Wednesday 24 March 2010

Forda mentioned in Daily Mail Travel part!

We are absolutely delighted to (unknowingly) have been featured in last Saturday's travel part of the Daily Mail in a nice spread about Cornwall!

www.dailymail.co.uk
Camping, caravanning and B&Bs have always been a staple of Cornwall holidays, but now camping is taking a glamorous turn, B&Bs are offering a touch of luxury and boutique hotels springing up all over the region.

Bit o' fencin!

It's been an awfully rainy week so far and, sadly, it doesn't look like it's going to lighten very much for the next week or so. I've thrown a tentative eye on the long term forecast and I'm holding my breath a little on that one too... it doesn't look to good at the moment...

Never mind, can't hang around because of a bit of rain. We've decided to replace all the fencing around the Barn and the main house, and even with the rain falling steadily, we've been out there helping the professionals! We are now enjoying a rather open and pleasant view across to the Barn for a few hours, until the new panels go up.

We tried to be kind to the beautiful clematis that was sprawling along the old fence, and did our best to not damage it too much when ripping out the old fencing panels and posts. We did have to cut it back to its main branches, but luckily, it's just about the right time to treat this type of clematis to a rigorous cut (with winter clinging on so late - usually you'd cut back around late Feb, early March), so we are hoping that we'll be rewarded with lots of strong new shoots this year., even if our share of flowers might not be so abundant this year.

We'll upload some more photos of the finished project soon! It will certainly smarten this part of the grounds up no end again!

Wednesday 10 March 2010

Injured duck makes it against all odds


We've gained a little friend here at Forda! It's one of the resident male ducks, and he somehow managed to seriously injure his foot last Autumn.
The first couple of months he was hardly capable of anything but sliding around on his belly, with his injured leg trailing behind him uselessly. When swimming, he would go round in circles. The only serious means of getting around quickly was flying.
On closer observation we found his leg and especially his flipper seriously mangled. We gathered that he must have either been attacked by a predator or got tangled up one way or another.

Against all odds, he survived, be it with a little help from us. We fed him extra rations of grain and as long as there was water close by to slide into, and land & take off from, he was relatively safe from his enemies, especially Mr. Fox!

He now comes and visits us in the garden at the main house on a daily basis and still demands his special ration. He has become quite tame and will even eat out of Gillians hand.
Being an invalid will probably mean that he'll never mate (again) in his life, but at least he is healing slowy and can hopefully enjoy another spring and summer at Forda!

Tuesday 2 March 2010

How to start a fire!

We had a really good day yesterday, clearing all the debris of our serious hedge cutting last week. It was a wonderfully sunny and warm day, and it was a joy to be able to do some more work outside.


Although we had little wind, we managed to get the fire going in the end. What you need is A: a farmer who know what he's doing (well - sort of ;-)), lots of paper and cardboard, and a little bit of liquid fuel, just to liven things up now and then.


Although one wouldn't believe it, this picture was taken late in the day around 4 pm - we had just piled the last lot to burn on and (as you can see in the picture) were enjoying the fruits of our labours (we needed that!). The last lot was reduced to ashes surprisingly quick - it was all burnt down by 5.30.
So we now have a nice, open hedge bank at top pond and our fishermen will hopefully be glad to have more space and less chance of getting their lines caught in any shrubbery!