'Warning' Long Rambling Post with lots of Holiday Photographs!

Euan was very proud of his big pile of sand, it is called 'The big mountain'!  Has you ever seen 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'?

Henry was very proud of his 'Big Hole' I think he was trying to reach The Antipodes.

Lacey loves the beach too.

The Cornish coast is excellent for swimming, once you are all kitted out.  Beach shoes are necessary to avoid Weever Fish.  They have spines that can give a painful sting if they are trodden on.  Does anyone actually know if they can sting through shoes?  There are a lot of surfers, body boarders and Surf Schools in Cornwall.  The Life Guards did a brilliant job keeping everyone safe.

The boys enjoyed splashing around.

They practiced their swimming, while I enjoyed the views...

and breathed in the sea air.

The Beach at Bude was very busy.  My Mom was well organised so we could enjoy a flask of coffee on the beach.  I was happy not to swim in the sea, I did consider it though as I liked the idea of being rescued by a Life Guard.  The furthest I got was to roll my trousers up and have a paddle.  We had to have the customary 'Fish and Chips' at the seaside on one occasion.  On other trips we indulged in the odd Proppa Cornish pasty or two!  It may be a while before we visit Cornwall again so it really had to be done.

We also had a trip to the small Cornish village of Boscastle.  This was an interesting little place.  I loved the stone houses and the setting.  Boscastle had a terrible flood in  August 2004.  It has been predicted as a once every four hundred years event.   It was hard to imagine the devastation seven years ago, on our visit in August 2011.

The village has recovered well and it was a thriving little tourist village on the day of our visit.  We enjoyed Cornish ice cream.  Euan had 'Charlie Chocolate' Flavour, Mom and I were more adventurous with 'Lavender and Honey' Flavour.  Dad stuck with good old 'Rum and Raisin'.  Euan and I visited the Witchcraft Museum.  We enjoyed looking at the Mandrake roots and strange artifacts.  It was interesting to learn about the history of the persecution of 'Witches' and to read accounts of witchcraft trials.  Much of the museum was destroyed in the flood, but 90% of the artifacts were saved.

The flood level is marked on the door of the Museum, you can just about make out the green rectangle on the left hand white door.
As I start back to work tomorrow after a Summer of adventures, I have decided to make this a bumper post and share my holiday snaps.  I have one more visit I would like to share with you.  In a previous post I talked about the Grave of King Arthur at Glastonbury Abbey.  This was a visit to discover the place of King Arthur's Birth, Tintagel Castle.  We parked the car in 'King Arthur's Car park, walk past King Arthur's tea shops and gift shops and started a steep decent down a hill past some classic Cornish views.

I have a few sprigs of Montbretia that grows in my garden.  In Cornwall it is a prolific wildflower.  Beautiful.

This flower always makes me think of Cornwall, it lines almost every road you drive down.
English Heritage own the site at Tintagel.  Which has a Website here.  This is one of the sites that is said to be Camelot Castle, home of King Uther Pendragon, King Arthur's Father.  Many pilgrims visit the site and attempt to search out the truth.   I am not sure I discovered the truth, but if I thought climbing Glastonbury Tor was hard work this place made it look like small fry!  When you had climbed down the steep hill, you had by my definition a massive climb up to the Castle.  I saw about half the site and was more than happy to leave it at that!  Besides they have a Facebook page Here I can learn more from that!  Poor Euan seems to have inherited my Vertigo and got quite upset, he refused to go any further and was only happy on flat, solid ground away from the edge!  Even the beautiful view of 'Merlin's Cave' didn't wash with him.

It certainly is a magical place.

How it was built right up there I will never know and more to the point who would want to?

I am not sure if the gentleman in the left of the picture is real or not, he seems to be carrying a sword and a knights helmet.  I may have captured a photograph of an apparition!

My parents managed to get to the summit, but kindly assured me I did not really miss anything.  There was however a 'Well' right at the top.  I have a thing for wells.

I can't quite believe I managed to take this photograph from such an elevation.  I do not put myself in the situation to get a 'bird's eye view' very often and of course 'What goes up, must come down!'  I am not too ashamed about the traffic jam I caused on the decent as Euan and I clung to the handrails and crawled like crabs, slowly all the way to the Gift shop!  We very sensibly paid through the nose to take a Land Rover trip back up the very steep hill to 'King Arthur's Car Park', where we purchased another Cornish Pasty, Cornish Clotted Cream, Scones and Strawberry Preserve.  You gotta keep your strength up in these situations.
I think it is about now I end my story of Summer holidays and Adventure, I have my work bag to sort and my shoes to clean for tomorrow.  The boys are back to school on Wednesday.  It is sad, but in a strange kind of way I can settle down, back into routine and have a bit of a rest!  Bob the budgie and the chickens are glad to have us back.  I may even squeeze in some craft time again.