Seasonal Area

Seasonal area

February 2010

Last February we had a Penryn picture showing the railway station; this year we have another, but for the sake of variety it shows the view over the town from the hill above the station instead. At the time of writing (the 2nd) there is no snow about, since the Falmouth/Penryn area had its quota for the first decade of the 21st century (2001-2010) over Christmas and is now interspersing "wintery showers" with bright sunshine. This year's February picture aims to take some advantage of this and show off the landscape in the area under a bright, if rather low, sun.

Penryn was formerly a fishing village and minor port, although most of its importance was nabbed by Falmouth from the 16th century onwards. Nonetheless, it is a delightful town with a fine clock tower (complete with bell - strangely pleasant when sounding out over the High Street late on a clear night), lots of shops and some remains of its former glory as a port. Although arranged up a fairly steep hill, this sort of adds to its charm - although it also means that you soon get quite fit if you make a habit of walking everywhere.

The hills which once stood over the town as it looked east across the Fal estuary are now heavily built up and it was from what is perhaps the town's most vertical road that this picture was taken, looking out over the bay and the surrounding hills. The peninsular to the right carries the north end of Falmouth proper, while across the water is the village of Flushing, not to be confused with the town in Holland of the same name. The more distant moors, with the sun cast weakly across them, are on the far side of the Fal and have the village of St Mawes comfortably snuggled at the bottom looking straight out into the prevailing wind. The village is happily protected from the worst of the weather by The Lizard - the most southerly point in mainland Britain which obligingly extends some distance to the south-west of here to provide shelter. South of St Mawes the moors roll away to Zone Point.

At the time of writing it is occasionally hard to believe that less than a month ago the national news had pictures of the entire country, from Penzance to Thurso, completely covered in snow. Now at the next place up the railway from Penryn, the village of Perranwell, the daffodils have already been out for a couple of weeks, as seen in the pictures below. Indeed, the first were daringly budding only ten days into the year (when the place was still covered in snow). One does have to wonder what the daffodils of Perranwell get fed on - particularly when in Wales, where they are the national flower and should really deign to be out for the Saint's Day on the 1st of March, the medium-sized yellow flowers don't extend their trumpets until well into the third month.

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03/02/10