December night and the Cornish year-round bauble.

Eden project rose out of Bodelva Quarry , near St Austell in Cornwall, around the Millenium. A fantasmical dream of one man, Tim Smit, brought to reality by architect Nicholas Grimshaw, structural engineer Antony Hunt and constructors McAlpine.

https://www.edenproject.com/

It opened to the public in March 2001, 18 years on it is settled into the Cornish landscape and psyche. As with any big new development there have been rubs and chafes but plenty of good news too. Eden has been showing significant profits since 2012.

The Eden effect on Cornwall has been immense, by 2009 it had brought £805m into the local economy.

With a ‘locals’ pass Eden has become a year round destination for theoldmortuary. We can avoid the busy tourist-heavy days and use the outdoor spaces for dog walks and gardening inspiration. At Christmas time we use the shops to buy environmentally friendly gifts that are often locally produced. Walking the cool biomes during the late-opening evenings is a wonder of plant architecture and illumination. As ever with an oldmortuary outing there is always coffee and cake, and on this occasion a kangaroo too.

November has always meant London. I was the only child of an entirely ordinary Essex couple. My November birthday was always marked by a trip to London, sometime around my birthday (14th) The date is significant because around this time both Remembrance Day and the Lord Mayors Day are marked. Depending on scheduling my birthday trips were either coloured vividly as if in party mood or more sombrely in quiet reflection. Occasioally, like this year both occur in the same weekend, a cultural salt caramel or sweet and sour sensation. The exact reason for this regular pilgrimage to London is unknown and unknowable as both my parents are long dead. My recollection is that they felt it was really important for me to know and relate to the capital city, a sentiment and experience I have passed on to my own children.

If I’m honest I fell a little out of love with London in the 1970’s . Years as a student , being poor and in grotty accommodation was not enhanced by the turbulent times. I had also inexplicably chosen a Science subject when my real interests were art and writing. Not London’s fault at all but sometimes the location gets the blame for the daftest of personal decisions. East London and the City, the locations of my work and life environment were pretty raw and grim around the edges. Out of love I might have been but I still gave London it’s due diligence in the seventies and in the barely improved eighties. Wherever I lived November nearly always found me doing something Londonish.

November is a good time to visit regardless of the length of your journey. Tourism is at a low point and the frenetic pre Christmas pace doesn’t pick up until the end of the month. Long walks are easier if pavements are clearer. I like to take the same walks that I did in the seventies, back then ancient footpaths avoided busy roads but sometimes, around Smithfield, took me through slaughter house yards. Not only have the centuries-old slaughter houses gone , with their open rivers of blood hosed into street drains,so have the footpaths. Developers seem to have developed a blind eye to paths that had been used for centuries and maybe no one else cared enough to protest. Maybe history and rights of way were forgotten at a price.

This November, coincidentally I was in a London for a writing course with The Gentle Author, decades of familiarity bit me on the bum. Parked up briefly in a familiar spot we organised ourselves for the longish return drive to Cornwall, smug in our knowledge of such a place. Two days later the parking fine arrived. London always has spare capacity to surprise.