Redruth to St Ives - day trip

July 2024

It is a brisk, bright-ish day with a lively wind and finally feels like a summer - as it should being mid July. We've had a lot of rain. I am meeting my friend Anna at St Erth to take the branchline to St Ives. It's always an exciting prospect, visiting St Ives. It is a special place with so many layers of intrigue and interest. We've decided against taking swimming kit; neither of us wants to carry damp costumes around all day and let's be honest notebooks and soggy towels don't mix. It's not because the sea is still cold and the sky is grey ... Anna swims all year round so if she decides not to, I don't feel such a wimp.

At Redruth Station I pop into the café to see Caroline who runs it and has leased the building for decades. It is freshly painted and seems much bigger. A new plaque adorns the wall saying 'Sir Tim Rice sat here'; he is a regular and they have struck up a friendship. This one will be opposite the renewed plaque which says 'Jenny Agutter OBE sat here' to reflect her most recent honour. She too is a regular. I have been planning to interview Caroline for this blog as she has so many stories to tell and has created a very special café. She was as ever behind her counter serving coffee and bacon sandwiches but was not able to make any plans because she is about to start what sounds like an aggressive programme of chemotherapy. She was naturally apprehensive but planning on being back at work as soon as she could. We wish her well in this challenging time as I know so many others do.

As soon as you get on the train there is an air of expectancy and the joy of the jaunt. On the platforms at Redruth and Camborne there are lots of young women and buggies. Turns out they are a group from the wonderful Wild Young Parents Project. A fabulous organisation that seeks a fair start for all young families through support in practical ways, building new friendships and confidence.

The branchline train is busy and jolly but you can only snatch glimpses of the coast and then the yellowing rooftops of St Ives between the bodies. The town too is busy and neither of us can slow to the visitor pace, so we weave and dive until we reach the Fishermen's Huts on the harbour, prime real-estate. They are a haven for the mariners of St Ives with photos on the walls, chairs, pot belly stove and on this day, sadly closed. Too busy catching fish.

By this time we need coffee and seek out the Fauna Studio perched on a hill - fragrant with citronella as the barista has sprayed the walls outside to stop dogs from peeing on it ... Fuelled with precisely weighed and deliciously roasted and brewed coffee, we naturally start to plot.

Anna and I have been friends and colleagues for many decades; initially with Kneehigh Theatre, the writer collective Scavel and Gow and more recently The Writers' Block and The Story Republic. We have both recently retired, though she is still pulling in writing commissions, and neither can resist a project especially sat in a café with a window overlooking the harbour and highly polished benches. Other caffeine seekers come and go as we toss ideas and chew on possibilities, delighting in the sense of what could be … 'Greeting from St Ives' , 'Letters to the Future?'

Feeling we have hogged the benches and view too long, we walk the fortress like path, past Porthgwidden beach to the Island, then clambour up to a bench overlooking St Ives Bay. There we are greeted by hosts of eager-eyed sparrows and starlings who when not on the ground hang horizontally off stems of seed laden hogwart, dead nettle or dock leaves. While I chat to the birds or stare into the distance, Anna is drawing and scribbling in her notebook (more below). She even gets out her coloured pens once we've finished our picnic in the quietest, most beautiful square enhanced with agapanthus, hydrangea, palm trees, enclosed in slate covered walls.

Making the most of our Locals Passes, we dip into the Tate to be greeted by old friends (I actually did meet someone I knew who is now working there) such as Alfred Wallis, Peter Lanyon, Winifred Nicholson, Zia Patou. I spend some time looking at painting titles as an oblique way of finding a name for our proto-project - currently very taken by 'Schooner under the Moon' by Alfred Wallis or possibly 'Lady Things' inspired by Katy Moran...

The big exhibition is 'Maresias' by Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes which is an exuberant display of huge brightly coloured, abstract collage paintings which sing of carnival and a zest for life. I haven't realised that there are a series of paintings by Mark Rothko in the final gallery. A great opportunity to really sit and look at these iconic works. I must go back.

We both pride ourselves in being able to find routes that avoid the meandering crowds but this does require climbing a lot of breath-shortening, calf-hardening steps. The reward is that you feel like a bird observing the tourists below who on this sunny day are content being in a beautiful place with sun, sea, sand and shops.

Branchline busy again but the mainline is calm. A great day out and such a stress free way to visit St Ives. Must admit I don't think I'll be back till the Autumn. Meanwhile Anna and I are planning more branchline outings.

Next week's post will feature the product of Anna's notebook scribblings under the title of 'Arrivals and Departures'.