Our holiday in Cornwall

We've just had a wonderful week. Last Saturday we went to a wedding: a childhood friend marrying in my home village. Our parents pulled together and gave us 12 hours child-free so we could enjoy the day without worrying about feeding, entertainment or bedtime. We had a wonderful day but demonstrated that we are not the party animals we used to be: stopped drinking wine soon after dinner, and left at 11pm to come home and sleep! The following day we caught up with a friend who is due her second baby very soon, then went on to a birthday lunch, this time with Baby Badger in tow.

Monday morning was spent packing and that afternoon we were off... to Glastonbury. Not the festival (obviously we missed that by several weeks), but to the town itself. After one night in a randomly selected B&B, we walked up the tor after breakfast, something I had never done before. The hill was hard work but the view at the top was amazing, and the scattering of incense waving, didgeridoo-playing hippies were very amusing!

From there we went on to The Chapel Guest House just outside St Austell, where we spent four nights. I honestly can't recommend them enough (and no, I'm not being paid in any way to say this!) - the room was lovely, the welcome warm, and they were great with Baby Badger. Other than some great reviews online, we chose them because they were a mere three miles from The Eden Project and a good base to explore Cornwall.

We spent our first day at The Eden Project, somewhere we've been meaning to visit for years. The two undercover biomes, the rainforest and the Mediterranean, were very interesting. The rainforest was, unsurprisingly, rather warm and humid, but I found the Mediterranean one the best: lots of examples of plants and fruit & veg that we could be growing here. What surprised me is that I actually found the open air areas the most interesting - the choices of plants and the layouts are so carefully thought out. Baby Badger found the whole experience fascinating; so much so that she went until early afternoon without a nap, and finally fell asleep to the reverberations of a drumming troupe! Best of all, Father Badger paid for me to have a 15 minute back and head massage before leaving!

Day two was spent at The Lost Gardens of Heligan. It is part formal gardens, part jungle and part woodland. I really wish we lived more locally - I honestly could see myself getting an annual pass and wondering round on a weekend looking for the sunny spot to sit and read.

Our final day was spent exploring Padstow (incredibly busy and disappointingly full of cars trying to squeeze down narrow lanes). After lunch we headed off along the coast and spent a couple of hours late afternoon at Mawgen Porth beach - Baby Badger's first time at the beach. She loved it. We had her in a SPF suit and cream and she spent almost the entire time putting sand in the bucket, taking sand out of the bucket, putting sand in the bucket, taking... you get the drift.

Not only has she been drinking in the experiences of new places and things to do, she's also found a new enthusiasm for food, trying pretty much anything we could find, and did us proud at every eatery, even a very posh restaurant. She would recommend the belly pork by the way...!

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net