Eden

The Eden Project is a huge non-profit botanical theme park--

hundreds of acres, thousands of specimens from around the

world, several "biomes" including the largest conservatory

ever built, great contemporary architecture, art and scultpure,

all with an educational and social agenda. Green. We spent

most of the day at Eden, which is west of Fowey, in a

former china clay open-pit mine...talk about reclamation!

It is an incredible display and impressive educational

undertaking. Above, in 2000, the china clay open pit mine,

"England at its rapacious and destructive worst, ripping

both land and people apart, all for the creation of wealth,"

as the project founder said

More recently--since this photo was taken, several new

buildings have gone up and the terraces are entirely

planted-in, with paths, exhibits, etc.

In the rain forest biome, the world's largest conservatory

Lunch, locally-grown pasty and sausages and potatoes, and

cauliflower, and carrots

In the Mediterranean biome, probably the only rhododendrons
I'll see in bloom on this trip

Ice-skating rink; its rationale is a little unclear; the other on-

site sport is rock-climbing on the old mine's walls

In one of the outside biomes, bananas growing in Cornwall,

in November!

From the "core" building, looking back up the mine/canyon

toward the two interior biomes

One of the better and larger gift shops around