Golitha Falls, The Hurlers, and Monty Python.

Today I've just got a few pictures from a little day trip I went on with my parents and my friend Jess a few weeks ago.

Jess had never been to Golitha Falls before but she loves a good walk (she did a week long hiking and camping thing in Dartmoor recently that sounded like hell to me but she loved it) so first we went out there and had a good explore of the whole place.

Jess and my mum both insisted on walking around with these big sticks that they found. On our way back to the car I told Jess about when I was a kid and I made my parents bring a big stick back home with us after a day out and called it 'Sticky' and played with it in the back garden until it dried up and fell apart. Then mum tried to put her stick in the car to take home for future days out and I laughed and Dad leaned over and said, "I have one word for you: Sticky," like that was going to embarrass me. Haha. Too late, Dad. I got there first.

After Golitha Falls we headed out to Minions. We didn't stay long because it was already nearly dinner time and Jess and I are both generally always hungry anyway so we were pretty much starving by this point. Luckily there weren't a lot of people around The Hurlers like there usually are so I actually managed to get some good pictures. Well, some okay pictures.

We also had a quick look in the tiny mining museum that's inside the engine house in the back of the next picture and said hello to the sheep, which if you ask me is a pretty fine way to spend an afternoon.

Then we went back home, had dinner, and watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail because I had shown Jess the trailer for my future favourite film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword earlier on in the day, which had led to a lot of quoting the other greatest King Arthur film in existence. So, of course, we had to finish our day with it.

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Roughtor.

Remember those really hot few days we had here in the middle of July, when it was just beautiful but the only really appropriate thing to do was to sit in the shade and read all day? Maybe go to the beach and swim. Definitely drink lots of iced drinks. Yeah, my parents decided on one of those days that we should go and walk up a really big hill out on the moors.

I mean, I did see a lot of sheep and horses, which always makes for a good day, but it was so hot that I finished my bottle of cucumber ice water way too early and didn't actually manage to make it to the top of the very big hill. Next time I will. Next time when it is not as hot as the sun and there are a few more clouds in the sky. Maybe. I'm still somewhat haunted by the hill at Tintagel.

Anyway, the view was pretty good.

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Bideford.

Another very short post today, with just a few pictures from a day out in Bideford with my grandparents and uncle back in June.

This whole post is really about this guy's knitted beard and scarf and little fabric crown, let's be real.

There was quite a lot of guerrilla knitting going on, particularly in the trees. I wish I'd taken a better picture of these poms poms but I think this gets the point across. It was very cute.

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Project: Anything Other Than Hamilton IV: Musicals Edition.

Sometimes, when you're trying to stop yourself from listening to one musical cast recording over and over again, the only thing to do is to listen to other musical cast recordings instead.

Bend it Like Beckham

Bend it Like Beckham is one of my all time favourite films and honestly I feel a little bit like the fact that this musical existed and I never saw it means my life will never be totally complete. I don't know what I was thinking not going to see it but whatever, that's just a bad choice I'll have to live with for the rest of my life. No big deal. I'll just have to listen to the cast recording on repeat forever and try not to cry about the fact that it's exactly how I would want a musical of this story to sound and I will probably never get to see the actual show. Like I said, I'm fine with it.

Favourite songs: Glorious, More Fool Me, Bend It

Kinky Boots

Kinky Boots is another of my favourite films and with Cyndi Lauper writing all the songs for the musical, it was pretty much a given that I would love it. There is only one song on the album that I don't love and that is 100% because there is one particular actor in this recording whose attempt at a Northampton accent makes me want to rip my own ears off. Other than that though, the whole album is amazing and so much fun and I love how they've focused on Charlie and Lola's relationships to their fathers. If Kinky Boots ever comes to my local theatre I will be first in line at the box office!

Favourite songs: Step One, Soul of a Man, Hold Me in Your Heart

Waitress

I know Waitress is also based on a film but I haven't actually seen this one yet. I've heard great things about Sara Bareilles's songs for the show though so I read the plot line on Wikipedia and let the songs tell me the rest of the story, which they did fantastically. I can only imagine how moving the show must be when you're actually watching it live because even just listening to them at home, I was definitely moved. Also, does anyone know when I will stop having a constant stream of 'sugar, butter, flour' running through my head?

Favourite songs: Opening Up, What Baking Can Do, Bad Idea

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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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