Autumn days brings those glorious days of bright sunshine and cool clear air. Days of racing waves trailing plumes of vapour. Autumn brings the thought of cosy warm suppers tucked beside an ancient inglenook in a pub, high on the moors in the evening.
The country lanes are filled with tawny leaves drifting underfoot and the high warm banks are dressed in russet bracken now, with rich red berries spangling the hedgerows.
Autumn’s joys
Sennen is always great spot to grasp the last fading days of summer. Those autumn days when the skies clear to a perfect blue, above aquamarine seas breaking on pale white sands. Those days when summer lingers
An autumn drive to a familiar beach
A joy this autumn was the simple drive to Sennen, as golden leaves of autumn drifted lazily on to the tree lined road from Penzance. The old road winds towards the spare unchanging sweep of the Land’s End Peninsula though a countryside shaped over the centuries by the wild Atlantic storms, before dipping steeply to the soft inviting sands of Sennen.
Sennen or as the map says “White sands Bay” has never disappointed. Boasting nearly a mile of soft powdery sands, swept by the Atlantic rollers, it’s a great spot to watch the surfers try their skills under the watchful eyes of the lifeguards. A spot to watch the beach strollers, the swimmers and the parades of dogs excitedly exploring the sands once more after their summer exile from the beach.
We’ve visited Sennen so many times over the years: – as a Sunday treat in the summertime below gathering storm clouds or in the autumn in a magical Indian summer. For this October’s visit, I finally had a long promised glass of wine on the terrace of the Surf Beach bar overlooking the surf before ambling across the beach with a good book to snooze the afternoon away on the deliciously soft sands.
Suppers beside Roaring pub fires
One autumn treat we never miss is the drive across to the other coast in the fading light turning under the tangles low wind shaped canopy of the trees around Newmill before climbing across the moors to drop down to Zennor.
Zennor is a granite village almost forgotten by time, huddled under the russet moorland that in turn melts to lush farmland that finally gives way to the sea.
We visited The Tinners Arms for supper this autumn. As we started our journey, it was in the last golden sunshine in an evening and yet dusk was just falling as we arrived.
The old inn is just below the moor in the peaceful village of Zennor, huddled under the imposing church tower. The church itself is worth visiting if you have a moment – entwined with the legend of a mermaid who visited from the sea each Sunday to sing sweetly each week until she seduced a local man away to the join her below the waves.
We found a comforting fire roaring in the huge ancient inglenook fireplace of the Tinners Arms and settled for supper cocooned in its warmth as the velvety darkness enshrined the surrounding countryside.
The Consolation of Autumn
Autumn bonfires
Autumn brings a chance to purge the garden of debris before the animals start to think about hibernating and we had three vast pyres to the Beast from the East and hedge reshaping ready to burn. With the bonfire a chance to reflect of a summer well spent and an autumn enjoyed as the garden and countryside settles to rest and the sea starts to enliven our days with racing waves and the beautiful salty scent drifts towards of the timeless season
Walks beside the sea
The coastal footpath leads ever onward now, still warmer near the water with the rich foliage of mellowing in the autumn to frame aqua seas. St Michael’s Mount looks beautiful in every season in Mounts Bay. Yet now the bustle of summer has settled to the slower pace of autumn, there does seem so much more time to enjoy its magical presence in our lives.
Autumn sorrows and anticipation
Autumn always brings a season lingering between somnolence and drama, a season of enduring summer and approaching winter in a crescendo of competing moods – there’s a sadness for the summer gone by but the joy of the autumn season is never dull as it slowly reveals itself to be saavoired before the sparse beauty of winter and dare I mention … Christmas!
