Friday 26 February 2010




We've had a fairly dry week here, even though the forecast told us to expect inches of rain - it never happened. So we took the opportunity to clear some of the overgrown hedges at top pond to give our keen fishermen a little bit more space. It had been creeping further and further into the grounds (as they do) and no amount of hedge cutting could really tame it - so we decided to be a little more rigorous this time!

Maybe, one day, we can lay some of our ancient Cornish hedges properly. It is fascinating to see how these burst back into life after having been maltreated in such an awful way. And hopefully the banks that have been cleared of scrubs and bushes this week will produce some fantastic new wild flowers!


Change of Guard


Our wild flower bank is now truly bursting into colour, with a change from the dominating white of the snowdrops to a much richer shade of purple and purple/white of the crocuses!

We always find that once the crocuses are out, things speed up very quickly. Not long now and the grass will start growing again. Nature seems to be waking up slowly but surely. Trees are budding in earnest and much of the wildlife is getting down to the serious business of defending courting grounds, mating and nesting.

Saturday 13 February 2010

Frog spawn in our pond

First frog spawn of the season found in the garden pond!

It has gone quite cold again this week, with our ponds and lakes freezing over once more, yet that doesn't seem to stand in the way of budding life in the frog world! We couldn't quite believe our eyes when we found the first frog spawn in our garden pond, frozen into a thin layer of ice.

We did inspect our fishing lakes and river too, but couldn't find anything there (yet), so we either have an exceptionally eager (or is it daft) pair of frogs in the garden, or the garden micro-climate is a little more favourable.

As we are planning to clean the ponds out next week, we'll be moving it all into a quiet spot further up the water feature and hope for the best!

Friday 5 February 2010

Winter 2009 / 2010 – Spring is on its way!


Winter 2009/2010 - Spring is on its way!

Sadly for those of you who were on holiday then – but it was confirmed that it was the wettest November on record for this area.

And that was followed by a dry and sunny (but a bit cold) December and then snow! – days and days of the stuff and very rare for here – the most for 30 years. Everything looked so beautiful but getting around on the roads was not easy. We were full for Christmas and New Year but luckily all the arrival and departure days were clear enough for everyone to get here and get home !

The answer to a recent question on QI – it takes Spring about 7 to 8 weeks to get from Cornwall to the north of Scotland so Spring arrives here first!

The first snowdrops were out in mid-January as soon as the snow melted and we now have the first crocuses and daffodils – roll on Spring… and as long as they don’t forecast it, we may have that BBQ summer at last!