Trerice

"I rarely draw what I see. I draw what I feel in my body."
Barbara Hepworth
Today we're heading to Cornwall for tomorrow's afternoon performance at the Minack theatre, booked yesterday after a last-minute check on weather and availability. We haven't really decided on much else afterwards. Ten years ago we visited the Barbara Hepworth museum and garden in St Ives with  K2, who was studying art. To add extra interest to the trip we tacked on several other destinations, including Padstow where we failed to have a meal at Rick Steins chippy because we were still full after a late lunch. So today, minus K2, we are returning to Padstow to both break the journey and have our my fish and chip supper. We also decided to give Airbnb a trial for accommodation (no, we haven't used it before) as our plans are a bit loose - we're also giving the SatNav in the 'new' car a workout (and the car come to think of it).  Uneventful (thankfully) if fairly long journey down to Padstow area and found the Airbnb which is as good as it looked on the website - a room over a gatehouse. Checked in and dropped our gear, then off to Trerice, a Tudor manor house near Newquay. Plenty of interest in the house and gardens as there was also an archaeological dig going on to explore a secret tunnel, uncovered last year while they were looking for foundations of earlier buildings on the site. At closing time we head off to Padstow harbour for our fish and chips at Rick's. Arriving about 5.45pm it's still busy around the harbour and car park, but we found a spot quickly and headed in.  Immaculate timing as we grabbed the last two places in the restaurant before a queue started to build outside, waiting for space to become available inside. Sat next to a chatty couple from the south-east who were good company for dinner and we exchanged ideas for tomorrow, if we have time before the theatre. A leisurely stroll around the harbour afterwards, along with a couple of hundred others - still popular in the evening all around the quayside watching the sun go down. Looking around it all seemed familiar somehow - then I remembered I'd completed a large jigsaw of the harbour scene several years ago. Very picturesque as the sun went down over the hillside, rich reds on the boats glowing in the last rays of the afternoon sun and reflecting in the water - a reminder of the quality of the light in this part of the world which has attracted artists for so long.