Cornish Christmas 2017

This year we thought we would try something new - Christmas in a cottage. We've visited Sloe cottage before and Ali loved the open fire, so we booked it for Christmas week. We were greeted with festive decorations inside and outside the cottage, a fully made up table and gorgeous welcome pack of Cornish produce - including Cornish tea, Cornish Coffee, Cornish cheese biscuits and Cornish shortbread.

Alas the cottage emailed us a few days before we arrived. They had changed the open fire to a log burner. Ali was distraught but it was fab. During the week we ate, slept, drank, and went on lots of doggie walks -

• Watergate Bay - a lovely walk along the sandy beach
• Camel Trail - it never stopped raining. The wind was blowing sideways with the wind. After a day in the cottage, it was nice to get out and listen to the rain on the hood. Thank goodness for our Antarctica clothes.
• Perranporth - with it's trailer nativity, huge waves, wind which blew us along the beach and gave us a big exfoliation of the face because the sand was blasted on us.
• Newquay - Thai red curry pasty
• Bodmin and Wenn steam railway - I adore the smell of steam trains. The old fashioned tea room selling pasty's, tickets hatch and Victorian platforms.
• Par Sands - over the dunes to Par Sands for a short walk
• Seaton Valley Countryside Park - with woodland walk and beach at the end of it.

We played games every night and laughed and laughed. And the best bit, going to Midnight mass on Christmas Eve in Bodmin. It was magical surrounded by over 30 Christmas trees and singing carols.