Summer bids farewell as autumn plants seize their moment

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/16/country-diary-nature-cornwall-walk

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Downhill from the chapel and beyond garden hedges of orange montbretia, red valerian and fuchsia, the stark headland of Pencannow Point dominates the view seawards. Dark folded rocks tower above the haven with its cafe and hotel and the narrow bridge, rebuilt in 2004 after damage from the torrential rain that rushed down converging streams.

Coastal vessels used to be run up on to the beach to offload limestone and coal, burnt in a kiln to produce agricultural lime. Sand, seaweed and stone were also gathered from here and carted inland, but plans for a railway to link this rudimentary harbour with Launceston were never implemented. Now, tourists park in the ticketed car park or pause here for refreshment along the coastal path.

Onwards, towards Rusey Cliff and distant Boscastle, the path meanders through stunted thickets overgrown with honeysuckle. Ferns thrive in the undergrowth and blackthorns are loaded with sloes; pink, blue and yellow swaths of betony, devil’s-bit scabious and fleabane mark the turn of summer to autumn and, ahead, heather and gorse carpet the slopes of Cambeak. Up on that promontory of contorted strata, walkers rest in the unusual calm and gaze at a vista that extends from Lundy, around to the south-west, across the silver ocean to Tintagel and even further towards Trevose Head. Shallow waves break on the Strangles; this afternoon no one ventures down the slumped and broken cliffland to the beach or nearby Little Strand, but small black and white goats stir up dust on precarious ledges above the eroded arch of Northern Door.

Inland, near the old farmstead of Trevigue, facing away from the sea and westerly gales, two swallows fly above pasture with clover and a chiffchaff sings in a willow copse. Thistledown floats across steep fields that echo with the bellowing of cows and calves, and a path through sheltered oak woods leads back to the haven. There, the ebbing tide reveals a strip of sand between ribs of rock; lifeguards overlook a narrow section of sea between red and yellow flags, and two bathers in wetsuits wallow in the gentle surf.