We have weather!

The recent storms have hit the head lines and at times it has felt as though we were rounding Cape Horn in a house as nature bared her teeth at us in a flurry of malice. The day that was billed as the "biggest waves in the world hits Cornwall" was definitely "interesting" to say the least. We managed to get all of the horses stabled in good time and retreat inside of our house's thick comforting walls, before the worst of the weather came through and boy! did it blow - a miserable howling tantrum of a gale. Fortunately Charles had put a warming casserole in the oven at lunch time because the electricity went off very soon after dark proceeded by the television reception and so we sat in the darkness with flickering candles feeling not quite as romantic as we should have done listening to the storms force outside with nothing to do but wait. By eightish we managed to get outside again to check the horses by candle light, which sent the fillies scuttling around their stables. Spud-Cat had long ago decided against his evening constitutional and actually he's been grounded in case he blew away

We had a welcome respite once in our turbulent week and so I climbed up to the top of the farm to take some photos of Mounts Bay and you can just see our houses roof tucked into the hillside - they knew a thing or two about gales when they built it way back in time. I could just see the sea foaming into the cove below the colts field who I must say looked slightly peeved to be disturbed!

The seas turbulent heart is still showing in the cove below the farm

One of Danni's sons Magic modelling his field

Walking back towards the house for breakfast I topped to look at Sophie and her Daughter Lissie looking engagingly over the fence

Sophie and Lissie - alas you can see just how wet the ground s now with
the
incessant rain

but do not despair - back in the garden the first Daffodils have started to flower, each new plant lifting my spirits as we race towards spring

The wild planting around an old gatepost in an informal
area of the garden

Spud-Cat's best advice - find a cosy spot and let the world go by!

I hope your week has gone well and thinking of all of the poor people in Somerset

Christine and Charles xx

Continuing my look back over our year at Ednovean - on to April, May and June

Continuing my look back over last year with spring
in the courtyard in April and fresh new growth

The fountain always flamboyant starts to tinkle

Irises emerge amongst the box balls in the car park

April

A little cheating with a newly planted urn in a
 rear courtyard

Spring surprises

Gravel paths waiting to be explored
as summer approaches

Heady days and tea is ready to be served in the garden at last

May

June

Pots soften the terrace

Lush new growth on the Parterre

Tranquil mornings overlooking Mounts Bay

The heat embraces the Italian Gardens

Mounts Bay develops a new glow

Lanterns waiting for candles in the courtyard

Foxgloves

Spud Cat

Early flowers

The early flowers of the season are always the most
welcome

The first thrilling find of a glowing yellow Daffodil or Soleil d'Or in the garden always give me hope that spring is really just around the corner. Each evening I tour the garden to look at the newly emerging bulbs and catalogue their progress, just as a litmus of the passing days and to reassure myself that warmer days are just around the corner. The other evening I spotted a few snow drops almost forgotten under a burgeoning shrub but determined to flower none the less. At last to slowly walk back towards to the house, Spud Cat bounding in front of me, still full of the first exuberance of his youth,  he always arrives first, to wait on the doorstep for the slow human to arrive - I wonder if he thinks about spring just around the corner and new plans for the garden...... no I doubt it more likely to be "Food, will there be food in my bowl!" Still it works very well our little evening ritual!

Humans so slow

New snow drops

Looking down towards Perranuthnoe from Ednovean Farm

A last look over the bay as storm cloud gather the other evening

Find us at Ednovean Farm

A retrospective of our year at Ednovean Farm

First light and we wake up to a rare snow fall here in Cornwall

I thought it might be fun to put together  a retrospective of our year here at Ednovean Farm and with diligence and discipline, I went through my files with the aim of selecting only on or two photos, to represent each month. Well that was the idea but alas as I trawled through the year more and more photos found there way into my little desktop file until it bulged with seventy photos so, in truth I may have to make several posting to complete my mission!
Still lets start with January when we woke up to an unexpected snow fall and then move on through the spring for this blog and then I'll follow up with Summer and Autumn with subsequent posts....................

Winter and Spring 

starting with
January

The sun setting over Perranuthnoe

A surprise snowfall blanketing the courtyard, in the early morning light

February days

Sunshine in the spare branches of the Luquat
 set under a warm wall

The sun now higher in the sky warms our home and
the Euphorbia comes into flower

The sun creeps higher and touches the fountain
that forms the centre piece of our courtyard garden

March! and spring has truly arrived

Daffodils are grown commercially in #Cornwall and these are just at the
end of the lane where we live - not quite our garden but
 natures garden ever the less

Back in our garden and the business of tidying and taking care
of the winter casualties continues - our log pile to a back ground of
pretty Tete a Tete Daffodils

Spud cat admiring the sunset from the
 lower garden fence

back in the house our B&B gets busier with Daffodils
accompanying the Breakfast table

April days and we start to think of Summer

I planted an old urn (a sale room find) with  a glowing white
Hydrangea, to form a view point out of our hall window,
in the little courtyard behind the house

Irises and box balls springing into growth in our car
park

The fountain plays on

A relaxed selection of pots and self seeded herbs soften
the top terrace of the main courtyard on the approach
to the front door

Well that was our spring last year in pictures - I think I will divide the year up so that I wont make each blog too long - in the mean time do drop in to our daily Facebook page to see my album of the garden year a Ednovean farm

Post by Ednovean Farm luxury Bed and Breakfast Cornwall.

A few moments from my January day

On a day that started with a rainbow

Just a few moments from my January day today, starting with the rainbow that I took a quick snap of as I cam out of our front door hoping to get a better shot from the top steps but alas it melted into the rain. Our day continued.................

The austere light struggling through the clouds throwing the bare trees into sharp relief........................

The moments of dazzling sunshine playing on the old farmyard................................

The entrance to our home I loved the glittering sun shining off of the gravel
and casting strange dazzling rays of light across my little world

and the final gentle glow of the sunset - a moment of peace in the courtyard garden and quiet reflection across Mounts bay with the final glimpse of a fishing boat setting out to sea around the point for the night

The sunset glimpsed from the courtyard

The courtyard entrance gate silhouetted against the sunset

The final moments of the day watching a fishing boat setting out to sea

We live at Ednovean farm with too many horses a cat called Spud and welcome guests for Bed and Breakfast in our home  

So its goodbye form Spud and Me for now - have a great day - sorry Spud cat is a little bit blurred in this one but maybe he is thinking about the weather yes that was the same day too!

Spud Taylor Esq Mouser extraordinary

Summer dreams today in the January couryard

The path that welcomes our guests to the sheltered
courtyard gardens

This winter we've been glad of the sheltered courtyard gardens around the house formed in the year 2000 by garden designer Ian Lowe and maturing now with the years.  Even on a dull day (as above) i always find something to look at in the formal layout created from the old farmyard, the formal layout comes into its own stripped down by winter, dissected by the formal pattern and strictly geometric box hedges and topiary softened by the burgeoning Date palms

Each time we excavated anything at the farm I always hoped to find old flagstones or cobbles and each time I find the deep sticky clay suggested to have originally traveled in front of ancient glaciers and forming an infill between the two granite headland either side of Perranuthnoe. i was a little bit luckier with the granite sets that form this path though - after years of scanning free newspaper adds for just such an item, the day before the path was due to be laid there they were "For sale granite sets!" They form a wonderful welcoming entrance leading to our Parterre d courtyard in front of the house don't you think and the old worn stones catch the light at certain times even on dull days giving the garden a feeling of permanence.

In the summer time the courtyard glow basking in the warmth and light and giving secluded breakfast areas and tranquil memories to dream of yet  when a rare winter frost comes, the structural planting gains new life.

A summer day and the courtyard shines

The geometric patterns of the box

Strictly formal

or wildly romantic?

basking at the end of  a Summer day the heat held in the old granite walls

Looking down on the fountain

Winter frost is rare in West Cornwall

Back to yesterday from my trip along memory lane though - here's  where benches sit under old stone walls waiting to catch the suns rays and host a basking cat and plants wait for warmer days but i hope the little look back at Summer has cheered the day along for you all. We need it sometimes don't you think!

We have lots of separate side rooms (and I didn't notice
the piece of polythene blown in by the storm until now!)

I'm not sure my Agaves are enjoying the worse winter for twenty years!

The Date Palms have enjoyed the mostly mild weather
 though

I'll leave you with one of my favorite plants gleaming in the sunshine
yesterday, after one of those recent vicious showers