Happy Holidays: Part I

My childhood home is nestled in a tiny village at the bottom of a valley in mid Cornwall.  I didn't appreciate it's location as a teenager but now I adore it!  We return and visit my mum relatively frequently for weekend visits (especially since my father passed away) and to catch up with my siblings who all still live in Cornwall with their families.  We'd love to return to Cornwall to live but work opportunities and house prices have meant that this is currently beyond us.  So, we visit and spend as much time with my mother and family in my beloved home county as we can.

 

 

Recently, we stayed with my mother for a different type of visit.  We were welcomed home to HOLIDAY!!!  We were determined to do holiday things - to prioritise us as a family and to enjoy some simple, quality time in nature's beauty.  We planned in a day to help my mum with house hold tasks that she can no longer manage and packed the other days with; beach combing,

wave jumping,

 

 zip wiring

 

and recognising gratefully the wonder of the world around us.

As a family we're easily pleased; a bit of water, no heavy rain and a pain relieved mum is all we need to have fun.  Due to my lack of mobility we always select beaches based on ease of access and those that are relatively unknown - so they're not ridiculously busy in high season.

Our first visit was Carne beach on the Roseland Peninsula.  As we arrived the heavens opened, so in true Brit fashion we picniced in our car.  On cue the rain stopped and we found a lovely spot by the rocks, sheltered from the rather blustery conditions.  The sand is clean but has a greyish hue due to all the kaolin and china clay mining that's gone on in the surrounding area.

Our perseverance was rewarded as the weather continued to improve throughout the afternoon.

We hunted for shells - and found only 23 limpet shells across the entire beach (a pretty awful offering). 








We had been warned about Weaver Fish being around the area so the littlies wore crocs in the water whilst jumping the waves.

 We found amazing patterns in the form of a jellyfish:

 

 

I guess our first beach day was an unexpected bonus, as the weather was predicted to be awful.  It wasn't actually as grey as the pictures suggest... though you can see in the two pictures below the shift in weather during the afternoon!



 

 

I actually prefer the rolling waves on the north coast but given that it's high season, the children aren't really strong swimmers yet and there was a major surf contest on we stuck to the South coast and it was still good for the soul.  The sound of the waves pounding in alone makes my heart happy.

 

 

We had lots of fun and the children got lots more confident in the water - this time they had loaned wetsuits from their cousins so could spend hours splashing around - never ending fun in their eyes - and never ending fun to watch them!!

 

I'll be back soon to tell of our other beachy days!

 

J9 x