A lovley afternoon on St Michael's Mount

It is always an irresistable treat to wander round the back of St Michael's Mount and through the private gardens and terraces, so it did not take much to persuade me to abandon my own garden for a sunny afternoon stroll.



There's not much to say really, it is more a case of quiet contemplation and joy. Every path reveals a gem and my thanks goes to the custodians and gardeners who create such a special space. Enjoy the pictures.

a pictorial journey, you can look to recreate if you visit us 

 the plants and the paths are just delightful aren't they.....

 

and a gentle boat trip back to the mainland

the magic of St Michael's Mount.

Campsite ready for our Open village Day

Where has all the time gone? April just went in a blurr, a slightly wet blurr. The reservoir garden is  decidedly overrun with weeds, which I have been telling myself are protecting some of the succulents and I now realise are probably smothering some of the plants. So, time for some serious gardening this week, not least because on Sunday 24th May we are playing host as garden No. 21 in our Village Open Day.

There will be both large and small gardens to wander through, art exhibitions (and we have a wealth of hidden talent in the village) live music, cream teas, plants, stalls and a treasure hunt. You can even climb the church tower to catch a view of St Michael's Mount. Yee-hah!

Our own little old reservoir garden will be open, with a slack-line to have a go on, a farm produce stall and some books and other things for sale, with the option to watch the woman-at-work, trying to tame her garden, which as always, is a work in progress!

The magnolia has been budding for a couple of weeks now, Auntie Jimmie's Magnolia, it has survived 3 years with me, so I am hoping it will grow to a lovely big mature tree in time.

Over the valley the solar panel field is complete and in the right light it almost looks like a field of bluebells.

And although we had planned to open in June, since it is bank holiday weekend and half term from the 23rd May, we thought we might just as well open the campsite at the same time. Officially then we are open from next weekend! And Lakki is looking forward to meeting this summer's visitors.

This year our youngest is in charge of selling eggs to campers. His birthday present in April was a new henhouse and his own hens (at his own request), 7 copperblacks, to add to the 5 we already have, whose produce are already being sold to villagers.

He has become our village egg entrepeneur, smartened up his go-kart and given it a new number plate to ensure there can be no doubt as to what he is selling.

Eggs have also been the subject of a school science project, making crystal egg geodes with home layed eggs and some magnesium sulphate from the horse first-aid kit! A real dad and lad project.

First you take a hen and a goose egg.....crack them and use the contents for an omelette, wash the shells out, dry them, glue them on the inside and sprinkle with crushed magnesium sulphate and then soak them in a saturated solution of magnesium sulphate and some ink for colour and voila!

very pretty on closer inspection

Other highlights in April included a morning at Port Isaac

as the egg entrepeneur had a go as an extra on the set of Doc Martin, earning his own wage to boot! No pictures of the set are allowed, so here's one of the happy wage-earner sat on the policeman's landrover at the end of his shift.

Right, must go and get the gardening gloves on. More blogs to come soon.

Open for Easter

It has been a quiet month. Ponies have grazed the paddock for me, but have to be canny with them and pick my days to let them through because the big brown boy (the bay thoroughbred) cannot do things by halves and must go in like a bull-in-a-china-shop, kicking his back legs about and cavorting and throwing up hods of grass with his antics!

And after last years disaster with Lakki (the grey arab) eating the cortaderia, I have had to put electric fencing around the plants and keep the small shetland out the paddock, since he has no respect for the electric tape at all. I keep telling them it is a campsite primarily, but because it is green they seem to think it is theirs!

After several months of dormancy at the campsite, we are now a frenzy of activity. Managed to order a second lot of beech root stock and the 'hedglets' have been planted along the churshside of the reservoir garden boundary. Have also transplanted some ornamental grass between the yucca and the hydrangae on the same boundary, they don't look much yet, but I am still hopeful they will develop into a dense living hedge (although it is probably a little hopeful to expect that this year, maybe next year).

Elsewhere in the garden, the tete-a-tete narcissi are popping up and look a treat and the primroses are looking pretty.  There is a hustle-and-bustle in the village, as prepararation begins for our "Open Village" day at the end of May and I am in a quandry whether to join in, we are still in such an early phase in our regeneration and development of the garden, don't want it to look sad in comparison to the others.

My men folk have been hard at work extracting roots from the top of the old reservoir and digging out the weeds to plant some lawn chamomile, so that campers can enjoy the scent of chamomile whilst gazing at St Michael's Mount. Chamomile lawns may conjure images of tea parties at stately homes for some, but for me it reminds me of the few months I worked on the Isles of Scilly. The football pitch on St Mary's has lots of chamomile growing on one half of it and walking my friend's dog across the pitch with her, became a scented experience. Lovely! So, we will see what we can conjure up at ashfarm.

For the hardy amongst you, we will be open at easter. We have had some lovely spring days, tucked in behind a hedgerow on a cornish lane, or up against a cliff down on the beach, wonderful. I have even seen some shorts and legs on show, but if you are thinking of camping with us to enjoy some cornish scenery at easter, I would still pack the thermals to wear in the sleeping bags overnight!

And if you are looking for a book recommendation to get you in the mood for visiting cornwall this year, then this is my march read, which I am thoroughly enjoying. Happy reading campers. Oh and don't forget to watch Poldark sundays BBC1 9pm!

St Ives Bookshop January Recommendations: with thanks

Oops where did January go? I would like to say in a flurry of snow, but the nearest we have got to snow at the campsite, is very fine hailstones which bank up at the sides of hedges and almost pass for snow, but not quite. However, the early nights, the dark afternoons, the cold north wind and the lashing rain and stormy seas have encouraged me to snuggle in by the stove or aga - when not out enjoying the sunny days - and do some research on the books recommended throughout January by my favourite bookshop in St Ives.

In no particular order, here they are:

THE LEWIS MAN by Peter May

An unidentified corpse is recovered from a Lewis peat bog; the only clue to its identity being a DNA sibling match to a local farmer. But this islander, Tormod Macdonald - now an elderly man suffering from dementia - has always claimed to be an only child. When Tormod's family approach Fin Macleod for help, Fin feels duty-bound to solve the mystery.

LOVE NINA BY Nina Stibbe.
In the 1980s Nina Stibbe wrote letters home to her sister in Leicester describing her trials and triumphs as a nanny to a London family. There's a cat nobody likes, a visiting dog called Ted Hughes (Ted for short) and suppertime visits from a local playwright. Not to mention the two boys, their favourite football teams, and rude words, a very broad-minded mother and assorted nice chairs.
From the mystery of the unpaid milk bill and the avoidance of nuclear war to mealtime discussions on pie filler, the greats of English literature, swearing in German and sexually transmitted diseases, Love, Nina is a wonderful celebration of bad food, good company and the relative merits of Thomas Hardy and Enid Blyton.

A WOLF IN HINDELHEIM by Jenny Mayhew

South-West Germany, 1926. The disappearance of a baby girl calls for Constable Theodore Hildebrandt and his son Klaus to visit the remote village of Hindelheim, a place where nothing ever happens. But the news of the missing baby has brought darkness to the community. It is as if someone or something wicked is playing a game. As the wind blows and the mist thickens, tensions rise amongst the villagers as everyone falls under suspicion. And when the rumours begin and secrets start to unravel, the quiet village of Hindelheim is set to change for ever.

LIFESAVING FOR BEGINNERS by Ciara Geraghty

Kat Kavanagh is not in love. She has lots of friends, an ordinary job, and she never ever thinks about her past. This is Kat's story. None of it is true. Milo McIntyre loves his mam, the peanut-butter-and-banana muffins at the Funky Banana cafe, and the lifesaving class he does after school. He never thinks about his future, until the day it changes forever. This is Milo's story. All of it is true. And then there is the other story. The one with a twist of fate which somehow brings together a boy from Brighton and a woman in Dublin, and uncovers the truth once and for all. This is the story that's just about to begin . . .

ELIZABETH IS MISSING by Emma Healey
Elizabeth is Missing, Emma Healey's stunning debut novel, introduces a mystery, an unsolved crime and one of the most unforgettable characters since Mark Haddon's Christopher. Meet Maud ...

'Elizabeth is missing', reads the note in Maud's pocket in her own handwriting.
Lately, Maud's been getting forgetful. She keeps buying peach slices when she has a cupboard full, forgets to drink the cups of tea she's made and writes notes to remind herself of things. But Maud is determined to discover what has happened to her friend, Elizabeth, and what it has to do with the unsolved disappearance of her sister Sukey, years back, just after the war.

THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Shaffer

It's 1946 and Juliet Ashton can't think what to write next. Out of the blue, she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams of Guernsey - by chance, he's acquired a book that once belonged to her - and, spurred on by their mutual love of reading, they begin a correspondence. When Dawsey reveals that he is a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, her curiosity is piqued and it's not long before she begins to hear from other members. As letters fly back and forth with stories of life in Guernsey under German Occupation, Juliet soon realizes that the society is every bit as extraordinary as its name.

A TAP ON THE WINDOW by Linwood Barclay

When Cal Weaver stops at a red light on a rainy night while driving home, he ignores the bedraggled-looking teenage girl trying to hitch a ride - even when she starts tapping on his window. But when he realises she's one of his son's classmates, he knows he can't really leave her, alone, on the street.
But nothing prepares him for the consequences of trying to help her out. The next morning he's gone from Good Samaritan to Murder Suspect, and with one girl dead and another missing, he's suddenly at the centre of a deadly puzzle that reaches right to the heart of the town - from its bullying police force to its strangely furtive mayor - and finally to one family's shocking secret.

WEATHERING by Lucy Wood

Pearl doesn't know how she's ended up in the river – the same messy, cacophonous river in the same rain-soaked valley she'd been stuck in for years. Or why, for that matter, she'd been stupid enough to fall down those rickety stairs.

Ada, Pearl's daughter, doesn't know how she's ended up back in the house she left thirteen years ago – with no heating apart from a fire she can't light, no way of getting around apart from an old car she's scared to drive, and no company apart from echoing footsteps on the damp floorboards. With her daughter Pepper, she starts to sort through Pearl's things, clearing the house so she can leave and not look back.

Pepper has grown used to following her restless mother from place to place, but this house, with its faded photographs, its boxes of cameras and its stuffed jackdaw, is something new. Fascinated by the scattering of people she meets, by the river that unfurls through the valley, and by the strange old woman who sits on the bank with her feet in the cold, coppery water, Pepper doesn't know why anyone would ever want to leave.

As the first frosts of autumn herald the coming of a long winter and Pepper and Ada find themselves irresistibly entangled with the life of the valley, each will discover the ways that places can take root inside us and bind us together.

THE SNOW CHILD by Eowyn Ivey 
Alaska, the 1920s. Jack and Mabel have staked everything on a fresh start in a remote homestead, but the wilderness is a stark place, and Mabel is haunted by the baby she lost many years before. When a little girl appears mysteriously on their land, each is filled with wonder, but also foreboding: is she what she seems, and can they find room in their hearts for her?
Written with the clarity and vividness of the Russian fairy tale from which it takes its inspiration, THE SNOW CHILD is a bewitching tale of heartbreak and hope.

Happy New Year

Christmas seems to have come and gone very quickly this year and now the new year is upon us. Our first frost of the year in the campsite, arrived over the festive season

and the water buckets had ice on them for the first time, not quite thick enough to make use of a hockey stick to break the ice - which is a favourite activiy of the 11 year old - but ice nevertheless.

Even the pigs' and gooses muck heap had frost on it. The heap also seems to be growing a yucca.....only in cornwall does one find a yucca in one's muck heap!

 Beautiful blue sky, as the shetland cantered up the field for breakfast

and long winter shadows to play with.

In the reservoir garden it is a sleepy time of year. The weeds have grown up, protecting any succulents below and the plants are left to their own devices. I am surprised by how much is in bloom still. The high winds have blown one of the echiums over which I need to trim, so that it will regrow, but otherwise garden chores are at a minimum.

Looking back on the year at the campsite, it has been a good one, lots of lovely campers. Looking forward to the new year.......a great view and a smiley campfire-storyteller to come back to.

Happy New Year, see you all in 2015!

Christmas Tree Decorations

For all our lovely campers and all the interesting people who 'drop by' my blog, the opportunity to hang a little Ash Farm momento on your christmas tree.

These slate pebble baubles have the same ditsy design you will find on all our signage at the campsite and we hope they remind you of warm sunny cornish days and clear starlit nights, the clean smell of wet grass in the morning, the yummy scent of marshmallows toasting over the campfire and the crackle and flick of the flames reflecting against faces, as we gather and tell stories round the fire in the evenings.

The pretty slate baubles can be purchased direct by emailing me at wallludgv@gmail.com and cost just
£4 for a pack of 3  (sizes vary, the biggest is circa 2cm x 6cm and weighing circa 70g per pack)
£2.25 for a single slate bauble
Postage to UK is free.

Let the festivities begin!

November 'hedgelets'

November brought us hedging plants, fagus sylvatica, beech to you and me, to plant along the reservoir garden hedge, to the side of the shower. The hope is that once established, a beech hedge will add a little more shelter to the tree ferns and date palm than the brambles and nettles have afforded over the last 12 months. Beech reminds me of Devon field hedges too and I love their foliage.

At the moment the bare root hedging just looks like twigs with a few leaves, 'hedgelets' we have nicknamed them. They have certainly been well watered-in over the last week, due to our inclement cornish weather!

Not that every day has been a rainy day, I have managed to squeeze in the odd sunny ride - just to check out the local horticultural crops and gardens, to compare how they are looking next to our wee site - all necessary research. As always, could not resist a #throughtheearsofahorse photoshot (look out for these in our campsite tweets)

And looking at ways to promote the campsite and ensure a trickle of campsite income I have been tapping into the art-and-craft side of my character and trying to emulate the campsite slate signage, which our campers find so appealing, to create some christmas decorations. I hope the ditsy christmas baubel-pebbles will appeal to those of you who would like a nostalgic ash farm "summer memory" to hang on your christmas tree this festive season.

Look out for the Christmas Decoration 'post' coming soon with more pictures, prices and how to order.