Bicton Gardens

Yesterday we enjoyed the day at Bicton Gardens - which involved yet another train ride. And lots of running around in gardens that are kept almost as well as mine!

Today we're off to the beach again.

Steam Power

Today we visited a few attractions around Buckfastleigh, starting with the Abbey.

And then onto the steam train for the half hour trip to Totnes...

...which the girls were excited about and really enjoyed.

Once we reached Totnes, we stayed on the train and came right back. All this travelling is exhausting!

Next it was the Butterfly Farm, which was hot and humid but not as hot as the Rainforest Biome at Eden.

And then before we got any hotter, we went on to see the otters.

And to complete a train themed day we played two versions of Ticket to Ride - both of which I won - finally, after a week of holiday making it onto the winners board!

The Eden Project

Yesterday we spent the whole day at the Eden Project in Cornwall. This incredible visitor attraction was nothing more than a disused clay pit little over ten years ago. If you've never been I recommend it - it was well worth our 100 minute car journey - and this is the fourth time we've been. The four domes in the background make up the Rainforest Biome - the world's largest conservatory - allowing the visitor to trek through the rainforests of Malaysia, West Africa and South America - it's very hot and very humid. The three domes to the right are part of the Mediterranean Biome and includes plants from South Africa and California. The white tent to the left of the picture is a large indoor arena.

This is currently home to a whole variety of family activities. The first we tried was building a shelter. The girls set about collecting bits of material to tie our bamboo poles together.

With Auntie Carol's help our super structure began to take shape.

The girls put the finishing touches to the inside.

I'm fairly sure this would survive any major storm!

For those of you who are wondering what has happened to my Garden Updates - I'm sad to report that it doesn't look like this. This is the vegetable garden that surrounds the outside restaurant.

After lunch and a very hot walk through the Rainforest it was time to build and test our rafts.

If it's there to climb it will be climbed.

By 8pm we were all very tyred and ready to head home!

The Zoo

Today the sun continued to shine and we went to the zoo. In between morning coffee and cake, lunch and ice cream we even managed to see some animals.


And to round off our animal themed day we went to the Hungry Horse on the way home!

It took 6 of us to finish off this dessert.