neilink the online coffee table book Chapter 26 Polperro

Close Ups

Text Box: Polperro, 1976 In May of 1976 we spent some time in Cornwall , the lower left-hand part of England, an incredible area to drive around and visit. We rented an apartment in West Looe, about 10 minutes away. We used to find rentals from a service called Taylings Holiday Cottages. They published a yearly catalog of hundreds of rentals. If you read the listing really carefully you could learn all the negatives of a property. Sometimes it was just the things which weren’t said. I must have missed all the clues in the listing for our rental because I wanted to leave as soon as we walked into the place. I don’t remember all the things I hated about it but I remember it ended up being okay. There was only one place that we actually left in those days and that was a lovely hotel in Paris, but the only window in the room was a floor to ceiling French door with no screen of any kind. Amy was little, so we only stayed one night and then found another place. We spent part of each day in Polperro and part in Looe. I did a drawing in each town. There were a few people who checked back on each drawing from day to day. I remember sitting on a very cold stone while I drew this. The house on the left had a for sale sign and I fantasized buying it. I thought we could list it with Taylings and have a local real estate agency look after it. We could then use it every Spring or Fall and rent it out the rest of the time. This kind of arrangement works for a lot of people but Gerry helped me come to my senses and realize that we’re not two of them. I did, however, check the price. Luckily I don’t remember what the place was going for because it’s probably worth many times that now. My plan of using it off season would have worked only until Amy was in the third or fourth grade and then it would have become impossible. We found a little restaurant for lunch that served lobster bisque. Amy was almost 3 and loved it.

Cornish Cream Tea

Here’s a favorite.

This was done when I felt that every window had to have something visible.

When the tide is out the boats sit on the sand.

I had to walk over closer to the scene to make sure this really was a ship’s figurehead.

Even though it wasn’t yet the high season we had to park outside of town. On the walk into Polperro we would pass the Model Village which was a favorite of Amy’s. She would ask us to take her to the “mudder bishes”. I think she’s standing at the left edge of the drawing.

I love the boat on davits at the door of the shop.

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