Day by Day

Day by day the summer creeps nearer with the new growth of spring flushing the parterre in front of the house with zingy new growth in that newly fashionable lime green.

The countryside is a delight with hedgerows dripping with catkins, laced by spring flowers and drowning in bird song....................





The insects have set out again fresh from their winter hibernation to sip the nectar of spring



"Little" Tufty our first foal of the year continues to grow monitoring the public footpath entrance for friendly walkers



Our daily chores seem less arduous in the morning sunshine



The moon sits over the roofs of Ednovean farm


Fresh new lavender plants line the wall beside the front door



and we can sit with a cup of coffee and Olley cat to watch the sunset at the end of the day

as the sun sets beyond the garden at Ednovean farm, day by day

Our big day!

Well today was our big day and waited like expectant children for the arrival of the film crew. Our weekend house guests had departed soon after breakfast and we had the morning to primp and preen the bedrooms, spring clean the house --again--revamp the garden and shampoo the cat........well not really the cat but you know what I mean! And then the waiting started - what if they didn't come? what would we do? but exactly on time, the film crew appeared and patiently recorded the house whilst we watched with all of the pride of parents on sports day.




The Rayburn buffed up quite well I think as a veteran of nearly twenty years cooked breakfasts and I bought some mega new oven gloves from the Cook shop in Penzance to set her off in her starring role.............unfortunately St Micheal's Mount took precedence in this shot!

The film should be on air in Germany on the 4th of July lets hope we do not end up on the cutting room floor and tomorrow our new house guest arrive and we will do it all again just for them.

La Tienda

Walls have been high on the agenda for the last couple of days - walls that shelter, that separate encompass and protect. Walls that are the definition of spaces and walls that quite frankly looked .............. a bit tired. After some thought though, an ancient pack of La Tienda - (a powdered earth pigment) was unearthed (no pun intended.!) and we set to work, mixing the powdered pigment with water and PVA to wash over the courtyard walls with big loose brush strokes, to produce a soft undulating Mediterranean colour that filled the day with sunshine.

The pigment caught the texture of the surface

This morning

enveloping and cosy

tucked beside the house

the shadows cast against the lovely worm surface by the evening sun

The house this evening



The light catching the carving on one of the hand carved pots that line the steps beside the Parterre

Olly found the purrrrrrrrrrfect spot for soaking up the evening sunshine

April garden

Well the saying is "Don't put your daughter on the stage Mrs Worthington" but with all of the enthusiasm of a star stuck mother I've been primping and preening Ednovean for her chance to appear in a travel documentary. The event should happen next weekend but I think we may be lucky if the German film crew make it and all of the dust from the Icelandic Volcano doesn't drop piece meal on Ednvoean Farm, under the heading "What can go wrong will" but really Volcano's?? I hadn't thought of that .........sigh............still at the moment all of my newly painted furniture is gleaming in the sunshine - I opted for a muted 30's inspired jade green for the terrace's steamer chairs with a progression to a Swedish Blue for the tables and chairs. I hope the results look happy friendly and welcoming - what do yo think?





if i have time these are next...............


I took a little time this afternoon to roam about the garden newly clothed in spring green - naturally the lawn mower gave an apologetic cough and died earlier in the week, leaving a tide mark in the middle of the lawn. Perhaps it came out in sympathy with the washing machine that also opted for its early season rebellion when faced with its first multiple change overs.

Still a rather testy gentleman came and repaired the washing machine that had a towel label tangled in its pump and gave us a severe washing machine caution into the bargain..........I now check the attachment of towel labels neurotically before stuffing them into the machine - the lawn mower is a bit more of and unknown quantity but an as-yet-not-proved-to-be-testy man is coming tomorrow so fingers crossed that at least one of our mowers can be persuaded to run before Ednoveans big day




The occasional daffodil is still surviving in odd corners but the majority are now history until next year

One of our TB brood mares Diva coquettishly grazing behind the garden fence

The tide mark of the mowers progress

The fresh green growth of the hedges that support so many birds

The south side of the barn

A gloriously sheltered bench tucked discreetly behind a hedge looking out towards the shipping lanes now nattily painted pale jade

Through the shelter belt towards the Italian garden

The sharp new light of spring

Those steamer chairs look really inviting to me but............



somebody was waiting for their tea!

Just another weeks hard painting to go as I write from a distinctly aromatic office into which Wilbur must have popped for his first venture into the house.............nor is Olly in ordure either as he has taken to opening our bedroom door at four 'o clock each morning with a loud wail that "He needs to go out right now or he will be late for the early morning chorus 'caus there's only an hour to go" He does sit and wait patiently though with his purr turned up to maximum volume resembling a jet aircraft taking off, until I give up at five and let him out.........So two cats perfect gentleman free to good homes...........I jest!

Iceland and the dust

Well the dust cloud brought us two new guest destined for Scotland but breezed into Cornwall instead yesterday but today we have had our first cancellation from guests unable to fly from Austria.............So we have the Apricot room free from tonight for two nights for a last minute break and not a speck of dust in sight!!

Almost shades of the Golden compass this strange world we live in!

Ollie

We didn't quite know what was wrong with Ollie last night but something definitely wasn't right in the world of the ginger tom cat. The first sign that things were amiss was a piercing feline wail from the stable yard beside the barn and I assumed that Wilbur and Ollie were having a difference of opinion. Ollie was apprehended and disgruntledly retired upstairs to take up position on a little antique stool he favours, glowering out of the window.......... And there he sat, tail twitching crossly from side to side, full of riotous indignation, occasionally muttering cat insults into the darkness for the rest of the evening




He remained balefully on duty long into the night guarding the house against who knows what horrors our ginger tom from the RSPCA that had been supplied with the dictate "Not to be rehomed with another cat".........but it wasn't until breakfast the next morning that two of our guest remarked that a little beige cat had followed them home from the Victoria Inn across the field. Now Wilbur is one thing but another cat in Ollie's view is a cat too far.........I do hope that it found its way home again

New and improved

Young Da Vince (Tufty) who was born here at Ednovean Farm in February

Well naturally now that Easter is over, the weather has made a one hundred per cent improvement, with sparklingly clear blue skies and dawn to dusk sunshine today. Natures little practical joke that is normally played out on bank holidays but I think it did not stop our guests from enjoying Cornwall at its wild capricious unpredictable best.

The words "new and improved" have wrought havoc in the household for a couple of weeks and it is true were not noticed by me at first nestling in the corner of Ollie's cat food supply. But I should start at the very beginning of the cautionary tale.........Each day, I would duly serve the correct portion of cat food, to our discerning feline and he would eye it with alarm and disdain, in nearly equal proportions before letting out a piteous wail...."Oh the folly Oh the indignity he would surely starve........." or at least that is what I think he would say if he wasn't a cat. I checked and rechecked the bag - First off -Same brand - naturally all humans are trained to be diligent in that respect, if one wants to survive the cats displeasure; same and favourite flavour -again pivotal to a quiet and peaceful life...........so what was the problem. Ollie toyed with the loathsome biscuits growing more and more mournful each day occasionally forcing down the odd mouthful but only under duress...........until it struck me - the flash across the packet saying "New and improved" Eureka - Ollie's favourite food had been remodelled and improved - not something that should be undertaken lightly when dealing with a cat. ....still approaching the end of a kilo bag he is finally coming to terms with the "improvement" but it has taken its toll. Some things are better unimproved and Ollie's cat food is one of them! But the weather, now that is definitely an improvement for the better

Perranuthnoe across the fields this morning

View across our car park to the house with the sea beyond



Da Vince/Tufty hard at work this morning trying to reach the grass

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from all at Ednovean farm, I hope that you had a great day - the weather certainly came up trumps down here in Cornwall with gloriously blue skies a gentle westerly breeze and wall to wall sunshine.

We laid the table for Breakfast the night before as we always do and as you can see the bunnies had magically metamorphosed to gold as a gift to the ladies at the morning table

The lanes are beautiful at the moment with a carpet of primroses

Looking into the blue room from the guests sitting room this morning - the lovely old original window opening at the end must have originally lit the cow house back in the days when the barn was described as Cot House Townplace on the early tithe maps. The librarian at the county library was of the opinion that the "Cot" came from a West Saxon word...........................

What sights it must have seen across the bay from the ancient granite barn

Ready for Easter

We are ready for Easter and the garden Bunnies are mowing the lawn - although I do think that six is a surfeit! Still they industriously trim the grass around the clumps of daffodils leaving a bowling green like surface...give or take the odd undulation.

The sun shines brilliantly........when it shines.............interspersed by the odd blustery shower but Easter wouldn't be Easter without the traditional bank holiday weather to test the resolve and the gardens of Ednovean Farm are very sheltered with hidden walks to discover away from the wind.

The other afternoon was spent preening the sheltered gravel border hidden behind the Italian garden, always a few degrees warmer than the rest of the garden with just a hint of the Mediterranean in its spare gravelled paths. It leads eventually to a reclusive cobbled corner lines by Olive trees under planted with Daffodils and Narcissus

before opening unexpectedly into the open garden again

Rabbits

............and yesterday afternoon was spent filling the car from the local Supermarket ready for Easter and now everybody is here and ready for the Easter Holidays.

Happy Easter