Isabelle and Mum go to Eden Project

My mum wanted to go to see the Eden Project as her 60th (shh, don't tell anyone she's that old!!) birthday treat.

So we flew (yes I know our carbon footprint just got bigger, but we did take public transport once we'd got there and I am growing a courgette plant to make up for it!) from Leeds to Newquay to save being on the road for 10 hours. It was great, up in the air for 50 minutes and at our hotel in time for the final of The Apprentice!

We had a lovely day at the Eden Project and were very impressed by it. It was much bigger than I'd imagined and for any plant and nature lover it really is eden. We particularly enjoyed lizard spotting in the tropical biome (big bubble thingy). It was a drizzly day when we visited but it didn't spoil our enjoyment as there is a lot to see inside the bubbles. I was really amazed how much there is to see outside too and I was really inspired with ideas for my own garden.

On our second day we decided to have a walk from Newquay to Watergate Bay along the coast path. It looks like no distance at all on the map but we reckon it was about 8 miles there and back by the time we walked to all the furthest points on the cliff tops. This walk was really lovely as the cliff tops were totally covered with wild flowers. We also did a bit of twitching and spotted Stone Chats, Wood Warblers and Mum spotted Corn Buntings. We had an encounter with a Kestrel which landed on a ledge of the cliff just next to where we had decided to have a rest, it was amazing how close we got to it.

At Watergate Bay we had a wonderful cream tea (yes I know my non carbon footprint just got deeper as I must have put on half a stone with the amount of clotted cream that was involved!). The tea room we went to was next door to Jamie Oliver's 15 restaurant which is right on the beach - sorry to snub you Jamie but the tea shop was great. I particularly enjoyed having a fix of doggie in the tea room as everyone seemed to have their pooches with them. We settled next to a wonderful couple who had an old Border Terrier girl and two lovely Italian Spinones, I was missing Mr Mo so I latched on to them!

Anyway we returned the next day with another smooth and quick flight home ready for a cuppa and a rest!