Yarr, me hearties...
Not a real pirate, merely one of the freaky models which were part of our caravan park's adventure playground. I wondered if perhaps anyone who left their caravan in a less than perfect state got strung up on the originally named "Black Pearl", their body forever immortalised Carry On Screaming style.
Anyway here's a quick round up of what I got up to in Cornwall on my Summer holiday 2009, eventually you'll probably find featured lenses that go into more detail dotted down the page (that's the plan anyway).
We managed to fit in quite a few things.
We visited Tintagel and the remains of the castle there (supposedly the birth place of King Arthur), we had a look around the Witchcraft Museum in Boscastle (complete with actual mummified human hand and a tarred human head, nice). We had a look around Port Issac which is where British TV show "Doc Martin" is filmed and then wandered around the Lobster Hatchery in Padstow.
Anyway here's a quick round up of what I got up to in Cornwall on my Summer holiday 2009, eventually you'll probably find featured lenses that go into more detail dotted down the page (that's the plan anyway).
We managed to fit in quite a few things.
We visited Tintagel and the remains of the castle there (supposedly the birth place of King Arthur), we had a look around the Witchcraft Museum in Boscastle (complete with actual mummified human hand and a tarred human head, nice). We had a look around Port Issac which is where British TV show "Doc Martin" is filmed and then wandered around the Lobster Hatchery in Padstow.
Have a Look at What I Planned Before I Left...
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Waiting For Cornwall
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Opposite: Me in Cornwall holding an invisible pixie. Um... no I'm not about to throw it off the cliff. We were having a very civil conversation. I'm off to Cornwall on holiday this year *excitement* it's the county next door! But that's OK because i...
Pirate Playground
Welcome Landlubbers
The pirate ship was the first thing we saw when we pulled into the car park to collect our keys and I did wonder at first whether those were real people sat up on the masts at first, but no, just models complete with long locks blowing free in the wind.The whole playground was full of pirates and piratey wench types (who in my humble opion weren't wearing enough clothes) and I would have loved to have got more photos but I don't have children of my own and figured it would be a bit weird if I hung around the playground taking photos.
My Outdoor Workspace
My Favourite Spot
Right before I left my writing partner/whimsy sharer/Rachel Twin sent me a package.We're working on new novels at the moment. Each week one of us chooses a prompt to send to the other and we both write a chapter of our novels based on that prompt. It's a lot of fun because you never know what you're going to get and it can lead your story down some paths you never expected.
Anyway, she's been keeping a really cool project book full of notes and doodles etc for her novel and I... haven't. Oops.
I kept whining on about how I felt like I couldn't start a project book because I was worried of writing stuff down in it and then not being able to add pages in or swap things around. I needed a folder, I decided.
Did I start a folder?
No, I didn't! I carried on aimlessly writing, scribbling my notes down on scrappy pieces of paper that I kept losing.
Anyway this package arrived and inside was the most gorgeous project folder ever, complete with paper and index covers and plastic pocket folders.
It took me a few days on holiday to actually be able to write directly onto my folder's white virgin paper. I was for some reason terrified of making a mess but I got there in the end and now I'm starting to get my story organised.
I even started working on the cultures in my imagined world (see below).
Next time I go away I'm definitely taking paperweights. Our caravan was right on top of some cliffs above the world's windiest beach.
Stinging sand in your face, anyone?
I Started Creating a Culture...
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Holly Lisle's Create a Culture Clinic
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Is your novel lacking something? Do you feel like you're writing a flat cardboard cutout world? Maybe you don't know your characters as well as you should. Maybe you don't know their real identity, what they believe, what rules they've set for them...
Overlooking the Ocean
Holiday Reading
Books I read on holiday.
I haven't been reading as much as I have done in the past. It's difficult when you work from home because all your work stuff is scattered around you and you kind of feel guilty when you take time off to do something else. Especially if you're also trying to write on top of your work. There never seem to be enough hours in the day.
Anyway so I took some books away with me on holiday. Some of them I've had hanging around in my "To Be Read" pile for years.
I finished Kushiel's Dart which I was really pleased about because I got halfway and got distracted by work deadlines earlier this year. Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey is amazing. For a start it's enormous. It follows the epic life of Phedre who is basically a Courtesan (there are some "kinky" bits in it so if you don't like that sort of thing then this isn't your sort of book). She gets involved in all sorts of intrigue and such forth, travelling through different cultures and unravelling plots and mysteries.
I also read Nick Bantock's The Museum at Purgatory. I love Nick's books. At some point I want to write my own story to go with my artwork.
I also finished Wendy Froud and Terry Windling's book "A Midsummer Night's Faery Tale" which is such a cute book, full of Froud's dolls and puppets and Terry Windling's beautiful stories.
I started reading The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden again which I adore. It's like eating rich dessert. I recently got given the sequel for my birthday so I'm rereading the first book to refresh my memory.
Anyway so I took some books away with me on holiday. Some of them I've had hanging around in my "To Be Read" pile for years.
I finished Kushiel's Dart which I was really pleased about because I got halfway and got distracted by work deadlines earlier this year. Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey is amazing. For a start it's enormous. It follows the epic life of Phedre who is basically a Courtesan (there are some "kinky" bits in it so if you don't like that sort of thing then this isn't your sort of book). She gets involved in all sorts of intrigue and such forth, travelling through different cultures and unravelling plots and mysteries.
I also read Nick Bantock's The Museum at Purgatory. I love Nick's books. At some point I want to write my own story to go with my artwork.
I also finished Wendy Froud and Terry Windling's book "A Midsummer Night's Faery Tale" which is such a cute book, full of Froud's dolls and puppets and Terry Windling's beautiful stories.
I started reading The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden again which I adore. It's like eating rich dessert. I recently got given the sequel for my birthday so I'm rereading the first book to refresh my memory.
Kushiel's Dart
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 12/31/2009) 
The Museum at Purgatory (Byzantium Book)
Amazon Price: (as of 12/31/2009)
A Midsummer Night's Faery Tale
Amazon Price: $12.24 (as of 12/31/2009)
The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden
Amazon Price: $10.88 (as of 12/31/2009)
Holly Lisle's Create A Culture Clinic
Amazon Price: (as of 12/31/2009)
Books I Read
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Nick Bantock's "The Museum At Purgatory"
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The Museum at Purgatory is a story and a work of art. It is a catalogue of collections currated by the mysterious Non. These collections tell the stories of the lives of their previous owners and how in Purgatory they used their collections as a way...
Not so Sandymouth
Perhaps Stonymouth or Windymouth.
Bude and My Cowboy Hat
Bude
The beaches at Bude have one of those sea water pools between them. It's a massive natural pool that anyone can go and have a swim in. Being that it's in the United Kingdom, however, do bear in mind that it's freezing.I had a swim in it and was enjoying myself until I started thinking about that bit in Jaws with the "pond" and how the kids are in it and the shark gets into it and I started thinking "how does the water get in here?" and then started thinking "oh no, what if it opens out directly in the sea (it doesn't) there could be anything in here (there wasn't)" and started freaking out.
Then my knee touched something.
Arrrrrrgggggaaaaarggglleee.
It was just a mound of sand- because I guess it's a natural pool there are some really shallow places followed by some really deep places so every now and then you'll find you can stand up in the pool, kind of like walking on water, but not.
More Steps Than Anyone Should Have to Climb at Tintagel
The Castle
We went into Tintagel the long way round- the way where you have a gazillion steps to climb and arrive panting and exhausted at the castle.The castle is separated in two- part of it on the mainland and the other on an "island" which isn't really an island as it's still joined onto the mainland by a very narrow piece of land. The steps up to the mainland part of the castle are crazily steep - it's pretty much like going up a ladder. The other side is steep but feels a bit safer despite the wind.
I can't imagine what it would have been like climbing the steps around Tintagel on a very rough day.
The castle is mainly just the foundations and parts of some walls but it has spectacular views and it's impressive to think that someone managed to build there in the first place.
Apparently part of the mainland castle actually split off and fell into the ocean soon after it was originally built so you can imagine how precarious life here must have been.
Tintagel
Tintagel Castle (English Heritage Guidebooks)
Amazon Price: (as of 12/31/2009)
This guide will tell you everything you need to know about Tintagel.
The Witchcraft Museum at Boscastle
I have some really wicked (boom boom) photos of stuff in the Witchcraft Museum but I'm afraid to put them up in case it's infringing copyright.Anyway, this was my favourite bit of my holiday (apart from working in a my project folder like a good little nerd).
The Witchcraft museum was one of the places badly damaged by the 2004 flood in Boscastle that caused a huge amount of damage (but luckily no deaths). However the museum looked great when we visited- fully recovered and better looking than ever before.
In the museum you'll find loads of cool stuff - artefacts from both white and black magic (aplogies if those aren't the right terms). There is a collection of dried medicinal herbs and things like little snakes in jars, mandrake roots, voodoo dolls, spirit homes (bottles with intricate puzzles inside them - devices to entertain spirits instead of exorcising them), witch bottles, magic knitting, a mummified hand etc etc.
In the tiny shop you can buy glass knitting needles for knitting spells - I didn't get if this was just black magic or whether it was used for good too but I thought it was pretty cool.
Find Out More About the Witchcraft Museum...
...in this lens by NanLT.
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Museum of Witchcraft
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One of the best known sites in Cornwall can be found in the village of Boscastle. There, you can find the Museum of Witchcraft, first opened by Cecil Williamson on the Isle of Man in 1951 and housed in Boscastle since 1960. Today, the Museum of Witc...
Port Issac
Port Issac is where they film the ITV show Doc Martin.
I went and had a bit of a look at Doc Martin's house. I believe they've just finished shooting a series there. The house was having some refurbishment work done on it when we visited. In the photo above it's the little brown stone cottage between the bigger stone cottages and the white ones on the top righthand side of the photo.
I've never watched Doc Martin before but apparently it's very popular. It stars the actor Martin Clunes (of Men Behaving Badly fame).
I went and had a bit of a look at Doc Martin's house. I believe they've just finished shooting a series there. The house was having some refurbishment work done on it when we visited. In the photo above it's the little brown stone cottage between the bigger stone cottages and the white ones on the top righthand side of the photo.
I've never watched Doc Martin before but apparently it's very popular. It stars the actor Martin Clunes (of Men Behaving Badly fame).
A Doc Martin Fan Vid
Featuring scenes of Port Issac
Doc Martin
This is a Doc Martin fanvid I've made. It focuses on Martin (and Louisa), but most of the recurring characters are seen in at least one clip. (And you can probably guess where the last episode of season 3 made me have to change my plans with the vid... ;) ) Music: The Ark - "It Takes a Fool to Remain Sane" Buy Doc Martin at (for example): www.amazon.com (R1) www.play.com (R2) www.amazon.co.uk (R2)
Runtime: 213
46899 views
112 Comments:
curated content from YouTube
Doc Martin
This series is filmed at Port Issac in Cornwall.
Doc Martin: Series 1
Amazon Price: $26.99 (as of 12/31/2009)
The National Lobster Hatchery
The National Lobster Hatchery is situated in Padstow.
Here you will find everything you need to know about lobsters and you'll even see some tiny hatched lobsters too.
When we visited the albino lobster had shed its skin and it looked like there were two lobsters in the cage.
There are a wide range of lobsters in tanks to look at (if you want to eat one though you'll have to go over the road to the fish shop!). You'll also find anemones, crabs and little prawns.
One of the lobsters is approximately 50 years old.
Here you will find everything you need to know about lobsters and you'll even see some tiny hatched lobsters too.
When we visited the albino lobster had shed its skin and it looked like there were two lobsters in the cage.
There are a wide range of lobsters in tanks to look at (if you want to eat one though you'll have to go over the road to the fish shop!). You'll also find anemones, crabs and little prawns.
One of the lobsters is approximately 50 years old.
The Secret Life of Lobster
The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean (P.S.)
Amazon Price: $5.58 (as of 12/31/2009)
Index
Quick links.
About Melted Rachel
Textiles Artist.
Lensmaster MeltedRachel has been a member since March 18 2009, has rated 813 lenses, favorited 465, and has created 122 lenses from scratch. This member's top-ranked page is "Silence vs Sound: Which is better for drowning out Noisy Neighbours?". See all my lenses
My Bio
I'm Rachel, a textiles artist from the southwest of England.
I love using recycled materials to create one-of-a-kind:
textiles art pieces,
handbags,
and figurines
which I embroider, layer, melt, and bead.
I also love felting, knitting, and spinning and I'm just getting into freeform crochet.
Check out these great lenses...
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My name's Rachel. I'm a textiles artist from the UK. I make wall hangings, bags, purses and figurines from layered, embroidered and melted textiles. Rachel's Melted Fabrics is a website I started in 2003 for all my crafty exploits. Find out more a... view lens -
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The Garden of the Empress is a textiles sketchbook based on the third card of the Major Arcana called "The Empress" which features a motherly goddess. This textiles sketchbook is completely made out of fabrics and different recycled materials and ac... view lens -
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I made this sketchbook to "discover" a character in my novel. I wanted to know more about who she was, where she'd been and what she was interested in. I'd just got into felting and was intrigued by the way you could use wool and felting to bind fab... view lens -
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by MeltedRachel
I'm Rachel, a textiles artist from the southwest of England.
I love using recycled materials to create one-of-a-kind:
textiles art pieces,
handbags,... (more)
I love using recycled materials to create one-of-a-kind:
textiles art pieces,
handbags,... (more)
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