Coffee love

I couldn't get through the day without a big, fat hit of caffine. Normally, it's made at home but occasionally I treat myself to the real deal. Luckily, Cornwall is home to some really fabulous cafes that know how to make a great coffee and serve delicious home made food. 

More than that they do it with style. Funky cafes and bistros are opening up all the time that put the customer at the heart of what they do, they make you feel genuinely welcome and are always looking to innovate. 

The roll of honour is long, but here are just some of my favourites. Please check them out if you're visiting....

Picnic, Falmouth, Genki, St Agnes, Uneeka, Truro, Good Vibes, Falmouth, and Miss Peapods, Penryn. 

If you're a real coffee lover then look out for the Origin sign outside. It's a local Cornish company that sources and roasts its own coffee. It even insists on giving everyone who serves it a barista masterclass - ahh that's coffee love!

Stormy

Batten down the hatches, there's a big storm brewing. We had a power cut on Tuesday evening when the previous storm came over, and later found out we were one of the lucky ones. Six boats sank in Porthleven, houses were pounded and the main train link to Exeter is now in the sea. 

Let's keep our fingers crossed that everyone comes out of this one safely. 

Totally tropical

Today the sun shone, and after casting dubious looks at the sky and packing our wet weather gear just in case we headed off to a beautiful sub-tropical garden. Trebah Garden is nestled in a valley by the Helford river and enjoys its own sheltered micro-climate. Although we get a lot of rain here in the South West, we rarely experience frost so tropical plants and trees thrive here. 

I've recently started taking an interest in gardening, inspired by my fellow bloggers and so it's great to visit somewhere that has a similar soil and climate to see what grows well. I've spotted quite few of these plants happily growing in gardens near me, but I couldn't confidently tell you what they're called!

However, I have learned to spot Hellebores and was delighted to see one of the first signs of Spring together with snowdrops and primroses shyly poking through. 

We rampaged through a fortified playground, and took turns on the fastest zip wire ever. We weaved through bamboo groves, past 150 year old giant trees and down through shaded groves.  

Until at the bottom of the valley we stepped out onto the garden's very own private beach. 

My husband was feeling brave and donned a wetsuit for a quick dip, but we thought the water was a bit too chilly for anything more than a quick paddle and a race back for hot chocolates!