HFF

Saint Day garden last summer.

Portreath Harbour

Bridge over the Rio Manzanares, Madrid

The Almudena Cathedral, Madrid. Taken from the Viaducto de Segovia. Sierra de Guadarrama in the distance.

A rare rainy day this year. Azca business centre, Madrid.

Rodochiton. My mother's garden. Saint Day, Cornwall

Now government buildings, originally built as a charitable hospital providing free health care. Built in the first two decades of the 20th century. My flat is a short distance from here.

Another shot from my sister's new house. This was taken near the start of High Summer so the heat haze is obscuring the view of the mountains, sadly! Algete, Madrid Province

Fence at the boundary of the Scorrier House estate. Near Saint Day, Cornwall. I did see the blue plastic bag and I did pick it up and dispose of it in a suitable place. (Well my Spanish girlfriend insisted I did, anyway!)

Algete, looking over to La Sierra de La Cabrera. Because everyone lives in high-rise flats, Madrid occupies a relatively limited ground area and the countryside starts very soon after leaving the City. This is 20 miles from the city centre. Impossible to compare with other main capitals! Madrilenos enjoy the vibrancy of living cheek by jowl! But they also like to escape to the country at weekends (which means a short walk of 20 minutes followed by a blow out feast of suckling pig or milk-reared lamb and mucho vino tinto).

My Mum's garden. HFF everyone! These came from my great-aunt's garden at her farm in Zennor, Cornwall. I hadn't seen them before (yes similar ones but not this vibrant). She couldn't remember where she got them from (cuttings from cuttings going back to the 1930s apparently). I took cuttings (this was in the early 80s), planted some myself in my London garden and gave some to my mum for her garden, also in London at that time. Then my parents retired to Cornwall 20 years ago and this nice geranium followed. I feel a strong attachment to it! It has faithfully followed the family around for the best part of a century! I want to take cuttings to Madrid and establish a Spanish branch. It deserves its place in the sun!

Looking up to the parish church from the inner harbour quayside, Penzance.

Truro Cathedral, Cornwall

The stone structure at the end of the pier was demolished by a severe storm the year after I took this shot. It was rebuilt straight away and looks exactly the same today, I'm pleased to say!

Field in Tolgullow, Scorrier, Cornwall

Lines on multiple levels and open to view make for a dramatic scene.

Penzance Harbour and St Michael's Mount.

HFF, everyone! From a scanned slide taken in Algete, Madrid Province, May 1986. I found about 50 slides in a box when I went home to Cornwall this summer for a couple of weeks. I just had them scanned here in Madrid to find that some, like this, had become somewhat degraded. Poor storage conditions probably, damp, too much light, or something. A pity. I tried to edit the few that were rescuable and will be posting them shortly - a few of Skye and that is about it!