There is something about Cornwall that is like a siren. I came here as a teenager but in circumstances that I’d never want to repeat - camping! I’m not sure if it was two consecutive years or if there was one or more years in between those visits. The first time was with some old family friends ‘the Cookies’ who we had known since we lived in Bahrain together in the late 60s and then we came again with my Mum’s little brother, his wife and their little girl (who has children of her own now). I can’t say that on either occasion I had the slightest idea that I would ever want to spend my life here. I can’t even remember liking it much.

Many years later, by complete fluke, I booked a cottage in a small village on the north coast (Crantock) for a week’s holiday, had a wonderful time and cried my eyes out all the way home because I had to leave. My life has never been the same since.

It is an enchanted place all right. One where the impossible suddenly seems possible. It is a land where dreams come true. Well, my dreams anyway. It is my ‘place in the sun’ where there is hope for me.

This part, the part we can now call home, was completely unknown to us before we bought the house. We had no idea of its history or of its charm. Now we are just as beguiled by it as we once were by the coast.

Today we were escaping builders and so took the dogs on an ‘eight miler’ from Looe, round the coast to Talland Bay, inland to Watergate then along the bank of the West Looe river back to the town and our car. This photo is of a part of the coast path, by Bridge Rocks and before the Hore Stone. Were the dogs tired? Well, it seemed not at the time but now they are sleeping on the chairs and Rosie is snoring like a ‘good un’.

The weather has been kind, it’s been hazy sunshine for most of the day and we’ve been marvelling at the numbers of species of wild flower that are still in bloom. I have been walking in my tee-shirt and trousers, with no jumper, fleece or coat and I’ve been warm. Relative to the rest of the country, the weather here is mild.

Now we are able to sit down and watch the fire burn and not have to pack up to leave. We have the huge luxury of a whole week here. Being able to stay here in Cornwall is one of the best things that has happened to me this year. From that first moment that we were deciding how to invest DM’s equity until now I know that this has been so perfectly right for us.