Springtime in Cornwall is a wonderful season to soak up the atmosphere as fresh new buds open in the garden, to bring welcome flashes of green so full of luscious promises.; take a walk in the countryside or even a ride around the lanes; to just sit on the beach and eat an ice cream and of course to welcome spring back into the home by freshening up the look.
Continue reading “Four spring inspirations with love from Cornwall” »
Morning magic
I must admit I was excited at the prospect of a rare snowfall here in West Cornwall over the last weeks. A dusting of those magical icy crystals does add an adventurous spice to our normally subtropical climate and when I opened the front door on the predicted morning? Well there was definitely a powdery dusting of the white magic clothing the Parterre in the Courtyard but I don’t think we had been transported to Narnia!
Continue reading “February’s snow – magic moments over the years” »
We set out to walk along the coastal footpath, threading across the fields from Ednovean Farm along the ancient footpaths that drop execrably down towards the sea. As we emerged at Trebarvah, there is a spellbinding view down over Perranuthnoe to St Michael’s Mount, which is so evocative of an impressionist painting.
From here a church way (probably used to access the church and carry the coffins down to the graveyard) picks its way across the mine spoil heap from another era and down through the terraced fields to emerge conveniently near the village pub. Continue reading “A view over Perranuthnoe” »
The gardens of St Michael’s Mount reopened at Easter and finally, this week, I fulfilled a long held ambition to visit them! I know we live within sight of the mount but somehow the time was never right – that’s not until this week as we enjoyed a Mediterranean spring here in Cornwall and I made a concerted effort to take the time off to see them. Well we were not disappointed and they are simply fabulous swathed across the impossible rock face with clever terracing and path ways constructed for visitors to see them although I understand one of the job requirements for the gardeners is the ability to abseil! Continue reading “A visit to the St Michael’s Mount gardens” »
The Penwith Tour is a perfect drive around West Cornwall (formally know as West Penwith) that follows the coast beside the tranquil waters of Mounts bay with the iconic St Michael’s Mount and then on to the ancient town of Penzance with her granite clad streets, before skirting the bay to the fishing port of Newlyn to the pretty harbour at Mousehole in part one.
Last month I started to write about planning a balance between leisure times and trying to see as much as possible of West Cornwall if you are staying couple of days with us at Ednovean Farm. The “Penwith tour” is a contrast to my walking day suggestions following the Penwith Peninsular by car and yet never far from the sea and it is a great way to West Cornwall.
Continue reading “The Penwith Tour I Marazion to Mousehole” »
The guests in our Apricot bedroom have a view over the sundial garden from their terrace
May and June have sped passed and the Ednovean Farm garden has met the cusp of summer before I almost noticed the passing of time. We’ve been so busy with the Bed and Breakfast this year that I hardly noticed the approach of the longest day – maybe it was the week that I spent glued to the Chelsea flower show, veraciously examining the designs of the show gardens that led me to miss my garden update last month for May.
In this month’s update I’ll show you around the formal gardens softened with wild flowers and share some photos of my favourite garden flowers as the heady days of summer finally approach. Continue reading “Ednovean’s garden as Spring turns to Summer” »
The May is slow to flower this year but Perranuthnoe’s sandy beach had just been exposed by the tide and St Michael’s Mount was framed by Penzance
Everybody has their spring rituals I’m sure and for us, it is a walk down to the sea again, that stretch of blue that frames our horizon The sea so close that it frames our days and yet with winter jobs to do in the stables, it is so very so very far away. But with the weather set fair on Saturday we set off to walk across the couple of fields that leads to Trebarvah and then follow the narrow lane down to the fork to towards the coastal footpath in what has become our own spring ritual – the first walk to the sea for the year! Continue reading “A spring walk to the sea” »
A spring morning in our garden and the day almost seems to shimmer with anticipation
There has been an almost tangible air of expectation in the air in the days leading up to the spring equinox. I felt it so strongly this week as I walk down through the dew laden morning to feed the brood mares and I stopped to take a snap of the morning magic as each droplet of water magnified the rising sun thrice fold. The very early Easter this year at last coincides with the height of the spring flowers as it always seems rather sad that the very brightest flowers have long finished before our guest arrive for their Easter break.
In this week’s blog I’ve looked a spring changes in Perranuthnoe, the growing momentum of spring in our garden and Danni our Spanish stallions special spring treat – a dressage course with Jenny Rolfe, just because I thought you’d like to see his picture!
After the storm and s[ud-Cat was the first to find a sunny spot in the courtyard for the morning
We have had such a week that ranged from ferocious storms to gentle calm in the run up to Valentine’s day. This week I spotted the first pale pink cherry blossoms starting to break today, as I passed a farmhouse garden on Danni in Rosudgeon riding along the narrow ancient lanes edged with moss covered banks studded with primroses. I seemed that no sooner had I written my last blog following the steady step of spring than storm Imogen scorched in to the British isle bringing wind gust of up to 90 miles and hour and sixty foot waves to be seen just off of St Ives.
This time I thought I really would make an effort to captures an impression of the relentless ferocious rhythm to the seas that these storms bring and headed down into our local village of Perranuthnoe to visit the local beach. Continue reading “Storms and Valentines” »
A January view over west Cornwall
The gentle weeks of winter seem to speed by us now and I love the soft muted colours at this time of the year as somebody remarked on Google+ “It is just a matter of editing your colour palette” Each day as we exercise the horses (and a horse is great for looking over those Cornish hedges!) I look down over the broad sweeping valleys interspersed with those particularly short rounded trees of Cornwall made magical in the low angles of the light and hinting back to older landscapes. They seem to huddle in the sheltered crevices of the contours before the land sweeps broadly up again to the bracken covered hills. This week was St Hilary Feast and the hounds were paraded in Goldsithney as they had always been but somehow we hadn’t expected to see them when we set out for a ride with Danni our Spanish Stallion and Archie his first son – danni is looking slightly concerned as you can see but happy to stop to chat before we continued on our way deeper into the Cornish countryside.
Continue reading “Countryside and seaside beyond Ednovean Farm” »