A couple of years ago, the very wonderful Lush used to make gorgeous gold pyramids, fragranced with Karma – my fave Lush smell and when you melted one in the bath, the bath shimmered with gold. When you got out, you had an amazing gold sheen all over and the bath was left coated in it too. DM used to hate them because of the impact on the bath, but I always climbed out of a Karma bath with the best sense of well-being possible. If it’s possible for a little bit of frippery to make you feel like a million dollars then this was that bit of frippery.

It’s amazing what simple things I get so much pleasure from. I was completely devastated when Lush withdrew them from their range and I’ve subsequently been told by a very helpful staff member in one of their shops that they used to melt too easily and often melted in the store lights. I guess you can’t blame them for not wanting to continue something that difficult to keep but it was a sad day indeed when they decided to ‘pull the plug’ on them. (Boom Boom.)

The reason for this seemingly random observation is because today has been such an amazing day here in Cornwall – we’ve been bathed in gold all day so DM and I went off in the car to do a bit of exploring. We’ve followed the route of the Tamar from Saltash north, across into Devon to Tavistock and back across country past Kits Hill and Callington, home. This shot is taken at ‘The Hurlers’ – an ancient group of stone circles quite close to home. I’ve photographed them before but not at this time of year or day.

It reminded me of the Karma experience so much that’s what prompted my rememberings.

We’ve seen some glorious scenery and are happy and relieved to be here rather than in our former home or indeed anywhere near Hemel Hempstead where, at 6am this morning, an oil storage depot blew up, engulfing half the English countryside in black smoke that could clearly be seen covering much of the middle of England from a satellite pic we saw.

What’s particularly horrible about this is that my little sis and her brood live a stone’s throw (not more than two miles I think) from the place and her tiny chaps have been exposed to whatever nasties are in the air. The police issued a statement saying the smoke was ‘irritant’ not toxic but who is to say. I don’t want to sound too NIMBY about this but I hate the thought of my family being exposed to such things and I wish they were somewhere else today. I hate the idea of those little immature lungs needing to breathe these horrible fumes.

Apparently it’s not over yet either because the plant is apparently going to continue to burn for days because they can’t safely do anything other than let it burn. Poor Jan and her family are going to have to sit it out I suppose but that doesn’t make it any better.

Two years ago, I was being a crap 'wife' and (again with a touch of weirdness that can only be conjured up here in Cornwall) last year I photographed DM sitting atop one of the Hurlers, with the same mine building in the background!!!