Red Sky at night

The end of September has it seems brought us autumn but with it we have had dry, sunny crisp days, the type when Cornwall looks so good, all is lush, the sun is shinning but the seasonal change is coming. The fruit on the hedgerows has almost gone, the birds have had their fill, the blackberries left are past their best and the sloes drying out even before the frost. Last night was the most fantastic red sky which has brought with it a beautiful sunny Sunday as we see out September and look forward to October.........

Know your onions - the vegetable patch and summer

July and August were so busy, with both Mill Barn and Stable cottage full with visitors that our blog entries have become non existent - our apologies....

So with a lot of rain followed by late sun the vegetable patch was not very productive - the onions loved it, the root vegetables and the salad - that could hold on against the slug onslaught ! But the blight once under control did reduce our potato crop and although the tomatoes looked like they had survived and we may have got green tomato chutney at least, they have now turned black with the disease... not a good year for gardeners and all that grow their own have said the same but then next year is another year..

One unexpected addition to the vegetable patch was that of our bantam Squark. She disappeared one night, appearing during the day briefly then one Sunday afternoon I discovered her amongst a patch of nettles sitting on 10 eggs.....followed not long after by 3 chicks that all took to roaming free and scratching about amongst my new plantings - great for slug control but not for young seedlings. Then followed a chick from mother hen so we now have them all pottering around together, and learning to fly after leaving the security of the vegetable patch !

With the coming of Autumn we noticed a different quiet today - our swallows have left us for another year to start their journey back to Africa - but they'll be back, as they always are.