A busy day

I’ve just lost several paragraphs I’d written about today so I’ll just do the highlights:)
We went to a newly opened cafe in the village, where the proprietor is also an art teacher, and is keen to showcase and foster local talent. J got chatting with her about his photos. He was a photographer in some mines in the locality, including Wheal Jane and South Crofty, for over 30 years. He had a major exhibition at the Royal Cornwall Museum Link here for info and has the pictures on his phone. Despite dementia he is very clear about his work, and art and photography in general. They ended up looking at the phone pictures and  talking for over an hour;  the upshot is a plan to display some of his photos at the cafe, and to sell his book. I could see the positive effect it had on him to still be valued as an artist. 
In the early evening we went to Stithians - a few miles south - to visit another cousin. I hadn’t seen him for at least 35 years. He’s a retired farmer - dairy and flowers - and he and his wife are 85. Lovely to see them again - I used to visit with my dad, to whom he was very close. He has a beautiful garden, especially roses, and he propagates and develops varieties of plants, including dahlias and hellebores. His daughter is a dairy farmer, and his granddaughter is a flower farmer:)
Then we had a bit of a wildlife phase.  On the way home, in the dusk, we saw a beautiful dark red fox, and shortly after saw a badger running along, which we were able to watch for a while. I’ve only once seen a live badger before in my whole life. When we got home, the cat brought in a little shrew and proceeded to play ‘cat and mouse’ picking it up in his mouth, then letting it run away, and then stopping it with his paw.  Cats are evil sometimes. I got a plastic box from the kitchen - and the next time he let it go, I held out the plastic box in front of it, and miraculously the little shrew jumped in! I covered it with a piece of kitchen towel, took it outside and let it go over the wall and into the field.  It was completely undamaged physically, though I expect it was a bit upset. My blip is of the wall, with lovely meadowsweet growing on it, which I had taken earlier in the day, not realising the role it would have in later dramas. 
The extra is of J chatting to the café owner about his photos.