I’ve photographed this statue before – but in the daylight and looking a lot less spooky. Its story is here….

We’ve been taking advantage of our passports to Eden to go and see their ‘Time for gifts’ festival. It’s a night-time extravaganza with an ice-skating rink and lots of ‘attractions’ as well as night-time trips round the biomes.

Despite our ‘grand plan’ woes, we’ve had such a fabby day….the reason we’re here at Eden is because we were so lazy we didn’t get out of bed until nearly 10am and then sat around watching Saturday Kitchen in our dressing gowns. In my defence, I am so badly in need of some quiet time to recharge my rapidly running-out batteries that I feel that it’s an occasion when I can do this with a clear conscience.

It was so late by the time we got dressed, it was too late to do a ‘daylight’ thing so I spent some time inventing a recipe, partly inspired by Saturday Kitchen and partly by a wonderful carrot, orange and ginger soup I had at Christine’s house last week. DM pronounced it a hit so it’s on the cards for my recipe book that will hopefully get written after Christmas.

After taking the dogs for a long walk, we chased in the chickens and set off for Eden, via Fowey where we watched the last of the sunset from the quayside and strolled around the town. I must say, I’ve never been into the town before, like much of my Cornish life, I’ve used the Bodinnick Ferry and gone straight up the hill out of town on many occasions without pausing to see what it’s like. How cool is that? We can pop off to Eden with a trip to the sea on route and the whole journey only takes about forty minutes. Talk about the luckiest people alive.

Eden was magic in all senses – very cool place, made cooler by the night-time stuff and made cooler still by being there with DM. Even though we can’t get the ‘grand plan’ sorted, we can still enjoy this, our new home, with its breathtaking scenery, mists and the ocean crashing round its shores. We can still love the work of Tim Smit and the team who have worked such miracles at Eden and Heligan. We can still take the time to enjoy one another, our little hairy, feathery family and our new world.


Two years ago, the gorgeous Jane was working like a trojan for me and last year we were here in Cornwall and visiting the fabulous Carnglaze Caverns