August reading wrap up.

Last month's reading was all about revisiting old favourite series and reading classic authors for the first time. Not exactly on purpose but it did work out nicely.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany & Jack Thorne

Oh boy, does everyone and their mother have an opinion about this one. Personally, I thought it was completely bonkers and it was not at all what I expected but I loved it. I might have had a few small complaints but they were all overshadowed by how much fun I was having and the assumption that the parts that maybe don't work so well on the page probably work just fine on the stage, which is, after all, what this story was designed for in the first place.

★★★★★

Remembrance by Meg Cabot

Remembrance read so much like one of the original Mediator novels to me, while definitely being a little more mature. I think it's a perfect addition to the series and I just loved getting to read about Suze and Jesse again. I am beyond happy that Meg Cabot has started bringing back all my favourite characters. Now I just need a new Missing novel and I'll be so content. Also, it turns out my little teenage heart still flips every time Jesse calls Suze Querida. So that's good to know.

★★★★★

Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

This is my first time reading the Percy Jackson books and I only wish I had done it sooner. The Titan's Curse is the third book of Percy's adventures and although it was definitely my least favourite of the series so far (the second book, Sea of Monsters, is currently the frontrunner), it was still really enjoyable and it hasn't lessened my excitement for the series as a whole one bit. I've still got two more books to go and I'm already eyeing up the next series, The Heroes of Olympus.

★★★☆☆

The Birds & Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier

This was my first du Maurier (although I did play Mrs. Danvers in a school play when I was ten...) and I  found it a little bit of a mixed bag, but I expect that with short story collections. The Birds was great but I would have liked more of it; Monte Verità was okay but I would have liked less of it; I adored The Apple Tree; The Little Photographer was gripping but I wasn't crazy about the ending; Kiss Me Again, Stranger wasn't for me; and The Old Man was fantastic right up until the last paragraph, which just confused the heck out of me.

★★★★☆

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

This isn't the first Jane Austen novel I've tried to read but it is the first one that I've successfully read past the first page (I read Lady Susan a few years ago but since it's unfinished I don't think it counts.) I'm taking part in readbyzoe's Austentatious book club to try and fix that and, obviously, it's already working. It was sort of a last minute decision to join the book club but I'm so glad that I did. I loved Pride and Prejudice and I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of Jane Austen's novels over the coming months.

★★★★★

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Dozmary Pool.

For months we drove past the signpost for Dozmary Pool, on our way to other places, saying every time that we would go there one day, until finally we did take the turning at the signpost. We drove down the tiny country roads, through a village that might not even be big enough to be called a village, past fields and farms, and right back out on to the road we started on, just a little further up from the first signpost.

Somehow, even though we had all been looking out for further signposts and Dad had even been using Maps on his phone, we had completely missed Dozmary Pool. We hadn't even been near anything that looked like it could lead to Dozmary Pool. We started to think that maybe Dozmary Pool didn't actually exist.

Then, on our way home from Golitha Falls, after weeks of joking about the mythical lake that didn't exist, Dad spotted another signpost for Dozmary Pool. Mum turned the car around and we headed straight for the turning at this new signpost. Passing fields and other lakes, we started to wonder again if maybe this place really didn't exist, until finally we saw another little signpost at the side of the road. There was nowhere really meant for parking so we sort of abandoned the car for a minute, but we found it! It actually exists!

It may not look particularly remarkable, and I cannot overstate how poorly signposted it truly is, but some people believe that Dozmary Pool is the home of the Lady of the Lake. That this is where her hand rose from the water to give Arthur his famous sword, Excalibur (or in the words of Monty Python 'some watery tart threw a sword at [him]') and that this is where Bedivere returned the sword to as Arthur lay dying after the Battle of Camlann.

The barbed wire fences maybe interrupt the illusion a little bit, but standing there, looking across the water, I could definitely see this as a place imbued with that magic and legend. And it was definitely peaceful, on account of how no one can find the damn thing.

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Golitha Falls.

One day I will learn how to edit photos with a lot of green in them and actually be completely happy with the results, but for today let's just enjoy the light and the motion of the water in these pictures, okay? I'd appreciate it.

Golitha Falls is wild. The water runs fast, the trees grow wherever and however they want, and there aren't really any paths by the water. Mostly you have to clamber around over rocks and trees, which is fine if you're wearing trainers (dad and I were) but, as we discovered, not so great if you're wearing flip-flops (mum didn't anticipate the climbing.) We clambered around for a while, found a nice big rock to sit on by the water, and eventually headed back when we decided it was maybe getting a bit too difficult for three people without walking boots. It was a short trip but a nice one.

There's something about walking under the shade of trees on a warm day, climbing over protruding roots, listening to the water rush, that always makes me want to write. I dream of living by the beach but maybe I should reconsider. There is something undeniably inspiring about woodland. Plus, you tend to see a lot of people walking cute dogs in these places, which is always a plus.

We had a little unexpected detour on our way home from Golitha Falls too, but that's for another post soon...

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Why I'm not baking along with Bake Off.

I love the Great British Bake Off. I look forward to it every year and last year when I saw all the blogs taking part in the Bake Off Bake Along I thought 'damn, I wish I had been organised enough to do that too!' So this year I decided to do something like it. I started tentative planning of a few recipes I might make and post each week for the themes that usually come up every year. I even made my first bake! Week one is always cake week so I decided to try a double layer Pimm's cake with strawberry buttercream icing. Sounds pretty good, right?

This was the result:

Granted, I had sort of given up on the idea of it looking presentable in any way long before it came to putting the icing on, and the results aren't quite as bad as The Great Scone Disaster, but it's still not great, is it?

I could give you all the excuses: it was too hot that day (it was), I trusted the recipe even when I knew it was wrong (I did), but honestly I think it might just be time to finally admit that pretty bakes are not my thing. It tasted okay! For the most part... And I'm not going to stop baking by any means. I might even share some over the next few weeks. But I don't know about you, but I can't handle ten straight weeks of that.

If you want to try the recipe yourself anyway and see if you can do a better job (I'm certain you can) I used this recipe for the cake (although if I made this again I would definitely use self-raising flour instead of all-purpose and baking powder) and the strawberry icing recipe from this cupcake recipe (I've actually made these cupcakes before and although it was a few years ago now I'm pretty sure they turned out much better than this cake so honestly, maybe just stick with the cupcakes.)

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Bodmin Beacon.

The beacon itself, which you can see through the trees there, is a war monument, but the area surrounding it is actually a protected nature reserve. I've lived in this town all my life and yet I had never really gone up there before this day so I had no idea how nice it actually is. Isn't that always the way? I guess you're never a tourist in your own town. Or maybe it's just me who is completely oblivious to my own surroundings...

There are lots of beautiful wild flowers everywhere but the real star of this post is coming up at the end so get ready...

We found a beetle!!! I was taking pictures of flowers when my dad found this little guy. He called me over and picked the beetle up on the end of a stick and then very nicely stood there, holding and twisting the stick around for a good long while so that I could get some good angles. Honestly, it made my whole day. I took fifteen pictures of the beetle. It was great.

Look at him go!

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Carlyon Bay.

Doesn't that just make you desperately want to jump into that water and swim? I mean, I took these pictures in May and I remember how freezing it was but I still want to get in there. I've swum in the ocean at that time of year before and I always instantly regret it, but I always do it again. How is a person to resist when the water looks like that?

Those clouds might put off more sensible people but not me. The ocean makes me an idiot.

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Some pretty bad photos of Torquay.

I'm still learning how to take good pictures. I'm still learning how best to edit them. Even though I've had my D-SLR since I was eighteen, I'm still learning how to use it properly. I will probably never be done learning. What this means is that sometimes my pictures just aren't going to be that good. Sometimes they're going to be blurry and sometimes that's because my camera is a little old and the light was bad that day but more often it's just because I still have to remind myself to use the right lens or change the aperture.

But this blog is kind of my photographic diary and I like sharing photos of fun days here. I like showing you that I saw a guy using some kind of water jet pack in Torquay, and if the photo is out of focus because I set the wrong aperture then hey, that's just something I still need to learn, and there is definitely value for me in documenting that too.

This is all really just to say that I know these pictures aren't great but I couldn't not post a picture of a guy using a water jet pack. I just don't have it in me to make that decision.

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