Dawn

Looking towards ST Micheal's Mount from Ednovean farm garden yesterday

The days grow shorter now with the unwelcome meeting of the dawn into my day but sometimes, when the rossie light from the east reflects across the sky on to Mounts Bay it's magical and worth the early morning just to see St Micheal's Mount tinged with pink and the Clock tower of Perranuthnoe's church touched by the golden light.



The golden light hitting the church clock

If we do not have guests then it is always tempting to linger for a moment watching the young horses scampering around the older ones with mischievous intent. They are generally well tolerated by the old mares though as they watch the antics with good natured tolerance.




Sorry for the blurry photo but is shows Amie in super bug mode!



Amie buzzing around the field



Dolly modelling her new rug


Dolly, last years foal, got an early Christmas present in view of the recent weather - her very own mack otherwise know as a New Zealand rug





Well perhaps chewing the rope is more interesting than having your photo taken after all

Out of the rain

Olley cat supervising the proceedings from a hay bale with sodden rugs hung to dry overnight behind him

After another day of freezing rain, that follows one of the wettest Novembers on record, one of the nicest times of the day remains evening stables, when everything is finished for the day. Then as dusk suddenly falls, the stables are filled with a contented munching, as mangers are rattled and twisted this way and that to chase the last illusive oats and nuts, to hard to reach corners, hooves muffled by fresh bedding.



Sootty who missed his daily constitutional today because of the weather and I forgot my pin number when shopping..........Ah hum




Dani the Spanish stallion shrouded in mane



One of our foals Amie drying out and enjoying a hay feast for the night - you can see the tide mark under her tummy from the rain today

And for us the the early long evenings offer a relaxing soak in a hot bath cocooned within the thick barn walls that until the 90's was also home to the horses.

The closing days of Autumn

Faced with a raw and elemental Cornwall, Olley has taken a wise option and selected a sunny window sill until conditions have improved to the extent to be suitable for a cat. Day after day recently the gales have torn at the land and tossed the sea into a foaming frenzy and day after day Olly has slept - contentedly soundly, dedicated - a one cat mission to shut out the world. A world that has not been our gently tranquil parish but a snarling moaning torrent of noise always at the edge of our hearing - the pulsating beat of the sea from below the village, the steady hum of the wind in the phone lines and the thrashing of a thousand branches dancing in the hedgerows.




Yet still we have constants in our days - the Robin that visited the stables throughout the summer bearing Oats and Barley carelessly discarded by the horses back to his brood conveniently positioned just beside the stable entrance gate. Day after day hour after hour - the frenzied workload of the tiny aviator flitting into the bay tree to be rewarded by a burst of cheeping that brought to mind the rapturous applause of a theatre audience. Now that Autumn is fading he still darts in and out of the stables on his own personal mission to populate the world with plump Christmas robins.



And in the house cocooned in the blissful silent peace of the three foot thick walls I cheered myself up within the first Hyacinths of spring on the stairs windows sill to sweetly perfume our journeys to and through without overpowering our consciousness.

And in the garden the Banana tree that was almost given up for dead after last winter when it was destroyed to the ground. Well today it has sprouted again after a cosseting mulch of Sooty's best discarded bedding and dose of extreme neglect for the Summer - so a gardeners hopes spring eternal and Olley is waiting until Spring!

The friendly moon

A friendly moon was sailing on its back just above the stables this evening, to welcome our new guests. Charles took this shot of the lights glowing in the stables by the car park just before we switched the flood lights on ready to guide our next guests in. Will we have a storm watch weekend after the gentle sunny day today - opinions vary and there is a tiny rumour that the sun will shine again tomorrow.............well we'll see!

The moon meeting the last of the sunset over our garden at ednovean farm tonight

and now because Christmas is coming - I've included this photo because it features a Christmas Tree! Taken of Charles and I long before we were married at St just Feast on Boxing Day, the two horses JR and Tigger are alas long gone although Tiggs is buried in a place of honor, under the statue of discus thrower in the Italian Garden...........a long ago memory of an old Christmas Tradition...........how many shopping days to go?

A sea of White horses

We woke up this morning to a sea of white horse - a churning, plunging, maelstrom of energy forcing its way across Mounts Bay and encircling St Micheal's Mount. Charles nobly set off up the field to try to capture the sea bracing himself against the gale leaving Sootty (the horse) watched dubiously from his stable at the gathering gale, that was whipping the date palms across the car park into a frenzy of activity. Poor Sooty hates the wind and obviously didn't want to go out this morning, thank you very much but he needn't have worried for today there was too much debris being carried around by the storm to risk the lanes and villages.
Instead we set of alone through the village to Perranuthnoe Beach with the camera, eager to get closer to the storm. We were not disappointed to find the usual balmy secluded sands covered by the relentless waves that traveled in pulses across the cove before the wind.



Waves breaking over Cudden Point from the beach slipway

The slip way down to the beach today, two hours off of high tide

The rolling waves

The cliffs to the east of Perran Beach that lead to Cudden Point - great for dramatic storm watching

Towards Mousehole from Perranuthnoe Beach

A view from Ednovean Farm

Storm casualties at Perranuthnoe Beach

We walked along the cliffs a little way towards Marazion and Charles took this last shot as the sky started to clear and now at last we have sparkling sunshine for the afternoon but still I'm glad i took the time to visit the sea and feel the energy and taste the fine salt again.

Mounts Bay this morning

The view over Mounts bay from Ednovean Farm this morning

St Micheal's Mount through the palm trees this morning

Mounts bay looked so dramatic this morning from our garden framed by a jumble of palms, that I couldn't resist another picture, as ST Micheal's Mount was cast into sharp relief by the liquid morning sunshine. Our first job of the morning is always to take the brood mares and foals out to the pastures and this morning I had time to climb the hillside armed with a camera as i had no pressing breakfast engagement with the Rayburn to meet. Instead i stalked little Archie across the dew laden grass in a bid to take his photo as he paused by patches of mud or ate dry looking twigs as little boys will if they think they are wanted by the camera. Still the view from the top of the hill was worth it high above Mounts Bay and of course the best photo of him was the first one I took beside the gate!

Archie planning his day with the sun shining through his magnificent whiskers

Catching up with the girls before they move on to the next field

The private life of Archie - climbing on to a spoil heap from a badger set/fox earth - all the better to see across the fields ( the hole is safely under the Cornish bank)

oops sorry read Annie as Archie - this autumn break is doing me no good at all!

A visit from the blacksmith

Remember little Annie when she was born in May?



Our Blacksmith Nigel Stevens, came to Ednovean Farm today to renew Sooty and Danni's shoes and when he had finished - he and Charles set off up to the top of the farm to check the brood mares and foals feet. I followed a few minutes and circled through several fields before finding the group just behind the house. Dolly spotted me first and abandoned her efforts to supervise the inspection of Annie's feet in favour of pushing her nose towards the camera - come to think of it, she is such a curious filly we only seem to get photos of her nose!




Sneaking up on Charles and Nigel from behind the mine - that's Archie diligently following his mum April and Belle right ( due to foal in February) "hedging and ditching" for the best herbs

and finally I found them with half sisters Annie and Amie

Diva on the left

The evening sky above a mine spoil heap that was part of the workings of Wheal Neptune

All the horses came in to their nice warm stables as the sky started to look ominously dark but after a balmy day they were all content to eat their supper and retire to nibbling their haynets.

Annie with her Mum Lizzie tucking into their evening haynet as you can see Lizzie has applied a mega mud pack against the weather.