Isn’t it funny how you sometimes don’t see the whole story when you first look at something? Take these boots. When I took this photo, and indeed until about ten minutes ago, I’d have sworn I’d taken a photo of a pair of boots yet when I look now, they’re clearly not a pair but are two boots unrelated except for the fact that they are both black and both completely encrusted in moss.

Weirdly though, despite the jarring in my brain of the now-screamingly-apparent non-pair-ness of the boots, I still think they make a very visually satisfying image of life here in Cornwall.

When you are a Brit (at least when you’re me), you think of Cornwall as a holiday destination and therefore a place of sunshine and great weather. Not so, I’ve come to discover since moving here. In fact, we live in a county that is wetter than most of the country and therefore everything that doesn’t move and is in a shady spot will grow algae, moss and lichens. No really, everything…..even our north facing windows get crusted with it.

It’s also not warm here really. Take this week – a heat wave in London (30ºc) while it’s 16ºc here in Cornwall and rain! Many of our wedding guests didn’t believe our warnings about bringing warm clothes so it’s obviously not just me that this fact of life has passed by.

Today is my birthday. It’s mid-August, when we should be out and about in shorts and tee-shirts but we’re dodging rain showers and wearing big jumpers! We’re at Heligan. It’s one of my favourite places in Cornwall and I get wonderful, happy memories when I come here for a number of reasons. Firstly the whole premise of a garden, lost to wilderness and brambles coming alive again is thrilling and deeply motivating to me. It’s also quite simply a place that oozes charm and calm. Finally, I am able to spend as much time here as I want because I have a joint season ticket for DM and I courtesy of my ex-colleagues who bought it for me as a leaving gift from my old job.

You’ can’t pair Cornwall with good weather……most of the time anyway. Even within Cornwall, we have the worst weather that the county can muster here on the moor. You can’t pair Heligan with a moment in time – its past is its future in a strange sort of way. You can’t pair my birthday with glamour. It’s been spent watching the hard-work of the gardeners at Heligan, with the love of my life who is equally inspired by the garden’s charms. None of these things are pairs but they all go together in the strange and wonderful mix of life.