Rachel and I had been muttering at each other for some weeks about the upcoming August Bank Holiday at the end of the month. The muttering was along the lines of: “Don’t feel like Carnival this year“; “need to get away from London”; “can’t face getting on another plane“; “sea air, I need sea air“; “want to go somewhere to cook and write“.

And etc etc etc.

And, at the very, very last minute, after discovering that every single suitable dog-friendly and seaside self-catering property in England and Wales had been booked for the long weekend, and thinking we might go to a hotel instead (this one in Penzance looked wonderful but the availability wasn’t quite right), I was offered the use of Penpol, an extraordinary house overlooking Mevagissey harbour on the southern coast of Cornwall, not far from St Austell.

Polpier & Penpol is a twin estate perched high up on the hill overlooking Mevagissey. Polpier, the larger house sleeps sixteen, and is also used as a licensed wedding venue. Next door is Penpol, a square white weather-boarded house which sleeps ten, and where we were to stay from Friday through to today (Tuesday).

This is the view from Penpol, down over Mevagissey harbour:

I’m always very keen on Cornwall. Not least because of the immediate and continuous access to cream teas. Bring it. (Please note that I am satisfying both Devonians and Cornwall people by doing cream first and cream after the jam here.)

My sister isn’t feeling too well at the moment, so in the end it was just the usual Cornwall crew who packed into my father’s ginormous JEEP Grand Cherokee (otherwise known as The Beast) on Thursday afternoon – Rachel, me, Lettice the miniature Dachshund and Hannah and her husband Mark.