My sister and her family are down in Cornwall at the moment, staying with her best friend, who happens to live about 15 miles from us in the little fishing port of Looe. Whenever she comes down, we get invited over to see them and have a lovely convivial evening of socialising, eating and drinking wine. Today was that day.

This is a shot across the harbour from the Hannafore side looking towards the fish market. Many of the fishing boats were tied up in the harbour despite the tide being out. When the tide is high, the boats line up to come into the harbour, followed by lines of seagulls looking for cast off bits of fish. Years ago, we stayed in one of Alan and Dee’s apartments that look out over the sea and loved watching the boats come home.

Compared to the big harbours like Newlyn, Looe’s boats are small and I understand that they only use lines – I’m not sure if that applies to all of the boats or just the ones that sell to the local fishmonger. Not that I buy much fish – for us, it’s only when we have guests coming that I venture into the fishmongers.

Looe is picturesque but it’s also a busy working fishery and when the boats come in, the blue doors in the photo are open and there is bustle and lots of activity.