Spring in Daffodils

Mixed species of Daffodils frame an old granite gatepost at the end of a vista

Spring to me means daffodils, those impossibly bright flowers that appear as if by magic each year after the long winter days As the weeks have gone by the drifts of spring daffodils have unfurled across the garden threading like  a  coloured ribbon amongst the palms and framing the marker stones at the end of walks.

This week in the garden I  spent some time raking up the palm frond that had fallen in the overnight gales accompanied by the ever present Spud Cat of course. He's always a great diversion from any repetitive jobs in the garden, racing around the palms and occasionally shining up the trunks to look down at me triumphantly from his lofty perch. i can almost hear him saying "Cats rule OK!" This week he found the new shoots of the catmint just above the soil - well all I can say is "My name is Spud and I'm a catnip-o-holic!"

I'll leave you with a photo I took this morning looking down through the courtyard to the sea from our home at Ednovean Farm  as spring gathers momentum.

The courtyard garden in front of our home opens to the
sweep of the main lawn fringed by palm trees - that's
St Michael's Mount beyond

Spud Cat Esq gardening cat extraordinary

Click here for more blog post about Ednovean Farm

Summer plans and winter jobs in Cornwall

St Michael's Mount at dusk

I think people often wonder what happens in a B&B in winter - do we hibernate to wait for the return of Summer perhaps. Well the answer is  we keep pretty busy - it's amazing how the amount of work expands to fill the space - in the traditional manner.

Here at Ednovean Farm we take the opportunity to start the education of some of the young horses that we have bred, in the quieter winter months.

Charles with Toffee a young Holstein gelding this very wet Sunday

Each week the young horses learn to perform more tasks and gain in strength and suppleness, until eventually they will be ready to ride.....with negotiation of course!

Magic one of  our spanish stallion Danilon's sons

Occasionally we venture away from the farm - My husband Charles surprised me with supper at our local pub the other night - it could have been because I offered to make my "Famous beef casserole" of course!!

We we walked down across the fields in the twilight to the Victoria Inn down in the Perranuthnoe and spent the evening tucked up beside the log burning stove enjoying a delicious supper by candle light. As we walked home again in the darkness, under a velvety black sky studded with stars, I thought how  strange it was that our feet could feel the well trodden grove of the footpath in the darkness from the passage of feet, over the year by some inner instinct. I stopped at the top of the hill to admire the ring of lights around Mounts Bay a saw the moon on its back above St Michael's Mount.

Supper at the Victoria inn

Still my thoughts have started to turn towards summer accommodation and this week I put together a blog for my guests to help them plan their days out. I spent quite a few evening
researching some of the dates ( about which I must admit to having a hopeless memory!) and turned up some surprising facts - Penzance was raided by the Spanish who burnt most of the Medieval houses before holding a mass and setting sail again or that Turkish pirates were still capturing slaves as late as the 17c. Dear, dear, what a wild and dangerous place it was. if you would like to check out my first suggestions for a visit to Cornwall, try my Penwith Tour Part one!

St Michael's Mount - one of the first stops on my tour it has been in turn a place
of pilgrimage, an Abbey, a fortress and a home

Valentines and birdsong

Ednovean Farm's own Spud and Louis

As Valentines day speeds towards us again, there has been a subtle change of atmosphere in the garden. The joyous sound of birdsong fills our days  and I suddenly realised how much I had missed it in the long winter months. Of course it was Valentines day when the birds were said to choose their mates and the Ednovean Farm ones are definitely singing their courtship songs just recently!

The bright days of warm sunshine temps the cats outside again, to preen and pose in sheltered corners of the courtyard gardens. The odd couple of toms find a mutual interest, in lapping up the spring warmth; the plump white hedgerow cat and the aristocratic burmese have but a single joy in worshiping the sun, in quiet harmony together, despite their disparate backgrounds. Spud would point out this is a purely platonic friendship to his fans!

Spud-Cat a confirmed sun worshiper 

I set off today to secure those elusive red roses for my B&B guests coming for the Valentines weekend.  Experience over the years has taught me to expect  a dearth of reasonable priced flowers nearer to the time and today I added a pack of heart shaped confetti to the trolley just for fun. I have some idea of scattering it around the vases of flowers - not to OTT I hope for my guests...... After all it is Valentines and I want to bring out the full romance of the occasion for them!

Just a quick update!! A very happy Valentines day now out in my latest post. I hope you enjoy it - of course Spud-Cat will think it was all his own work!

To read more about the quiet days of anticipation try  "Enjoying winter days" at Ednovean Farm

We had snow!!

There was a dusting of snow on a Greek pot on the
terrace yesterday

We had snow yesterday! Oh the excitement that those big fat flakes bring to the day - maybe it was those childhood memoires of waking up and finding the hum drum familiar world transformed by a magical, enveloping blanket of white. The flurries started here in Cornwall,  where we live near sea level, on Monday afternoon. I'd been watching for days of course for snowflakes after a few promising weather forecasts.

It must be said, it as a chilly afternoon but I was intent on a major operation in our box parterre that has been suffering from box blight and I decided on major surgery with a hedge trimmer. I finally found by slightly angling the trimmer into the box I could reduce it by a good three inches thus removing the diseased portions in one fell swoop. It was then the first huge flakes started to swirl around me and strangely as I worked I'd stopped really noticing the cold. With blackening skies we finished our garden jobs and moved on to bringing our young horses in from the fields - that was after dealing with a feline emergency to Spud and Louis who had been sunbathing in a sheltered spot under the date palms and needed to be inside FAST!

Spud-Cat was not amused!

AS dusk fell I really hoped the snow would continue overnight so that we woke up to a magical new world but - well I do live in Cornwall so the covering was a gentle dusting rather that that deep scrunchy snow I was dreaming of. Still I can say! We had snow this year"

If you'd like to see some of my snaps of our "nearly" snow from around the garden, take a look at my blog "Watching for snowflakes"

Looking across the fields to the village of Perranuthnoe

Only eight weeks until spring

A corner of the hall at Ednovean farm

It's eight weeks until spring apparently and how eagerly I count the days! Watching the garden each day for the smallest sign of new growth and following the sunset each evening, watching for precious extra minutes of daylight each day.
The days hung heavily just after Christmas in a sort of twilight hinterland of a season lost -  but not a new land found but now i really do think that spring is on the horizon don't you?
Occasionally I dress the house with the bright new flowers of the season, to cheer the old stone walls and can never help but wonder how many springs my home has seen. Did people stand here and look at the sky and wonder if spring was really ever going to come over the horizon? With an early name, thought to be of West saxon origins, listed as "Cot House Towneplace" on the tithe maps it is probable that my home has seen many a spring come and go but for me each one is special. each one holds the memories of the winter - the hard work in wind and rain and sometimes but very rarely snow - and then it slowly slips aways and the sun shines again and I think "yes spring at last" only eight weeks to go I'm told!

A simple pottery jug holds Daffodils on a sunny windowsill

To read more about spring at Ednovean Farm try my latest blog post:-  A spring affair

The fist Daffodils are opening in the garden now but I find
them far too precious to pick!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve and I just wanted to wish all of the bloggers and blog readers out there a very Happy Christmas and thank you for following the Ednovean farm blog throughout the year. If you missed my latest blog post running up to Christmas you can catch it here and see my alternative Christmas tree!

That's is all for now (I forgot to buy the Parsnips for christmas lunch so a mercy mission to salvage Charles Christmas lunch is called for!)  so Let us all wish for a joyful and peaceful Christmas and a new year full of hope and purpose.

A little bit of Christmas magic

The Dining room at Ednovean Farm

You know these cold dark morning call for a little bit of Christmas magic to start the day. Our old farmhouse just lends itself to this time of year and never looks more beautiful than when the candles are flickering overhead. I've hung metal chandeliers  from the high beams above the Dining table and sitting room in front of an old overmantel mirror (a sale room find) to double the impact and then I line the window sills with fat church candle. I took a few snaps after our guest had left this morning before I cleared the table - I think it gives just a little romance to sit together in a weekend break from their busy lives and just soak up the old building.
P.S Please excuse the washing up!!

After Breakfast

breakfast is a relaxed affair with an eclectic mix of china, candles and brown
sauce if our guest would like it!

The dining room window sill lined with fat church candles
and oversized baubles piled in a fruit bowl for extra
Christmas glitz!

If you didn't catch my Christmas tree deliberations in my other blog you can read it here for extra inspiration to start your decorating this year. Happy Christmas back soon !