The Love St Ives 2023 Calendar is available to pre order now. First orders will be posted at the end of September. https://www.love-stives.co.uk/calendars Best wishes Neal

Zsuzsanna Ardó, whose work has been seen at an Antarctic research station, an Arctic art museum, a French castle and the British and European parliaments, is heading to this year's St Ives September Festival of music and arts in Cornwall. The award-winning visual artist and teacher, curator and writer will be the Festival's Artist in Residence. September Festival chairman Mary English said: "This is a tremendous coup for our 2018 Festival and we are eagerly anticipating the arrival of such an acclaimed figure from the world of art." London-based Zsuzsanna Ardó outlined the focus of her work as the Artist in Residence of the St Ives September Festival, adding: "Looking forward to working in St Ives, smelling the sea, feeling the salt on my skin and inhabiting the space where fishermen create their work, and I’ll do mine. "Inspiration for the work I’ll be doing includes climate change, my work on an expedition in the High Arctic and the vulnerability of shorelines in England - for example, in Cornwall." Zsuzsanna’s article about her climate change inspired work is published at https://www.opendemocracy.net/zsuzsanna-ard/polar-self-portraits Savills Cornwall, through the September Festival, are sponsoring the St Ives Artist in Residence initiative while the St Ives Harbour Hotel will be hosting Zsuzsanna for the duration of her stay. "We are extremely grateful for their support which has enabled us to bring such a renowned artist to Cornwall," added Mary English. During her stay in St Ives, Zsuzsanna will be creating "The Glacier Strikes Back", a series of land art installations from Porthminster to Porthmeor beaches, featuring her trademark red umbrellas interacting with the landscape, during the opening five days of the Festival, which begins on Saturday, September 8. She will also present an exhibition - open during the day as well as at least one evening - in the fishermen's workshop at Porthmeor Studios, give a talk in Porthmeor's Borlase Smart room on climate change and the effect on the Cornish Coast, teach climate change through art workshops for children from local primary schools and will share with local artists her experience in creating large-scale international art projects. As a writer, Zsuzsanna often collaborates with composers www.ardo.org/writing and this time it will be a local musician in Cornwall who will set her poem to music, to be premiered during the Festival. Before arriving in St Ives her work in 2018 has included a solo exhibition in Florence, local research of the Early Renaissance swerve in Giotto's approach to the body, and creating new work for PlanetBody, her climate-change-through-art series. She has been invited to work as artist in residence in a lighthouse jutting into the North Sea and an Elizabethan hall built on a 12th century manor house on Yorkshire's glaciated Jurassic and Cretaceous land. Her creative practice includes teaching internationally, sustaining her own training at the Royal Drawing School and working in her art studio, AtelierA, at the edge of the Arctic glacier that carved out London. Her work has been selected for various awards and artist residencies by Arts Council England, Canon Fellowship, Arctic Expedition in the High Arctic, Art Students League NY, and Deutsche Börse at the Frankfurter Kunstverein. She curates projects as art director of Creatives without Borders, featured at mainstream and alternative spaces, including New York concerts, Google HQ, a French castle, the Royal Institution and various universities and galleries. Recently she has worked as artist in residence of the St Henri Foundation in the Pyrenees, and the Centre for Art, Science and Technology by the Seine near Paris. For details of the 15-day Festival, which includes more than 300 events, see www.stivesseptemberfestival.co.uk For further information on Zsuzsanna Ardó visit www.ardo.org

If you are a wedding service provider or are planning on getting married in St Ives and have a specific question regarding your wedding arrangements, please feel free to post here.

Theres lots to do in and around this lovely town to suit everyone and whatever the weather. A list has kindly been put together by Sarah McGahon who is a member of the linked group 'Love St Ives' to help you plan your days during your stay. Please have a browse through the list and google which one you would like further information on. Please feel free to come up with further suggestions and add them to the post. St Ives cinema St Ives Museum St Ives leisure centre St Ives surf school Tate St Ives Barbara Hepworth Museum Boathouse Theatre St Ives Flambards Country Skittles Lands End Porthcurno Telegraph Museum The Cornish Goldsmiths at Treasure Park Lizard Lighthouse Heritage Centre East Pool Mine National Maritime Museum Pendennis Castle Paradise Park & Jungle Barn play area Coast 2 Coast Karting Seal Sanctuary at Gweek Newquay Blue Reef Aquarium Newquay Zoo Heartlands Camborne Trevaskis Farm Poldark Mine Geevor Tin Mine Eden Project Bodmin Railway Lappa Valley Steam Railway Lanhydrock House and Gardens Camel Creek Adventure Park (previously Crealy's) Dairyland Farmworld Gardens (may or may not be your idea of a rainy day activity!) The Lost Gardens of Heligan Trebah Trengwainton Tehidy Country Park Tanglewood Wild Gardens Penrose Estate

If you have any recommendations for eating out in and around St Ives please post them here. If you have a particular requirement or type of restaurant you would like to try, please feel free to start a new post.