cornwall in the winter

this week i came to see my good friends Jon and Kim in padstow – and sadly the weather was rainy and stormy;   on a plus side this  makes the landscape more striking and dramatic.   we managed to dodge the rain with a brisk walk on harlyn bay -and on the way back we passed by hawksfield, a recent enterprise of vintage furniture, health food and deli products, flowers, homeware by Jo and co.  apparently the cafe there is also a fun place to meet.   hawksfield is just outside of wadebridge.

fortunately we did have a dry day and we decided to visit St Mawes, somewhere i hadn’t visited before.  we took the lovely king harry ferry which makes the journey shorter, but also great fun – as with most of cornwall, there are stunning views.  we ate the best fish and chips at the watch house –  a lovely restaurant just near the front.  i noticed that st mawes is quite upmarket with its two hotels, the idle rocks and the tresanton. 

i love cornwall out of season, the beaches are empty, you can get a table at all the restaurants and although the weather is erratic, the skies and vistas are just breathtaking.

on our way home, we had coffee and cake at the arts cafe in truro – the best selection of art materials under one roof (almost as good as cornellisens my all time favourite shop).

a great place to eat is  appletons, a very tasty rustic italian style food restaurant at trevibban mill.  the food is locally grown and raised, with some of the vegetables grown on site.   this is a local cornish vineyard that produces its own wine and cider,  you can  have wine tasting tours which sound fun – if only i drank wine!  i noticed that you could buy home spun wool too. its always lovely to see new places opening up – i realised that we have been coming to padstow for over 20 years now.