I absolutely love birthdays, and last week I had an extremely gorgeous one at Bedruthan Steps. Glossing carefully over the rather alarming number of years I have now accrued, we made optimistic plans to leave the house super early and very organisedly and all smoothly smoothly. Sadly Mathilda had plans of her own, mostly involving refusing her breakfast which subsequently led to us still being pyjama-clad and slightly rattled by the time we had originally hoped to leave. We finally made it out of the house somewhat later than planned and trundled up to the north coast of Cornwall and Bedruthan Steps. Mathilda, obviously on a plan-scuppering roll, had the most enormous poop explosion just as we arrived and roared indignantly as we changed her nappy in the very blustery car park. So, not an entirely smooth start to the day! However, nothing could dampen my spirits on my birthday and I managed to just about find the whole thing hilariously funny, until discovering that I had forgotten the baby carrier. Luckily I was with my two absolutely favourite people and as we ambled over to the cliff edge we were treated to the most spectacular view which made everything better and birthday-y again!
Ed tucked Mathilda into his coat, where, exhausted by her rage, she went instantly to sleep and we set off down to the beach.
Despite the forecast being depressingly awful, it turned out to be just the perfect day (especially for me on my birthday, obviously!); with a jolly blustery breeze and warm sunshine peeping through fluffy clouds. By the time we got down the beach we were ravenous and set to on a delicious picnic of egg sandwiches, crisps and strawberries.
Thus revived, we walked along the beach in the sunshine.
We saw some teeny tiny baby mussels hanging out on the rocks; apart from being very cute, the colours were beautiful.
We had to keep swapping and trying out new ways to carry Mathilda, who is a bit hefty and not so comfortable on one's arms and back for long term carrying...note to self - always remember the carrier. The sitting-on-the-rucksack system was particularly popular, but not so good for Daddy's arms.
The walk back up the steps to the car park was slightly upsetting and considerably harder than the walk down had been (although the views were even more beautiful in the sunshine) so we crawled into the cafe for a sneaky cream tea to keep our strength up for the drive home.
All in all, an extremely excellent birthday!
