A Wonderful Weekend - Stef's Birthday, St. Austell Movies, Eden Project and Bodmin Moor

It was a great weekend on the 16-17th January. Saturday was Stefanie's birthday. The day started early for me (Wayne) as with the busy-ness of school, settling in and snow it had been difficult to get anywhere, let alone a shop to buy Stef a present. So I went into Liskeard first thing for some shopping by myself. It was good to get out and about, in the car and looking around the place now that things were more familiar. A trip to the bookshop yielded a very suitable present: The 2009 Man Booker Prize winner Wolf Hall - something Stef can get stuck into and enjoy. It was quite a cloudy, rainy day and we were fairly sure - as certain as you can be with the unpredictability of the weather and the inaccuracy of the weather forecasts - that Sunday would be quite a nice day, so we thought we'd do inside things Saturday and outside things on Sunday.

We went to St. Austell to watch the movies. Eleanor and I went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 (because Chipmunks 1 was so good and we couldn't wait???) and Stef and the bigger kids went to see Avatar in 3D. We all enjoyed the movies very much (boy, can those Chipettes dance!).

Stef here. The drive down was part of the treat - beautiful villages. There was a lot of run-off on the roads from the thaw, and the children at least enjoyed our almighty splashes through these. Being overtaken, on a 'double yellow', through one of these nearly gave the grown-ups cardiac arrest.

It was Fish and Chips for dinner and the bar has been set very low as our starting point for indulgence in the fabled English Fish and Chips. We have resolved that we will never bring Fish and Chips home again and that we will only eat it when out and about, by the seaside.

At least I didn't have to cook, and I didn't REALLY mind about no birthday cake...

We woke this morning to a simply glorious day. Bright, still, dry, blue and blow me down - quite warm. Now warm is a relative term these days and I didn't think I'd ever get terribly excited about creeping into double figures but you could feel heat in the air and it was great. We headed off as early as we could to the Eden Project just outside St. Austell.

In a word - Fantastic!

We wanted to go this weekend because we could get in for free. They had a teachers-for-free promotion on and kids get in for free so a cheap day out for us.

We loved this horse made out of drftwood which was on the walkway to the front entrance building. ( Annie is a little embarrassed to be near any woman who would wear a daggy red cap.)

Here we are on the viewing platform overlooking the gardens and the Biomes.

We decided to take the meandering path around the outside gardens first. We walked from the top of the site (a reclaimed mining pit) down to the entrance of the Biomes. There were lots of interesting structures, sculptures, plantings, gardens, hidden areas and quirky little things to look at and find along the way. Here, Stef and the kids are outside a mysterious stone hut that you could go inside to find something that looked like a magic well. I loved an overgrown stone wall that had a stone hand coming out of it as if somebody was trying to get out. It was quite unobtrusive but your eyes would just suddenly come across it and it would startle you. There were lots of things like that.


Here we are walking down the main garden path with the Biomes in the background.

This was a quirky statue called an Industrial Plant. Very effective. The whole point of the Eden Project is to make people think about plants, the Earth and the environment and they do it very well.
I liked the way they include the arts. There were several poems inscribed about the place, and an amazing carved stone (huge) in the shape of a seed, symbolising starts and cores and all sorts of things. And sculpture, including that horse above, which must have taken ages to find just the right drift-wood for the anatomically correct parts.




Then we went into the Rainforest Biome. It was a good 30+ degrees and tropical humid. We were instantly transported to the path around Lake Eacham near Mum and Dad's at Yungaburra in Far North Queensland. Same plants, same heat, same type of path. The only thing missing, as Stefanie noted, was the stuff that can hurt you like Wait-A-While vine, Stinging Tree, Scrub Turkeys and pythons (not that anybody has been killed by a ravenous Scrub Turkey or a python for some time). This photo shows the humidity in this biome as the lens is fogged up. Stef reckons it makes her look like 'the mystical princess of the rainforest' (..umm..yes..it does). Did I say that? Must be the skivvy and the grey cords... very romantic, really.

Here I wiped the camera lens.

This shot could have been taken somewhere on the walk around Lake Eacham. Don't let the fact that we have our winter woolies on fool you. We weren't prepared for the sudden heat of walking into this biome and we are near fainting with all of those clothes on.

This was a nice, lush part of the walk. There is the top of the waterfall that provides the humidity in the biome in the distance. You can also see the outside skin. It is basically a massive greenhouse. It is not sealed and self-sustaining like the Biodome project.

Then we went through to the Mediterranean Biome. We found the cloak room on the way so unnecessarily ditched our coats. The Mediterranean Biome is heated only by solar radiation and with the sun low in the sky it wasn't heating up much at all. Plants typical of the Meditteranean and the South Coast of NSW were in abundance in here.

This is me being worshipped by Dionysus and my followers. Quite a striking sculpture display.

Pride cometh before a fall. Wayne very nearly fell into a fine display of cacti just after this, he has neglected to say. He regained his balance at the critical moment.

We had to take a photo of Jack with this Banksia tree. (sniff..just like home). These plants must be strange and wonderful if you come from London, Leicester or Liskeard.

(Stef until the end now.)

After this we went off seeking nourishment. A spot in the cafeteria promised home-made cornish pasties, which we thought it was high time to sample. They were very good, too. However, I have to say they were not as good as the ones my old Nan used to make, those with a good variety of veg in them, and not too large a seam of pastry. Those who had not tasted these Hosking ones were very well pleased, however. The home-made lemonade was certainly the best I have ever had.

Determined to make the most of the fine weather, we then left for a long-delayed walk on the moors. No icy toes this time, although it was definitely chilly and we welcomed our coats. I wore my very attractive red hiking cap, picked up nineteen years ago in Scotland, and dusted off gratefully now. (Annie walked several metres behind.)

It was very muddy, but a dry path was discernable on the main track, and on we trekked. We walked past the standing stones mentioned in an earlier blog, noting black-faced sheep and shaggy moor ponies as we walked. We aimed for a hill, topped with ancient rock structures. Here are the children, creeping into a crevice.

Here is Wayne and Annie, a little below the same structure. (I am reminded of that giant bloke in The Princess Bride at this point. Luckily Wayne did not start chucking large rocks around).

And here are some photos of us at the very top. Eleanor had a trip up the hill, and so is not quite her cheery self in these.

We could see for miles around. It was wonderful.

We were not alone, though. Quite a few people were out walking dogs, some rode horses. A farmer brought some hay up, and sheep and ponies came running up to eat it.

Jack is posing here in front of a very big drop into an old mine. Ugh!

And so, down we went towards home, thinking longingly of hot drinks at this point. Annie skidded down a muddy slope, onto her bottom.

Jack, somehow unaware of this adventure and the subsequent tears, promptly did the same thing, even as Wayne was brushing Annie off! I cautiously came down another way. Eleanor had fallen on the way up, thus fulfilling her quota. Wayne had had his cactus adventure, but I wondered if my turn was coming. We walked back past the standing stones, on our left. I tried to remember if the hobbits were told to keep the stones on their left or their right, up on the barrow downs. A crow fluttered down next to us. The sun dropped in the west. Barrow wights!... but, no. We made it back to the car park safely, and thence home. Dinner burbled in the slow cooker. Everyone went off to bathe and relax... except for me, dealing with all the muddy clothes, ironing school shirts and sewing on Eleanor's school logo. BUT, I didn't have to go to school tomorrow! A Grand Day Out.