A Post On Cornwall, Part I

Another overdue blogpost - Are you starting to note a pattern forming? I'm not going to apologise. I'm just going to crack on. 

I spent last week in Cornwall. It's likely that that is a name that will ring a bell for you but you are probably unclear as to where Cornwall is actually situated in the UK. Picture the island that is Britain. Even if you are inaccurate you should still have a bit of land jutting out at the bottom. That, my friends, is Cornwall. It is the traditional place for the average Briton on holiday which is not surprising because it is absolutely stunning. 

I arrived on Saturday the 29th of August (Happy Birthday Mum!) quite late in the afternoon. I was extracted from the station by my hosts who drove me to Trebetherick were they have a house. At the time their house was packed with children and grandchildren and when I arrived I was introduced to all of them but I would only be able to name them all some 5 hours later. I was reminded of our holiday house in Breede River so forcefully I felt a wave of nostalgia. 

I was escorted to a near-by hill called Brae Hill (pronounced "Bray") by four of the seven grandchildren to watch the sun go down. It was gorgeous as I'm sure you can imagine. The sky looked like the mango flavoured Solero ice-lolly: dark orange with swirls of other colours like yellow and pink. We walked back to the house and I hit the hay because I was exhaustion solidified. 

Sunday, the 29th of August: We were joined by a couple more people. The parents of two of the grandchildren had come to fetch them and ended up staying for a large chunk of the day. Just for the sake of the tally, we were now 16 people in total. 

We all walked down to the Sailing Club for lunch (I had a Cornish pasty because, you know, Cornwall and everything) and then I visited a church called St Enodoch church for the afternoon service. A little bit of background on this church: It's over 500 years old so we can assume its seen some things. At one point it was almost completely covered by a sand dune and had to be dug out again by a well-meaning vicar who most likely stumbled into it from the top. And then - this is cool - because no one knew how to build roofs in the town and all they had were carpenters that made boats, when you look up to the ceiling it looks like you're looking at the bottom of a tall ship. Extremely exciting and what I thought to be very aesthetically pleasing. After the service I was invited to try out the organ which I did. It did not sound quite so majestic as when played by the organist and the church emptied out pretty quickly after that. 

We said goodbye to some of our number and were then left with six in the house. 

Monday, the 30th of August. 

I woke up at the sparrow's call because I was taken waterskiing! I did manage to stand up on the skis which was brilliant but I did promptly fall over as soon as I realised I had made it to standing on all my turns. It was such fun, although extremely cold. There came a point when I wis giving tearful goodbyes to my fingers and toes out of certainty that they would fall off. All in all an incredible experience 100% would recommend. 

After arriving home and warming up, we walked to another beech for a picnic lunch which was eventful. While walking along the rocks with an excited 5 year old, it was pointed out to me that David Cameron, the English Prime Minister, and his family were enjoying a picnic too, certainly disrupted by our antics. This was all very thrilling until I got home to my twitter account only to find that he was rather unpopular with the public because of the refugee situation.

Five people left us, leaving me and my hosts to rattle around inside an empty house. 

Tuesday, the 31st of August.

A rather famous spot in Cornwall is the Eden Project. So beautiful. Here is the page of their website that describes how they started, www.edenproject.com/eden-story/eden-timeline , but I will give you a summary on what it is as best I can. A while back there was this massive pit where china clay was mined. It was in disuse so a man with a maybe unhealthy passion for gardening came up with a smart plan. He transformed it into a gigantic garden of sorts. All around the garden are these beautiful artworks and information about the plants. And then, for the main attraction, there are these massive domes which house Biomes from different parts of the world. There are two areas covered by domes. One houses the Mediterranean Biome and the other is the Rainforest Biome. They keep the temperature regulated for each climate and they have all the plants that you are most likely to kind in those areas of the world.

 This is the view that looks right at the Rainforest Biome. This is no half-job, guys. 

What you can do inside the Rainforest Biome is go up onto this lookout to see a bird's eye-view of the whole thing. This is a picture of the sign the gives the temperature of the lookout. They have to keep it really warm because the rainforest biome is on the equator which is a warm place and they need all the plants to thrive.

 This is me on the look-out deck. We weren't really meant to be taking photo's out of fear of dropping phones and camera's onto the heads of innocent visitors below. It turns out that our devices aren't indigenous to the rainforest biome. 

This is the Mediterranean Biome (the one we have in Cape Town). It was so stunning. It really made me want to go to Greece. 

All over the project there were things like this. They were basically exciting structures that can be climbed on and they were all centered around a plant. This one was all about rubber, the cultivation, the manufacturing and the retail. And they managed to make it really interesting. 

Oh dear I've run out of time! I'm going to post this now and then post a follow-up on the rest of my week in Cornwall. 

Love you all!

Jen x