Tag Archives: Cornwall

26 August 2019:
St. Mary’s, Isles of Scilly:
The Far West of Great Britain

By Corey Sandler

We have sailed along the bottom of Cornwall to its southwestern tip and then to the Isles of Scilly, about 28 miles or 45 kilometers out to sea.

There are about 145 islands in total, only 5 inhabited.

We came to port in Hugh Town on the island of Saint Mary’s. There’s also Tresco, Saint Martin’s, Bryher, and Saint Agnes, which is the southernmost point in England.

Hugh Town is like traveling back in time forty, fifty, a hundred years ago. We moved in and out of the clouds, and I began to think–and eventually photograph–in black-and-white. Here are photos from today:

Silver Wind at anchor between St. Mary’s and Tresco islands
All photos by Corey Sandler 2019, all rights reserved

The Isles of Scilly have one of the most moderate climates in the U.K., tempered by North Atlantic Current—a finger of the Gulf Stream. Frost or snow is rare.

The current extends northeastward from Newfoundland Rise, a submarine ridge off the Grand Banks of Canada. The stream transports more warm tropical water to northern latitudes than any other boundary current.

That is why winter in London is relatively moderate, even though London is at about the same latitude as Winnipeg, Manitoba or Red Bay, Labrador in Canada. Trust me, Labrador and Manitoba are very cold places.

And what do they do with that extra bit of warmth in the Isles of Scilly?

The chief agricultural product is cut flowers, mostly daffodils, harvested months ahead of the mainland.

Other than daffodils, the islands are mostly low heather and bare rock, lashed by Atlantic storms from time to time.

All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

13 August 2019:
Fowey, Cornwall:
Out to Lunch

By Corey Sandler

We sailed out of sprawling, cosmopolitan, ultra-hip, skyscraping and monumental London and made our first port of call at little, stubbornly uncool, and decidedly old-style Fowey, Cornwall.

This is not a bad thing.

Silver Wind at anchor in Fowey

Agatha Christie was born not far from here in Torquay, and with her success lived in a fine Queen Anne estate on the River Dart in Devon. If you are a fan—like my wife—when you visit Fowey you keep expecting to find Miss Marple sitting in a window seat with her knitting and watching every passerby.

Cornwall forms the southwestern tip of the mainland of Great Britain. A bit further west, off Penzance, are the Isles of Scilly which catch just enough of a warm ocean current to be one of the most temperate climates in the U.K.

This part of Britain was inhabited as long ago as the Palaeolithic era of hundreds of thousands years ago.

I went today with guests for a ride on the Bodmin and Wenford Railroad, the oldest steam-powered standard gauge line in the UK. After checking out the coal-fired firebox, we chugged through the countryside with a proper Cornish Cream Tea on the table of the first class compartment.

All photos by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved

The name Cornwall comes from combining two different terms from separate languages. The Romans called the Celtic tribe in the region the Cornovii.

It could come from a Celtic or Latin words meaning horn, a reference to the shape of the peninsula in one theory, or to their worship of a “horned god” in another.

In the 6th and 7th centuries, the name Cornubia was given a suffix by the Anglo-Saxons: Wealas, meaning “Romanized foreigners.”

Corn-wealas, or Cornwall.

And it is from the same word, Waelas, that we get the name for the region of England now known as Wales.

It was the place of the foreigners.

Today it is the place of the Cornish, although sometimes overwhelmed by the visitors who come by ship, car, and other conveyances.

All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved. See more photos on my website at http://www.coreysandler.com

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ANY PHOTO OR AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

12 September 2018:
Falmouth, UK:
Land’s End in England

By Corey Sandler

We’re back in Cornwall and the town of Falmouth, a place of naval and shipping significance and one of the hotbeds of the English version of a calzone.

Cornwall forms the southwestern tip of the mainland of Great Britain. It has a significant maritime history as one of the first ports of call from far away.

We were last here at the end of June aboard Silver Wind, and not much has changed since then. Or in the past century or two, for that matter.

Falmouth is one of the prime sources of a folded dough with stuffing: the Cornish Pasty, which was one of the original fast foods. Fillings including “swede”, which some people call turnip but is actually a yellow turnip or rutabaga. To that is added meat or seafood or just about anything.

And please call it a PASS-TEE.

A PAYS-TEE is something completely different, not ordinarily seen on the streets of Cornwall.

I decided to spend my morning on a photographic exercise looking for parts of the whole: architectural details. Here is some of what I saw.

The last photo, of the 18th century Pennycomequick Pub, sent me on a search for the story behind the name.

I was hoping for something exciting or naughty. Alas, I found the name to be a corruption of an old Cornish phrase,  Pen y cwm coet, meaning head of a wooded valley. Still, the mind can wander…

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

25 June 2018:
Falmouth, England:
Pasties and Cream

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Our journey began with a westward jaunt of about 350 nautical miles—the equivalent of 400 land miles—down the River Thames and then over to Cornwall and the town of Falmouth.

Cornwall forms the southwestern tip of the mainland of Great Britain. It has a significant maritime history as one of the first ports of call from far away.

We’ve been here many times, but on this visit there was a most unusual sight high up overhead: the sun shone brightly on a place much more used to clouds and drizzle.

We went for a morning hike to Pendennis Castle on the bluff, one of the best-preserved castles built along the coast between 1540 and 1542 by Henry VIII.

It was part of the King’s Device Programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire. Its guns and garrison were there to defend the Carrick Roads waterway, a protected anchorage at the mouth of the River Fal.

On the far side of the castle was a set of World War II defensive guns.

From there we walked into town, brightly lit by the sun.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

Falmouth has a pair of dining specialties:

The first is the Cornish Pasty, which was one of the original fast foods. It’s a folded and crimped piece of dough with fillings including “swede”, which some people call turnip but is a yellow turnip or rutabaga. To that is added meat or seafood or just about anything

And it is pronounced PASS-TEE, not PAYS-TEE, which is something completely different.

The other local specialty is Cornish Cream Tea. It does include a cuppa tea, which is just fine.

But it is the accompaniment that is a bit odd, at least to some of us.

A proper Cornish Cream Tea includes a scone slathered with clotted cream and then decorated with a bit of strawberry jam.

Clotted cream is a thick yellow cream made by heating unpasteurized cow’s milk and then leaving the stuff in shallow pans for several hours.

The cream content rises to the surface and forms clots. It has a minimum fat content of 55 percent, so this is not a diet product.

I prefer a pasty and a Diet Coke.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

1 June 2017:
Falmouth, Cornwall, United Kingdom:
Pasties and Pirates

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Cornwall forms the southwestern tip of the mainland of Great Britain.

This is an interesting part of the United Kingdom with a great deal of history, and not all that much visited.

One of the local specialties is the Cornish Pastie, which was one of the original fast foods. It was developed as a way to provide a hot, sealed meal for the workers in the mines of Cornwall.

The ingredients for a proper pastie include “swede”, which some people call turnip but it is actually a yellow turnip or rutabaga.

Falmouth-6617

Falmouth-6611

A Pastie maker in Falmouth. Photos by Corey Sandler

The word is pronounced PASS-TEE, by the way.

Not PAYS-TEE, of course, which is something completely different.

In the Caribbean, on the French island of Les Saintes, native women still bake something similar: Les Tourments d’Amour, the torments of love which had their origin as a packaged meal given the fishermen heading off for a day’s work at sea.

Falmouth also had other moments of history including as the place where Charles Darwin returned from his great voyage of natural discovery on the ship Beagle.

And it was the place where the first word of the success of the British against the Spanish Armada and the death of Lord Nelson was received.

It was also from this little port that one of the most daring commando raids of the second World War World War II launched. The raid on Saint-Nazaire in 1942 successfully disabled an important dry dock in German-occupied France for the duration of the war and forced Germany to send major ships needing repairs through waters closer to the United Kingdom and within range of  ships and aircraft of the Allies. The raid came at great cost, though, both in deaths and captured soldiers, and is not forgotten in Falmouth.

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Text and images copyright 2017 by Corey Sandler. All rights reserved. If you would like to purchase a high-resolution image, please contact me.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams cover

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS,  PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS