline flights ought to be TeeTotal. Do you know what I mean by that? I come from a long line of TeeTotalers, which means they don't drink alcohol and therefore would never dream of yelling at flight attendants and spoiling nice people's holiday plans in Cornwall.

(And there would be a lot less shenanigans.)

See you along the way!

the SconeLady

England

 

Wisteria in Norfolk

I am back in England, surrounded by beauty and the magnificence of Norfolk Wisteria. There is so much lovely Wisteria around here right now that you can literally smell it.

There have already been long walks as I reclaim the dreamy fields that are the earmarks of Norfolk. Outside, a fighter jet of some sort passes over the house. This brings back noisy memories of RAF Lakenheath and the fighter jets that still populate its skies. It's nice to see them again.

There is much to say to you, and I will say it. So far, I have made the overnight flight to London, achieved the maneuvering of the Underground without mishap, and been safely delivered to the home of friend Rosie and her Ted. Oh the food! The talk! the memories! because she was here with me through it all, and remembers.

Oh - there, she is calling up the stairs to tell me something important..."Dinner is ready for you!" I already know the dinner will be worthy of the long talks that will accompany the meal. And I will tell you all about it. Honest!

See you along the way!

the Scone Lady