Always on the lookout to add new things for our guests experience, I was interested in the goat Pilates story on the BBC news this week. A group of ladies were demonstrating Pilates in a barn while pygmy goats ran around, jumped on their backs and even ate their hair. I love these little things (don’t tell Harry and Hermione) they are so cute, we even had a couple a few years ago, Tiny Tim and Freddie. They were very popular with the guests but Adrian wasn’t so keen on them after they ripped open a lot of bags of seed in the shed. Unfortunately they died and it has put me off having them. Anyway I was wondering whether I could do something with my lovable duo that are Harry and Hermione, definitely something that doesn’t mean that they jump on guests as they are so big now and rather fat.

Talking of enhancing guests experiences, we have added a hot tub to the Lodge (two storey tent), it has now completed that space and has gone down rather well with the guests that have used it.

Easter seems a long way away now but it was a fantastic week, we suddenly became very full and the Easter Egg Hunt was a huge success.

It is short and sweet this time, mainly because I have forgotten what has happened and we have been really busy so didn’t have time to write anything down.

I really like this quote from Sebastian Coe, as I get older I think about the future and what it would be like not to be busy - "I prefer to keep busy. It is better than the alternative!"
 
Love from Cornwall X

The rain is here, fortunately it seems to arrive in the afternoon and evening so I am not getting wet on my morning walks with the dog. On Wednesday the sheep decided that they would like to join us, I spent a lot of time trying to shake them off as we needed to go on the road, eventually we went through a gate which they could not get under or a hedge that they could not get over. They did however wait for us to come back.
This morning I walked to Lanyon Quoit https://www.britainexpress.com/counties/cornwall/ancient/lanyon-quoit.htm which took just over 20 minutes via our fields, the road and a public footpath. From there the dog and and I walked to Men An Tol  https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/history/sites/men_an_tol.htm  , from Lanyon it was 30 minutes along the road and up the track (which took about 15 minutes of the 30), a note to parents with younger children, it is a lovely walk up the track (car park is on the side of the road) and you can walk onto the moor after Men An Tol. I was tempted to not go up the track but to go left and end up at Chun Castle https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/history/sites/chun_castle.htm  but as it is a longer walk I decided this wasfor another day. After Men An Tol I walked to the Nine Maidens stone circle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boskednan_stone_circle and then back to Greenburrows  (Ding Dong Mine) http://www.cornwallinfocus.co.uk/mining/dingdong.php  , it was then that I realised that I had seen 3 ancient sites and some old mine workings in less than 2 hours, the history in this area is incredible.

Adrian , Daniel and Alex are still catching up on jobs and last week our heifers (young cows) were freeze branded, which means that they now have numbers on their bum as they are either in, or are ready to go in the herd – it is easier to identify them with their own numbers. Time is short during the day as there are only a few hours spare in the day after the animals have been milked, fed and bedded and before afternoon milking. Some farms have turned their cows out, some because they are short of food and others because of the mild weather. However, we tend to keep ours cows in a little longer as Adrian is concerned that the cows fertility will be affected if they are turned out to early.

The list of things to do for the campsite seems to grow on a daily basis and no sooner an item is ticked off the list then another one goes on it. I am looking forward to having my office cleared of items that belong to the campsite.
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I will leave you with a quote about the weather,  this one is by John Ruskin - Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating: there really is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

Love from Cornwall X

Where on earth is the time going? Adrian is still going with his theory that we are going to pay for this mild weather somewhere along the road. Today he is spraying and lately they have been catching up with jobs like replacing gate posts and laying a new water pipe that has been on top of the ground for 2 years, after we had had a serious water leak. Usually when we have a leak there is a lack of pressure so if I turn on the taps in the house and the pressure is low we always investigate but on this occasion there was no loss of pressure and there were no visible wet areas anywhere on the farm, in fact it seems that the water was leaking into an adit for a considerable time, resulting in a rather large water bill. We are now looking into a bore hole for the farm which will certainly help with our bill.

Adrian and I went to Madeira for a weeks holiday, it was so lovely and there were many similarities with Cornwall, here are the 4 most obvious.

• They have palm trees growing,
• The sea is clear and has beautiful colours.
• They have a beautiful Lido in Funchal (above photo - well there was more than one really) and of course
• friendly locals.

We did a couple of tours, one of the west and one of the east, went on the cable car, had a tour of Blandys where they make the Madeira wine and basically relaxed and enjoyed the warm weather while everyone else had snow, although we didn’t have anything much here other than a flurry apparently.
I have started cooking for the campsite but I have not got off to a good start, I have a lovely recipe for a sweet potato curry and decided to make this in a large batch, however, I never really follow a recipe to the letter and am always messing about with the quantities, lets just say it is okay but not amazing (so I will have to eat it). This week I am going to tackle my honesty shop, tidying, painting and generally sorting for our new season. But first a trip to Billingsmoor Farm to stay with Rob and Jayne so that we can go to a trade show.

It is always difficult writing as there is always something going on, first of all I have to remember it, then have time to write it and then I am never sure of how many people read my blogs (although a couple of guests have admitted to reading them), so when I saw this quote from an unknown author I thought, that’s me!
 “I hope someday to write something worth plagerizing”. 

Love from Cornwall X

It was so lovely to hear the news that Lisa Faulkner and John Torode have become engaged, Lisa has been here to stay many times and presented the programme on ITV called Holiday Home Sweet Home, which we featured in, we had the Feather Down tents then, back in 2012. Before that when she won Masterchef in 2010, she was here on holiday and we all watched the final on our tv in the tractor shed. Lisa is so lovely and we wish them lots of love and happiness.

News on the farm - it has been a mild winter and I am sure that there are many farmers out there heaving a sigh of relief as winter feed for many was short, this is following a long winter last year and a very dry summer. We were lucky and it looked like we had enough food to carry us through. We have struggled this year with lots of pneumonia in our calves – it has been the perfect weather, Adrian is convinced that we will pay for this mild winter at some point. We completed our TB testing last week, this was done over a couple of weeks including New Year’s Eve and I am pleased to say that for the moment we are clear. We are always dipping in and out of being clear so whilst I am generally a cup half full kind of person, when it comes to TB, I am the opposite. Last year we went down when we should have been selling animals, we did go clear in the end but the price of cattle had dropped as farmers were concerned about their feed stocks. Whilst our cash flow was affected because of the price of cattle, we had to change our John Deere Gator as our old one was worn out, I have attached a photo, although by the time the children get to ride on it in the summer, it will have attracted a lot more mud.

News on the campsite - Harry and Hermione are still here, they are so sweet that I can’t part with them, they are currently shut in the car park to eat the grass off  and to keep them out of gardens but they are bored and they miss running around the farm and hamlet. The final piece of news is that we have decided to bite the bullet and purchase a hot tub, we look at this every year and finally have purchased one. It is going to go with the two storey lodge, I dither so much and I keep looking at where to put it and I think this is where we have finally decided to site it.

We are looking forward to opening again and thinking about it now daily, I cannot believe that we are nearly ¾ of the way through January but first we have a holiday to fit in, as well as many other things. I saw this quote by Henry Kissinger and it rang so true – “There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full”.

Hopefully I will write again in a couple of weeks, until then - love from Cornwall X

We hope that you had a lovely Christmas and we would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our guests for being wonderful and for visiting us and we look forward to seeing our guests - old and new, in 2019.

I hope that you are enjoying our new website, I am hoping to have some photos in the ‘Wedding’ section soon. I LOVE the map and really think that this by far the nicest site map on any website that I have seen, and that is not because it is on our site but because of the talent of Jennifer from Pure Cornish Design who created it.

This is the time of year that I most dread – no guests, a lot of paperwork and even more housework to catch up on.

There is so much to do that I don’t know where to start so I procrastinate. This generally starts with the internet, you can spend a lot of time on the internet going from site to site. I look at other glamping sites and I am still amazed at what is out there. What does amaze me the most, is how many claim to be family yet still charge for highchairs and cots, surely if you accept children then you should provide furniture for them to sit on and sleep on/in? We have expanded our range of children’s equipment this year, we have always provided highchairs and cots, some games and books, a backpack (with sun and rain cover) also toy tractors but in addition we have bought a pushchair and a little table (with games attached) for toddlers.

This year has been incredible, for the first year we are totally independent and loving it. The new tents have been enjoyed by guests and we are really pleased with the furnishings. A few new changes are on the cards for next year. We have welcomed guests old and new and the lengths of stays have been impressive, the usual short breaks (although not very many) and 7 nights but a lot of 10 and 11 nights and even Paul, Rebecca and the girls for 17 nights! The fact that it would include 3 pizza nights was the deal breaker and they must have enjoyed the new pizza bases so much that they have booked 3 pizza nights again for next year. Wow, totally blown away and if you are reading this – THANK YOU x

This year we have welcomed back our very lovely Angela Griffin and Lisa Faulkner with their families and friends. So fantastic to see them again, Angela has a blog ‘Angelas Angle’ take a look www.angelasangle.co.uk/blog/glamptastic-fun-fire-frolics, she has written a really nice piece about Boswarthen and the area, even where you can buy the best pasties.

Lately Adrian has been so busy with field work that I have hardly seen him, but now that the ploughing and seeding has ended he will have time to catch up on a few jobs before they really get busy with the winter work. I was reflecting the other day on the hours that Adrian works and how he does the same jobs 7 days a week, I really don’t know how he does it, it would be understandable if at the end of the year we made a huge profit but sadly that is not the case, I have come to the conclusion that farmers are eternal optimists.

There is such a lot to tell you but I am going to finish today and tell you the rest another time. I have found this quote from Thomas Jefferson, Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness. My one thought was, I must remember to tell our Bank Manager!

Our new lambs are doing well and we have a good routine, they are very happy to follow me in the mornings and evenings as I take them outside to their paddock and bring them in at night. Lucy and Bethan very kindly named our lambs this year and when the message came through Adrian read Harry, I was then expecting Meghan but as Lucy is a Harry Potter fan it could really only be Hermione. To be honest we were relieved as the names could have been a lot worse and good job we didn’t go with their Dad’s suggestion which was Rigwelter and Old Peculiar – beer!!!Last week Adrian and everyone here has been helping our friend across the road on silage, his farm borders Trengwainton Gardens. We are hoping to do ours at the end of this week, so fingers crossed that the sun continues to shine.

One big thing that has happened here since the New Year is that Alex is now milking our cows, he gets up almost every day at 4.30am and he is doing really well, we are so proud of him , our mastitis rate has dropped phenomenally, this has meant not only do we not have sick cows and are not having to dump milk but that we are not using as many medicines, this is something that we are all trying to do supported by our vets.

I am pleased to announce that I have found someone to create a new website, so excited to be working with Jennifer at Pure Cornish Design.
I always struggle to find a good ending for my little blogs so I have decided to end them with a quote, here is today’s – one for farming I think:
Good things come to those who BELIEVE. Better things come to those who are patient, and the BEST things come to those who DON’T GIVE UP.