Early mornings are amazing here in Cornwall. The last two days in a row, the dawn has been spectacular – a rosy glow spreading across the sky, starting with the faintest flushes of pale, pale pink and the colour intensifying and intensifying until a rich flaming ball of red pops over the horizon, somewhere behind Plymouth.

We have already learned that high on the moor we have a temperature advantage over our neighbours in the valleys – we’ve only had one frost in our lofty perch but even the next village down the hill has been covered in white sparkly stuff for several days in a row.

Then what happens is the warmth of the new day sets off a chain reaction to lift the moisture from the fields and, as it rises, it turns to mist, shrouding our landscape and giving the illusion of layer upon layer of ghostly hills in relief. It’s so beautiful, it’s hard to do it justice in writing – you have to see it to realise just how fabulous it is.

Yesterday’s trip to the station was to send Patti on her way, today’s was for me to make a similar journey, though mine is to be punctuated by a visit to a client who is conveniently located a couple of miles off my route. Hurrah for clients (at least, let me rephrase that, hurrah for nice clients).

I am on the train now and I must say that my series of ‘snaps from a train window’ haven’t been at all bad when you consider the conditions – speeding train, low light, reflections off the internal lights and serious shake!!!! I like this one a lot. It’s one of my enduring images of Cornwall – mist, sea, sunshine…..it’ll keep me going until I return and saying that is a big step because my trip is a longer one this week.

We seem to have a massive amount of work on at the moment – it’s the pre-Christmas rush for our clients to spend their 2005 budgets before the money is sucked back into the profit numbers at the end of their financial year.

So, this week and next, I’m basically only home for three nights in total. I’m going to need my ‘comfort blanket’ of images from home so I don’t end up back in the depths. Thank goodness for pbase – all I have to do when I’m feeling sorry for myself because I can’t be at home is to log on and get an eye full of my favourite people and places. I can be transported back to my adopted home in an instant and I can see its beauty even if I can’t feel it or smell it or touch it. Soon, soon. The grand plan is taking another step this week. We are determined to see this through. Eden has inspired another step in the plan that we didn’t even think of before so we’re thrilled with our visit at the weekend.

It seems impossible to imagine that I discovered a real gem which is now at the top of my list of favourite places only this time last year, I'm so glad I did! Two years ago, I was saluting pbase friendships.