A glorious Godrevy day - Sunshine, seals and Carrot cake

Today the rain is battering at my french windows, and the sun is hidden deep under cloud. It isn't cold but it certainly feels like Autumn. Most of my favourite cafes have pulled down their shutters, brought in their A frames, and double locked the doors as the half-term visitors drove away, and I guess they won't be open again now until February half-term - or perhaps even not until Easter next year.
I sympathise with why they do this, but its a shame because there are lots of us still here, and I hear there has been a late burst in visitor numbers with several of my holiday property-owning friends reporting an unexpected mid-autumn surge in bookings.
As a new resident I can fully understand that. I used to holiday out of season, and now that I live in Cornwall, Autumn is still my favourite time of the year. Take last weekend for instance. The sky was blue brilliance, the sun shining with enthusiasm, the air crisp and clear and the sea shifting between turquoise and deep dark green with high white water sending spray up into the sun-light.  I had been busy all week and been deprived of quality sea time so when I awoke early (for a saturday ) to a beautiful day, I segued from being asleep to being on the beach with barely a breath in between.
The bottom car park at Godrevy was empty again and the nice men from the National Trust have left us until next season, so I parked there and meandered along the cliff top to the far beach steps, clambered over rocks and poked in pools, sat on a particularly fine boulder looking out to sea and thought, with gratitude and not for the first time, 'I live here'.  It is such a privilege and constant delight, and I hope that I will never take it for granted, or stop being breathless at the views across St Ives bay, or from Godrevy up the coast towards Porthtowan and beyond.
Another benefit of this time of year is the resident seal population, who take up their rightful place in their cove cleverly chosen for its inaccessibility to anyone but seals, from either land or sea.  They won't be crept up upon by humans or killer whales in this little cove.  On saturday I counted 100 - so allowing for missing some and double-counting others, I think that's a fairly accurate count.
After a happy couple of hours bumbling around I was in need of a restoring cup of coffee and a piece of cake.  Fortunately the Godrevy cafe is one that does stay open all year round, and I headed back to the car,and the cafe - both of which are in the bottom car-park.
Godrevy cafe cakes all look lovely -and I had in mind to have some carrot cake.  I was almost diverted by the gluten-free brownies or the apricot oatie slice, but stuck to my original thought and ordered  an americano and piece of carrot cake, and tray in hand, went up the outside wooden staircase to the terrace which overlooks Gwithian beach.  Sadly the carrot cake was a bit of a disappointment.  It's usually very good, and I wondered if they had had a new cook making the cakes last weeek.  The cake was a bit too thick in texture - almost rubbery, rather than rich, light and moist as a fine carrot cake should be.  The topping was unsatisfactory too.  It was a plain icing, not a cream cheese or marscapone based topping, so the contrast between cake and topping that makes carrot cake such an enduring favourite was lost.  Shame - I have had excellent carrot cake at Godrevy previously so I hope it was just a blip.  The coffee was lovely, and the cake was edible, just not excellent.  It was a mildly imperfect end to a perfect morning walk - but nothing could spoil the beauty of the day, and I will certainly go back to Godrevy cafe.  I'll probably go for the brownie next time tho!