Angela Sherriff grabbed a quick photo opportunity while on holiday in Corsica last week. These bee hives were by the side of the wiggly coastal road of Cap Corse, NW Corsica. The shrub land around is known as the Maquis.

Not one to pass through without sampling the local honey, Angela stopped off and bought a jar of honey for Brian Sherriff from this area, which is a dark colour with a delicious malty taste.

Valerie Pope from Pope’s Honey in South Australia won our ‘Box Full of Honey Goodies’ competition, and has just emailed us a picture of herself with the parcel she received this week along with a kind message:

“Thank you so much for sending this to me. We  – my husband and I will enjoy the products. The soap didn’t make it in the photo. It was very admired and flew out of the box!!

Thanks again Val Pope”

You are more than welcome Valerie, wishing you well from all at Sherriff’s here in sunny Cornwall, UK.

Brian Sherriff may well be found in the Sherriff cutting room during the week, but he has been a volunteer Coastwatcher here in Cornwall at the weekend since 1997, and in recognition he has just been awarded for his 15 years’ of service.

As a volunteer, a Coastwatcher is similar to the Coastguard where records are made whenever a ship passes, a close eye is kept out for the local fishermen or people and dogs walking the coast path.  Always on the lookout for anything out of character, the Coastwatcher will view all this from The Bass point Coast watch station on the Cornish Lizard Peninsular. The Coast Watch stations also supply an update of the weather conditions which can be heard on Radio Cornwall.

A Coastwatcher’s shift is usually four hours long and Brian particularly enjoys the Saturday morning watch from 8am to 12 noon. He says it is a struggle sometimes getting up at 6am and out of the door by 7am, as Bass Point is quite a distance from his home near Falmouth. However, the rewards can be seeing the sun rise from the lookout especially on a beautifully sunny day and meeting lovely people who like to visit the watch tower and be shown the equipment like telescopes and the radar. After the Watch, Brian loves nothing better than to go for a walk along the rugged footpaths close by before returning via the Lizard and picking up a locally baked Cornish pasty for his lunch!

So in recognition for their services, the Coastwatcher’s congregated at the Whealdream Golf Club on 2nd September to celebrate Coast watch and to give out awards for 5, 10 and 15 years’ service.

All smartly dressed (Ladies and Gentlemen alike) in their uniforms of white shirt with epaulettes and Coast Watch tie with a compass emblem, the volunteers looked very smart as they went up to receive their award from Daphne Skinnard of local Radio Cornwall fame. The club laid on a great buffet which was enjoyed by all and there was a raffle draw which concluded the evening.