Paul Geraghty

The paintings are by Paul Geraghty (not the childrens book illustrator) more of which can be seen at http://www.stivespainters.com/

No one was more surprised than I was when Daisy dragged me over to look at a painting of the sea on the wall of the Waterside Gallery, as I peered to look at the name I realised I had worked with Paul at an "Inner city school" I remember he got married in St Ives so I guess it was a natural progression to settle down here. How lovely to do that and he was a lovely man (he wrote a cracking set of generic reports!) So I am glad he is now very successful. I have often thought I would like to live in St Ives I first went when I was 15 and still vividly remember the narrow lanes and the rather bohemian air of Fore street. Despite holidaying in Polzeath many times in my early 20s I never made it back until on a whim I took Daisy to stay for some quality mummy time when she was 6. She loved it, we stayed at The Ship which dates back to the 14th century, I still find it hard to imagine what life was like in the 18th century so this was a seriously beautiful old pub. I have visited since and thought about retiring here but 2 weeks gave me a lot of food for thought and actually I could not stand the constant and I mean constant noise of the gulls and strangely I miss the trees. Flora and fauna is limited here and I miss the variety of green you get deep in the countryside. So my short list is Wales or the utterly wonderful Cambridge which strangely is where another ex colleague has settled.