A Polite Request from St Andrews Park

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SpeedFerries Slows Down

Was disappointed to learn that SpeedFerries - the budget cross channel ferry company - has collapsed and canceled all crossings. Before going into administration in November, it operated between ferry services Dover and Boulogne.

I used them for the first time this year and, at £75 return for a car and five passengers in the summer, I guess it was only a matter of time before the profit margins became unsustainable.

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St Michael's Mount - Island of Legend

Continuing an occasional series of places worth visiting not that far from Bristol, we turn today to St Michael's Mount.

First the facts:

St Michael's Mount is a small tidal island less than half a mile from the coast of Mount's Bay, near Marazion in Cornwall. Its distinctive C15 castle and chapel bear a similarity to its counterpart island of the same name off the coast of Normandy in Northern France.

Owned by the St Aubyn family, the island contains a small number of houses and access is managed by the National Trust. The island can be visited by boat or, at low tide on foot via a natural causeway.

Now the fun part - the folklore and legends. The island's Cornish language name means, "the grey rock in the wood" - a rather striking name for an offshore island. Local folklore relates that in an earlier era, the area was a forest and that the island and beyond were an integral part of the mainland. St Michael's was, according to this view, a granite mountain in the middle of a woodland. Remains of stumps of trees have been seen at very low tides off the coast, supporting this traditional view.

Less certain is the Cornish legend of Lyonesse, an ancient kingdom which sank to the depths of the sea following a cataclysmic event in the C6 or before. Some have seen St Michael's as part of this kingdom, possibly extending as far west as the Isles of Scilly. The Lyonesse legend appears in both Cornish and Celtic mythology and features strongly in the legends of King Arthur.

The postcard image is from the late 19th or early 20th century.




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Free eBooks for the Holidays

Fancy curling up with an old classic on your lap top, PDA or mobile?

I know, they'll never replace proper books, but, all said, ebooks do have their charms. Especially when they're free - in the sense of requiring no payment and having absolutely no strings attached whatsoever.

Open Access is a corner of the Internet which is doing very nicely, thank you, and which allows ordinary web surfers in Westbury on Trym, Baghdad or Buenos Aires to access masses of free software and - the point of this post - works of literature.

All of the following titles are free and legal - you are not robbing the (long-dead) author nor will your computer be taken over by nasty software from the Ukraine. Honest.

So, for the holidays, please allow Trym Tales the pleasure of recommending:

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• The Marvelous Land Of Oz by L. Frank Baum

• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

• Beowulf

• Ulysses by James Joyce

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

• The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

• The Iliad by Homer

• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

• The Art of War by Sun Tzu

In case none of the above titles appeal, why not visit Project Gutenberg and search their listings of over 20,000 free ebooks ready to download today.

Go on, try it. You know you want to.

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Bryher - Population 92

Continuing a mini-series of places worth visiting not that far from Bristol. If you haven't read the earlier more general post on the Isles of Scilly, you can do so here.

The smallest populated island on the Isles of Scilly, Bryher lies to the west of Tresco. The east side of the island, facing Tresco, is protected from the Atlantic storms and is therefore the milder side. The west cost, by contrast, receives the full force of the winter gales and contains the appropriately-named Hell Bay, where one of the sandy beaches is also located.

About half a square mile in area, Bryher (meaning "Place of Hills") has good views from Watch Hill and Samson Hill on the south of the island. Just off the southern tip is the uninhabited island of Samson. You can get a boat there from St Mary's - just look out for the signs by the quay or ask at the tourist office.

The Great Pool on Bryher is a site of special scientific interest - and the whole island itself has a rather wild feel. There is one hotel and a few guest houses plus a cottage or two for rent and a campsite. You won't need a map - just get off the boat and walk around!

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Time for the Scilly Season

Following the recent closing of a blog I did not have the time to keep writing, I will be incorporating some of its better content over here in Trym Tales. Here then is the first of an occasional series previously posted and now re-branded under the dynamic title of

Places I like that are not too far away from Bristol especially when you consider that some people go to Cuba for their holidays.

The Isles of Scilly are such a place. A beautiful collection of islands (5 inhabited) 28 miles off the western tip of Cornwall, the archipelago is rightly designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is famous for its beaches, clean seas, birds and wildlife, fauna and flora and lush climate - being the first piece of Britain to be hit by the warm current of the Gulf Stream.

For those whose consciences and bank balances allow them to fly, there are direct flights from Bristol and Exeter. There is of course a boat service, though a friend who took it said she felt sick the whole way and I must confess I'm not much of a mariner myself. My preferred way of getting to Scilly (as if I do it every weekend) is by train to Penzance, followed by helicopter from the town's heliport, close to the station. 20 minutes in a Chinook - it's a buzz!

Once there, you will have the time of your life - assuming breathtaking scenery, the absence of noise, golden beaches to yourself and boat trips to places of interest are your thing.

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