Holiday Highlihts of Cornwall

Hello, we are back safe and sound from our holiday in Cornwall. We have had a fantastic week, even if the weather was a bit iffy at times.

We had one real wet day (Wednesday), warm and cloudy days, two sunny days and one very foggy day (Saturday when we arrived), so not bad for August!

The cottage we stayed in was lovely, four large bedrooms, an Aga and lots of antiques, so right up my street. We did seem to have a problem with hornets though. We had about 20 hornets in our bedroom over the course of the week. There was obviously a nest somewhere and they were getting into our room but as much as we looked we just couldn't find where they were coming in. They were huge, I didn't realise just how big a hornet is.

I managed to crochet lots, my blue blanket is growing rapidly. I would guess its about two thirds done, excluding the border and edge.

One of the unexpected high lights of the holiday for me was the food. Yes I know I am supposed to be on a "diet" of sorts, but it was a holiday! The improvement in the food served in pubs and restaurants was spectacular. We last visited Cornwall 8 years ago and to be honest we struggled to find family friendly restaurants that sold decent food. My how things have changed, the standard of food was excellent. Most of the pubs and restaurants serve locally sourced food, with an excellent selection of local fish & meat. We dined like kings all week! I did try to be healthy and only had two ice creams and only one scone with jam and clotted cream all week.

We visited the beautiful Lost Gardens of Heligan, The Eden Project, Boscastle and Tintagel, Looe, Polperro, St Ives, Padstow (we queued up and had Rick Stein take away fish and chips over looking the harbour, they were the best fish and chips I think I have ever had), Mevagissey, Fowey. We travelled 1000 miles over the course of the week and I think I can safely say a very good time was had by all.

The little ones were on the whole very well behaved. We did have an incident where Alex lost his new flip flop over the harbour wall. You would not believe the lengths we went to to fish it out, we enrolled the help of four small boys with a couple of fishing rods. Unfortunately they managed to knock their bucket and fishing knife into the harbour whilst trying to rescue said flip flop. We gave them some money to buy another bucket and a couple of quid each as a thank you. Father in-law was very concerned over the loss of their pen knife and promptly gave them £35 to go and buy another!! I bet those boys could not believe their luck. They said the knife was £35 and they looked fairly honest but even so I think father in-law lost his mind for a second when he handed over the cash to four 10 year old boys.

Do you want me to bore you with some holiday pics? Are you sure, well here goes then.

Did you spot the two little heads poking out from the sand? Why do dads always feel the need to bury the children?

The pics above were all taken at the Eden project. They had some great activities on for children. One was den building. They had piles of bamboo canes, rope, tarpaulin and the like and the task was to build yourself a shelter/den. We all had fun making our stripey den. The tropical biomme was very impressive, unfortunately the camera started to steam up in their due to the humidity.

The lost gardens of Heligan were impressive, the lost valley and the jungle particularly so. Mr P who is very into jungle plants was in his element here.

This is what we did when the heavens opened on the Wednesday. We headed into Looe and booked a table at Paint a Pot. We spent a couple of hours happily being creative and making our bits and bobs. I painted a "Tea Time" mug, Alex, with the help of Mr P painted a money box and mug and Daisy painted a tea pot and Pepe a new cat food bowl. The colours dry out really pale and it's not until they are glazed and fired that the true colours come through. We called back in on Saturday morning to pick up our goodies.

Before we knew it the week was over and we packed up and headed home. We did stop for several hours at Buckfastleigh and the South Devon steam Railway. We had a lovely ride on a steam train, enjoyed a tasty lunch before finally heading home.

Today I spent the best part of 4 hours ironing! That's the reality of coming home from hols I suppose.

We are off to Stoner craft fair tomorrow, it has sort of become a bank holiday tradition. We are going with the in-laws, but unfortunately and unexpectedly Mr P has to work. That's one of the downsides of owning your own business I guess,

The little ones are back at school on Thursday. I think we are organised apart from a bit of last minute name tag marking.

Next weekend is Daisy's 10th birthday party, so another busy week in store I'm guessing. I have to organise a vintage tea party and games for 12 girls- yikes!

Till next time.

Alison

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