August family fun

August was full of family fun this year. We closed the site for a weekend to new campers in order to make merry as a family, with my brother and his crew, a cousin and her lovely red setter, my sister and her tribe and even our mum camped.

The campfire got used lots for cooking and brewing tea and general chatter and watching stars with a bevvy or two. And it was a delight to hear children's laughter and guffawing from the adults. So huge thanks to Caia, James, Jack, Poppy, Adrian, Kate, William, Sam, Amanda, Wendy and Gaia, Graham, James and Dominic for making our time together so special.

It also gave me the excuse to fend off the campsite maintenance and gardening chores in preference for some beach-time and I enjoyed several hours with family, toes in the sand, trying to tan those portions of me that are usually hidden by shorts, wellington boots and a strappy top, whilst gossiping, reading or generally watching family antics.

Porthminster Beach was very popular with the family. An easy ride from the campsite to St Erth Railway station, a short train trip along a gorgeously pretty route to St Ives and then straight down onto the beach from the platform.

Porthminster always seems to have the guarantee of sunshine, even when the rest of the landmass is in cloud, there are beachside cafes and restaurants, a mini golf course, toilets and it is a short and pleasant walk into town to some great bookshops and clothes boutiques and any amount of art and food outlets.

Even the inclement days didn't stop our fun with part of the family decanting to our cottage and packing in for rainyday lego and warhammer, silly hat games and makedo lunches.

And rainydays meant I got to spend even more time with my nephews - playing with ponies amongst other things - than perhaps I would otherwise have done if they had been visiting sights throughout this end of cornwall.

Sometimes you just have to ignore the rain though and get out into our landscape anyway. We had a fab afternoon with waterproofs donned, down on the beach at Marazion rock pooling, finding rock gobies, baby montague crabs and the vicious velvet swimming crabs, the starfish often are more difficult to spot, but all the more splendid when you found one.

I had a very damp horseride with my sister-in-law, where the imagination had to work really hard to conjure up the view of St Ives and Godrivy and the look-back to Penzance and MountsBay that we should have had, riding up over the moor from Castlegate Quarry to Nancledra. But the tack needed a clean anyway so another rainyday opportunistically gave way to a tack cleaning session in the kitchen and coffee with a friend.

And we had a grand walk out to Logan's Rock and a climb up for the compulsory "rocking the rock" with the view of one of my favourite beaches, Pednevounder on the climb away.

The new queen of compost loos got christened and well utilised over august.

And we also took charge of a couple of pigs on the farm, which the kids loved to feed and to pet and we hope will fatten up for christmas!

Generally though, August passed us by fast and furious and time seemed to be in short supply, which is why the August blog page is being written in September! But the gates are now shut to campers and Ashfarm is just me, the dog, a good book and the rest of my motley crew and menagerie.

Thanks to everyone who has stayed with us this year and special thanks to all those who took the time to write something in our visitor's book. If you forgot, or couldn't find the time whilst packing up, you can always add something to our page on ukcampsite.co.uk online. Have a very lovely autumn, winter and see you all in 2016 season!

Keep peaking in at the blog though, to see what happens out of season and say hello to me on twitter @ashfarmcampsite

Multinational camping

Wow it was like looking for field mushrooms - which we are also doing at the moment and enjoying campsite grown fungi -

Often when you first start looking for mushrooms, you cannot see any and then they pop into view all over the place. Once you "get your eye in" you can see them everywhere. It was the same with tents, first there were only 2 tents in the campsite paddock, then 6, then a campervan arrived and then two more campers emerged from a tent in the morning, suddenly we were virtually full - 14 campers. 

And multinational too, campers from the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Holland with a couple of Brits thrown in for good measure. Great seeing everyone enjoying themselves, cooking at the campfire or on makeshift BBQ stoves, sharing music and chatter and perhaps a lubrication or two. Absolutely perfect camping.

Good luck to Paul walking all the way to John O'Groats for Dementia Adventure. We donated his 'campsite tariff and egg money' to this worthy cause. It would be great if other campsites where he stays would do the same. If any readers want to donate, the link is http://mydonate.bt.com 

We have been busy at the campsite, the beech hedglets needed weeding and the kindling pile has been moved from underneath the red oak tree, to alongside the campfire log store. Logs have been chopped into sticks to make up campfire log bags, with some small sticks and some bigger logs in the same bag, to make firelighting easy for campers.

The 'team' have been building a compost toilet mark two, which is sited next to the original compost loo, to increase our 'facilities' and improve campers comfort.

The campfire stone surround was almost hidden by clover and grass, so that has been weeded and cleared today in readiness for a bit of bonfiring to prepare the campfire for a busy August.

And just to prove that tents come in all shapes and sizes, look at this little beauty.

Summer is a coming

July really feels like summer is a coming - despite several mizzly days this week - but the rain makes us green and makes the grass grow and the grass is definately growing.

In the old reservoir garden the weeds are also growing and I have been trying to limit their multiplication so they don't swamp the flowers and hedges I have planted. Bought myself a new toy to help with the gardening and ensure a cup of tea on the campsite, an Mkettle. Brilliant invention. Took a little time to get the knack to light but once lit it was fab and boiled in 6 minutes or so and made two fab cups of coffee.

The campsite itself has been host to a steady trickle of campers and tents

and campervans

and a very gorgeous bell tent popped up, although I never managed to remember to take a photo in the sunshine! 

There have been some lovely reviews, many thanks for those. They can be found on our 2015 Reviews and Comments page.

The campfire has been is use by campers and not to be outdone, we used another of our new toys, a Ronnie Sunshine Dutch Oven, which we bought for a tentover and birthday party end of April and then illness and inclement weather conspired to spoil the birthday celebration and the oven has been waiting for the right evening to enjoy its first outing. There came a point where I could wait no more and a lamb casserole was thrown together which turned out rather well as an alfresco meal.

And since the warmer days do seem to be coming, I invested in an olive tree. I have been hankering after one for ages, so I have taken the plunge and repotted with a cocktail of horse and pig manure compost, which I hope it appreciates. Eventually it will go in the ground, but initially, since I am not sure where in the garden it will grow best, I have left it in a pot, but a bigger pot, to allow me some versatility and flexibility.

We have a new flag at the roadside this year, much brighter than its predecessor, but with our little white arabian horse logo. Amazing how, even though when the wind is blowing the flag around and it reads as a mirror image, ones brain is able to compute it says "camping", clever old thing our brain!

And talking of clever old things, Dom's new hens have been busily laying for the last few weeks and he is making quite a profit from his egg production business. Lovely brown eggs and deep golden yolks £1.50 per half a dozen, so bring your pennies and pounds to try them yourself when you camp.

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.