My Home in Cornwall. The Place I Live, The Place I Love.

I first came to Cornwall on holiday in 2008 at the age of 16, an awkward age for me really, I was stuck and a little lost and troubled at this age, I hadn't found myself. I remember even to this day standing on the platform in London Paddington Station feeling like a Hogwarts first year student ready and waiting to go to a place I'd never been before. 6 hours flew by with my portable DVD player watching Transformers and occasionally my head rose to glimpse out from my seat into the outside, the DVD player was closed instantly as my eyes for the first time saw St Michaels Mount, I knew then I was going to love this holiday, little did I know I was going to fall in love with the destination my train stopped at.

On my holidays here we went to the many beaches but the moments that are still fresh in my memory is experiencing watching a play at the Minack Theatre, an outdoor theatre where we watched amazing shows and not batting an eye lid to the fact that it was raining and you were sitting on stone chairs, alongside the show on these rainy afternoons we were able to witness a show only nature could provide. A little Essex girl sitting literally on the edge of the country (the bottom end) watching talented people perform but behind them, I sat watching the show above the Ocean, the black clouds dancing upon the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning, two shows in one. Something you couldn't imagine seeing. So there I was sitting on a cold chair, huddled under my hood listening to the rain on the waves, sitting on the edge of a beautiful place knowing where I was, was magic.

At the age of 16 I learned the true meaning of natural beauty with the beaches whose sands kissed the waves of the North Pacific Ocean. The beaches that when soaked in the high summer sun captured you in what by the sea truly means, the sand between your toes warm and nearly impossible to remove at the end of the day, but that doesn't matter does it? When your ankles feel that cool tide brush against your skin, refreshing in every possible way, unable to resist wading in for more.

After my first taste, I wanted more, I was sad to go home and for the first time in my life, I was missing something before I'd even left, and once I got home a hole had formed, I craved my next trip to Cornwall so when I made my first trip on my own for my 19th birthday, I had a whole new experience, Spring in Cornwall was the complete opposite to Summer in Cornwall, the weather is cooler, it's fresh, alive, refreshing and the daffodils, that from a distance it just look like a block of yellow, yet up close, when looking down at those Spring flowers, a beautiful yellow sitting on a field of green. I'd finally experienced Cornwall in the Spring, fresh and in the midst of rebirth from the cold Winter and all I can say is it was breath-taking. After 3 previous trips I still would get that butterfly feeling in my stomach as my train approaches my destination and passed St Michaels Mount, knowing I was there, my holidays to Cornwall never started at my final destination they started at Paddington Station usually around 10:17 in the morning.

That solo trip to Cornwall only confirmed one thing as I walked along the ocean, as I smiled at the locals and found a smile returned, this place that had always just been a destination, a holiday for a few weeks, had to be my home. 

It was 2012 when I last took a holiday to Cornwall, I'd found myself lost again at the age of 20, torn between who I wanted to be and where I wanted to be, to be who I truly am, and where I was I couldn't be both. So that last trip to Cornwall I took was to gain perspective, to confirm that this place was where I needed to be and it was. I came back home knowing only one thing, the next time I was to go there, I wasn't coming home.

2013 was my next holiday to Cornwall, I was turning 21 years old, on the brink of adulthood with no idea what it will entail. I stepped onto that train for the second to last time on the Tuesday (I had to go back home to get my stuff), and I turned 21 on the Wednesday, which was also the day I met Nick. 

(This photo was taken on my 21st birthday, the night Nick and I met, oh this is Nick ahaha!)

2013 was the year we made Cornwall my home and I couldn't of done it without the people I can now call my family. My love for Cornwall grew and grew and I was so happy to be finally where I wanted to be, I could walk along the beach without going on holiday and I was in the best relationship that was only getting stronger daily, our love grew even through those embarrassing first stages of our relationship. That love grew in 2014 when we welcomed our first daughter Mia to the world, everything was coming together, it might sound cliche but it was like it was meant to be. I was living in a place I loved, Nick and I had moved into our first home in the Summer where we were able to bring home our daughter in the September. The biggest thing for me was that we were able to have her born in Cornwall, so she could enjoy and love her home. 

This was my dream, to live the by the sea. I'd always felt a sense of peace between myself and the Ocean (sounds weird I know) I was comforted by the sea, the sound of the waves crashing against the cliff edge, or the soft rush over the sand comforted me. I was finally in a place I could see all my dreams becoming true and they were. 2016 was the year our family grew again, we welcomed our second daughter Robyn in May 2016, and nothing could taint the fullness my heart felt when I sat on our couch the night we bought her home and Nick, Mia and Robyn were all asleep and I just sat there, exhausted and a little sore but I was happy.

(Walking along the prom in Penzance, through Newlyn to Mousehole) 

(The Mousehole in Mousehole, they are pronounced differently)

How could I be unhappy with where I live when this is what I get to see in the summer, as the sun falls down onto the horizon as the day slowly ends. The sunlight kissing the ocean leaving glimmering ripples soothes me. I can sit and watch this all the time, it makes me wish sunsets lasted longer than they did.

I know this post was very photo heavy but I love where I live and I wanted to share with you my story that quickly became Nick and I's story that evolved into our story, and I'm proud to know we will get to witness Mia and Robyns stories grow as they do. 

PEACE. x