My dog walking habits started in the streets and parks of South London 11 years ago. The parks and streets of South London are a riot of colour in May as urban trees and bushes  burst with fresh green leaves and blossom in the tightly packed, built environment. A couple of days ago I was a little home-sick for my London meanderings so did the best I could,in an area of outstanding natural beauty to recreate an urban city walk. I wanted grungy and beautiful all in the same walk.

Home sickness turned out to be the theme of the walk.  The city bit of the walk was easy enough to achieve . I wanted to throw in some specific graffiti that I had heard of in an old fuel store on the Cornish side of the Tamar. With my trusty O.S map I found my way over the river by ferry to Camp Bedrock.

I had no idea I was heading to a camp site. I approached using a footpath running along the river.  To me I was a lone adventurer with two canine friends finding a rural anomaly. Good Street Art in the countryside. So set was I on the graffiti that I barely photographed the outside.

The inside after an autumn, winter and spring of near constant rain was a riot of colour and reflections.

The accoustics of the building are amazing . I couldn’t actually get too far in. Not only was the floor a bible-black puddle. It was also a quagmire of  bovine excressences.  More than my feet could endure., A deeply fragrant gallery, deep in the countryside. It was the smell of cow poo that gave me another jolt of home sickness. Suddenly I was engulfed in the fragrances of the Dairy farms of my childhood

The old fuel store had been used to overwinter some cows. The farmyard smell was rich and clean and earthy, not at all the sort of smell that the word manure conjures up. It really was quite intoxicating. Not many art galleries would be brave enough to replicate this as an installation. It was only as I left the fuel dump that I found a small Camp Bedrock sign. Dr Google showed me  the error of my ways. Not a rural secret at all. A camp site!

Enough of cow poo my next fragrance high point was the Wisteria Pergola in the Formal Gardens of Mount Edgecumbe House

Two hours and a few miles of walking had rewarded me with some fabulous sights and smells. All done in the early morning when my sense of smell is at its most reliable and no one else is about.

One last treat of the day , a different ferry back. This time to the Royal William Yard. I was the only passenger. I felt like a Queen*on a Royal Barge.

* It still feels a little odd to say ‘a’ Queen rather than ‘the’ Queen.

Yesterdays painting was , in part, inspired by my wanderings.