And I'm back!

A wonderful week in a house near Padstow with family, Elder Son, Daughter, spouses, and grandchildren. The house was lovely and spacious and had a hot tub and snooker room! But no tea-pot! It loses a star for that.

Elder Son perfecting his skills.

The closest town was Padstow, a fishing village that grew even more popular after television chef, Rick Stein, opened his restaurant and cookery school there. He currently seems to own most of the town! It was also very popular with dog-owners. So many dogs! It was quite crowded in the narrow streets lined with pasty and fudge shops, and, of course, we had to sample several types. 

As well as lots of dogs there were lots of seagulls, who are much more daring than their Mumbles counterparts, so much so that advice is advertised. Incidentally according to the book Daughter bought on pasties, the correct pronunciation is parsty.

Another tradition we had to try was Cornish cream teas. Lots of cafes advertised them but we resisted until we found what felt like a proper tea-shop in a tiny village, near the Japanese Garden we visited. 

We followed the Cornish habit of spreading the jam first with the cream on top. (In Devon they do it the other way around, which seems foolish to me. How can you spread jam on top of cream? Though I suppose if it's nice and thick it will work.)

The house was on the edge of Camel Creek theme park to which we had free access. The children loved the rides but I was taken with the meerkats.

Port Isaac is just few miles up the coast from Padstow. It's where the television series, Doc Martin, was filmed as well as being home to folk group, Fisherman's Friends. 

Doc Martin's house is second from the right, up the hill.

The police station is actually in next-door village, Port Gaverne.

The school in Port Isaac, now a hotel.

Along a bit from Trevone Bay there's a natural sea pool, which was used in the BBC series of Mallory Towers. The girls went swimming there. As did we!

It's only accessible at low tide. When we were leaving, the tide was almost over the wall that was repaired by the local community back in 2013. And I've just read that it was recently crowned Britain's Best Saltwater and Tidal Pool.

What else? Oh yes, not far again - although it takes a while to get anywhere because it's mostly down lanes - Daughter found a wonderful 'dogs allowed off lead' beach, just on the estuary that leads into Padstow harbour. Called Harbour Cove it has a huge tidal range. On our first visit it was quite high; on our second it was about as low as it could get I imagine.

As you can see, Cornwall gets really busy at this time of year! (No, really it does; this beach was the exception possibly because of how far you'd have to walk to have a swim. But Louie and I enjoyed the stroll out.)

Louie was allowed to sit in the front of the car with me.

And to finish off this episode of holiday jinks, a bit of naughty, but accurate, felting spotted in a craft shop - the other main business in the town. 

Oh, and as we travelled home we listened to the Lions rugby game on the radio. Very exciting and they won, meaning whatever happens in the last game they've won the series against Australia.