Family Holiday to Holsworthy - Part Two

Ok here goes for another  blog leg of my holiday.

Day Six.One of my children managed to find some tickets online at a reduced cost for Eden Project.

So we all got up early to head south into Cornwall. The babies had to be ready early and amazingly we all managed to leave around 08:30! It is somewhere I have always wanted to visit. When we used to have family holidays to Cornwall this place had not been built!

















Golly isn't it amazing what insight some people have and how they managed to convert this disused quarry into what it is today is awe inspiring.

Now I have to be honest and tell you I took masses of photographs of these biomes (things that look like large golf balls)! Kept trying to get the perfect picture. Any way here is one picture of them.

If you have not been then it is a must if you are visiting this part of the country. The 4 biomes on the left contain the Tropical Forest, the green bit in the middle is the yummy eating area and the biomes on the left is the Mediterranean area. The white bit in the foreground is an arena for concerts. I walked and walked and walked - lapping it all up. I have to say I was truly exhausted by the end of the day as I have been struggling with a chest infection and not having any medicine. I think I must have picked it up from one of my clients at work. No doubt I will be better when it is time to go back to work. I took hundreds of pictures and it's going to be very difficult just selecting a few to show you.

See how the insects are attracted to this flower.

Good job the babies didn't really see these bananas as they are their favourite food. Love the way they grow.

Time for lunch.

Loved the seating area and the way you can look down and see the food being prepared.

Forgot to say this was the first day when it rained - what a good day to pick to go to Eden Project. By the time we had eaten the sun had come out and so we all explored the great outdoors.

The rain made the roses look really pretty.

This is WEEEman. He is a waste giant made from all the waste electrical and electronic equipment (about 3.3 tonnes) one person throws away in a lifetime. Horrifying!






















I love these plants that eat or rather catch insects - they are fascinating.

Above the gardens is a sky wire - the longest zip wire in England. I do not know how anyone had the courage to go on it and pay £15 for the privilege. We timed the crossing and it took 45 seconds - lot of pennies for a quick thrill.

LOL - Think this bird was not scared by the scarecrow!

The rain returned so time to explore the second biome. My favourite sunflowers - they make me sooo happy.

Now I had no idea that chillis are graded according to heat.

Here is fourth most hottest chilli in the world. I love their sense of humour with the fire extinguisher next to the plant!

My most favourite grape - yummy/ glug, glug.
























But this is my most favourite tipple .........

Tea, tea wonderful tea - everything stops for tea.

Final view inside the tropical biome. Sorry but this day took up so much time to record that I shall have to drag my holiday out for another blog for another day! As you can see it is an amazing place to visit - do go if you get the chance.

Family Holiday to Holsworthy - Part One.

Hi Everyone just come back from an amazing week away with ALL my family.  For the last few years we started taking a family holiday as all of us live different parts of the UK, including Northern Ireland. So getting together is rather difficult. This year we were blessed by the most amazing weather. We stayed in this wonderful barn, in Devon but almost into Cornwall.

This barn is called Stone Barn and here is a link to the website.

Great space for the ten of us. On the side was left a rather yummy jam sponge cake!

Ample seating area.

Had to show you this bath was it was truly amazing. I've never had a bath like it. You could sit up in it to read or just lie and laze around - fantastic.

This was our bedroom, but don't worry that travel cot was moved into the right bedroom! We also had a lovely seating area to gaze outside.

On our way down we stopped at Castle Drogo, determined to make the most of our National Trust cards.

I thought this wall was amazing.

Day one was spent exploring and we discovered Widemouth Bay, just south of Bude.

This was our first trip to the beach and unbelievably it was too hot! Part of the sand was too hot to walk barefooted! So we had a few hours relaxing before we headed into Bude for a nice cool drink.

Here's a daft picture for any duck lovers!

After such a lovely day the evening proved to have the most gorgeous sunset.

Here is my No 1 daughter modelling her newly knitted coat - think she fancied herself as Kate Bush!

Day Two - the family probably lost its marbles and went to Gnome Reserve! It is very cheesey but you just have to go with a certain daft attitude. You have to wear a silly gnome hat as we must not frighten or embarrass the gnomes!

Here are the twins waiting to get their gnome hats!

We came to the conclusion that going to the gnome reserve was much cheaper than taking your babies to a photo studio, as there were many many pictures taken of them in various places.

Here is Rowan - trying to remove the gnomes hat!

The lovely day was finished with a lazy afternoon in the garden. Rowan making us laugh with trying to squeeze as much as food as he can into his mouth and the girlies eating very sedately - such lovely different characters.

Day Three. A trip to Port Isaac. This is where the television company filmed Doc Martin. There are plenty of episodes to watch again if you click here.

Port Isaac is a gorgeous Cornish harbour town. It has been years since I last went to Cornwall and this scenery is what I remember missing the most.

Here's a viscous seagull attacking my baby!

This reminded me of the time, many years ago, when we visited St Ives and had some sausage and chips on the beach. A cheeky seagull swooped down and grabbed the sausage out of my sons bread roll. We were left with a rather distraught son!



















The day ended with dinner outside in the garden and Poppy (the dog) enjoying a walk in the fields to another glorious sunset.

Day Four. More glorious weather and time for another trip to the beach. This time we headed to Crackington Haven.

We stopped and had some lovely freshly cooked lunch at the cafe.

I had wonderful crab sandwiches with lots of different salads and Mr P had a Cornish Pasty and chips. We had a wonderful relaxing day. We had planned to visit Boscastle for a Cream Tea but it just didn't happen.


Day Five. Mr P didn't have such a good day as he ended up chauffeuring me and my younger son around. But Mr P and I did manage to get a quick visit in to see Tavistock.

It looked a super town but we only had one hour to see it in. Then we headed down further into Devon to have a return visit to Greenway - one of the homes of Agatha Christie. I know I went last year but today there was a book signing event, as a previously unpublished novel was released this day! Wahay! Agatha Christie's grandson (Mathew Prichard),  Dr John Curran ( renown Christie expert) and Tom Adams(who illustrated and wrote the introduction) were there signing the new book. I just had to get a copy and get it signed!

The buildings, on this cover, are parts of Greenway.

See I got them to address me as "Nice murder knitter!" It was also stamped with the Greenway stamp. Maybe one day this book will be worth a fortune?

Here is Mathew Prichard - but note the dog. It is the same type of breed that Agatha Christie has in her book Dumb Witness. The dog was called Bob in the book.

























Oh I could talk for longer about our wonderful time at Greenway but I think I have probably bored you enough today with my holiday rambling ons! I'll finish this blog in the next few days.