Today at Ednovean Farm

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It was only a simple white flower pale and ethereal - almost too delicate to survive but it brightened up my morning as I hung the washing out this morning.

Over the years I've learnt to put the spring flowers near to the house in the places I'm likely to visit the most in the course of a working day when dusk comes early.

So the little supermarket finds, the gifts from neighbours have found a home not in the outer garden where summer days tempt me to linger and wander but in the unpromising area betwixt house,stables and boundary wall. and on gloomy mornings how I treasure their appearance!

Catch up with my last Garden diary here

I've filled a selection of treasured terracotta pots with spring bulbs to put beside the front door

Where's the Ednovean Diary?

February 2017

So where has the Ednovean Diary gone to? Well it is still alive and well and available on our website but every now and again I do pop in yo here to give you a gentle reminder about how to find it.

It's not that I don't like Blogger, it is so easy to use but I just don' have time to keep up two blogs at the moment - or maybe I only have one thought at a time!

So this was Ednovean Farm this week in the cool light of the February sunshine as our ivy-clad Farmhouse settled to wait for summer as it has no doubt done over the centuries.

Ednovean Farm - February 2017

Happy reading and don't forget you can no find my blog at https://ednoveanfarm.co.uk/blog/

The last of the summer wine

I feel these days contain the last of the summer wine as misty damp morning suddenly clear to sparkling afternoons. And with the gentle decline of the year an elderly Tom cat has found his way back to us after quite a few years away. Wilbur - well we had to call him something and "Wilbur" just seemed to fit his lugubrious features, suddenly returned and took over my stray cat cafe saucers as a frequent diner. I often referred to the silent enigmatic tabby in my blogs of around 2009 and then one day after an altercation with Ollie cat he didn't appear again  .........until now!

Wilbur is an elderly gentleman now and keeps to a strict routine of two days at Ednovean followed by one days cat patrol before returning ravenously hungry. He appeared again, as though he had never been away and slipped back into his cat routine in that seamless way that cats do. 

The years have not been kind to him though or maybe he has lived life to the full in his time away. His chest is wheezy now and he moves very slowly with a slight limp and he has acquired permanent a kink in his tail but he still maintains his aloof, feral distance never approaching his saucer until I have moved away. Still it is good to think he remembered us when his needs changed and I have a horrible idea that even if I could catch him and take him to the vets they would just say he's very old and put him down. One day I'm, sure the day will come but until then the dignified old feral is calling the shots - saucers filled twice a day and maybe, just maybe he'll take a snooze in the open garden room these days as a concession to age, bless his old feral soul.

As I watch the old cat at the closing of the year with endless nights and days when no one seems to have turned the lights on, I really do feel I'm watching the last of the summer wine. And yet tomorrow the sun may come out again!

Apologies not the best shot of Wilbur taken through the glass of our front door of the old cat waiting for his breakfast. The camera had wanted to use flash and I wanted natural light and so it retaliated by using the slowest exposure possible!

Welcome February...I think!

Sunset from Ednovean Farm garden in February

Little shards of ice had spread across the lane form the frozen puddles yesterday morning, sign of that a car had driven along before me as I walked down to feed Diva and Belle, our two TB brood mares, on the first morning in February. It is surprisingly cold for Cornwall but poor Europe with minus 37! now that is cold.

The house and Parterre the first day in February

Ice had formed on the fountain in the middle of the courtyard and the cats were dubious about the idea of "outside" and after  brief foray said they preferred "inside" thank you - In fact Ollie is still sitting beside me puring gently this morning and he normally gets up at a heady 5.ooam for his morning constitutional I think last nights clear skies will lead to another Ollie grounded day too but at the moment it is too dark to tell. Certainly i spent a little time yesterday evening manoeuvring the geraniums nearer to the house walls and covering the more tender plants with nets to keep them warm - lets hope it works. And of course the clear skies have led to another "sunset photo - while I was waiting i saw the two little mossy, granite steps caught in the pink glow of the setting sun a fitting end to the day and the beginning of the month.

Granite steps leading up o one of our terraces - see the Blue room to the right too

I've finished my facebook photo album for January - do take a look you should be able to view it even if you are not a facebook users and don't forget to look at our facebook page ever now and then the link is at the very bottom of the web page - I put the latest local events on there if I find them.

January album:-
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.277899998934795.65145.126610574063739&type=3&l=8639d86e5e

The start of my February album!

A morning of magic

I could not believe the magical morning as i got up to feed the horses this morning and could not resist stopping to take of photo of St Micheal's Mount reflecting the pink sky behind me with the mist hanging in the valley ........ despite anxious whinnies for food from the stables and Spud cat trying to climb up my leg!

Horsey breakfast finished they strolled off to their fields for their daily task of grass trimming and as we ferried them about on the Ednovean Farm equivalente of the "school run" i was struck by the mist gently lifting from the pastures - the grass spangled with cobwebs

i walked up to the top field to look out across Mounts Bay as the mist drained from the valleys towards the sea (click the photo to enlarge)

the familiar fields spun by the spiders webs making the brambles a fairies grotto

i was soon spotted by some of our young horses who hurtled enthusiasticaly up the hill to supervise

Looking eastwards towards Trebarvah in the early light

Just twenty minutes later as we were aout to eat our breakfast one lasts photo of the Mount with the mist of the morning truly an enchanted morning for the Mount