Earth Pilgrim: Dartmoor - an inspiration....

At the weekend we watched the BBC's Earth pilgrim: A year on Dartmoor.
Not only was it a beautiful vision of the landscape of the Dartmoor you pass on the way to Tredarrup but, as was intended, Satish Kumar took you on a spiritual journey into the landscape. A world-renowned ecologist, former Jain monk and pilgrim for peace, through changing seasons, Satish walks the moor and explores ancient woods and rivers, which are home to a wealth of wildlife including red deer, emperor moths, starling roosts, kestrels and foxes. His meditations on the natural world are lyrical, uplifting and timely. And he left us with this thought for our future:
"we must become the change we want to see, in the world" Mahatma Gandhi

If you missed it you can watch again via the BBC website's i>Player
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search/?q=earth+pilgrim&go=Find+Programmes

Happy New Year.....

My first entry for 2008...and one that purely shows the beauty of the mornings, at Tredarrup, at this time of year. Pink skies and the buzz of our visiting starlings. We have woken up many a morning to a sky that glows pink as the sun comes up across the valley to the sound of the flocks of starlings that chatter in our trees and then woosh away across the fields like a moving cloud ( if you ever saw the Bill Oddie clip you'll know what I mean!)...winter magic. Happy 2008.

4th October and over 21 degrees !!!!!!

Yet another weather surprise this year, the beginning of October, its over 21 degrees (with the forecast to stay the same over the weekend), the shorts and sandals are back out, our sweet peas are flowering for the first time and everything we cut back has now started growing again !!! Who knows what the rest of October will bring !?

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.

Looking after the animals

All animals need looking after and our days at Tredarrup start with walking the Molly dog, letting the chickens out, filling the bird feeders and checking the cattle - that they're all OK and at the moment whilst the field is separated for our winter feed to grow that they have not managed to get across to where the grass is greener, and longer!
Friday was a big cattle day (in the driving rain!). All cattle when kept over 30 months (max months for meat stock with some exceptions) the horn on their feet grows so they need their nails cut and filed - a pedicure with a difference. Our cows are put into a crush that holds them still put on their side and the pedicure begins - but not with the same amount of pleasure us humans experience I don't think! Then our young bull calves - one had the pinch so he's now a steer (all men wince!) the other - bully boy- we are keeping as a young bull so he had to be de-horned and have his nose pierced for a nice bull nose ring.
After it all the cattle were very pleased to go back into the field and we peeled off the layers of wet and muddy clothes and boots and enjoyed a cuppa.

Raspberry or strawberry muffins...

Coming to the end of our soft fruit, thanks to the rain...decided to try some new ways to use up what is left....so an evening of baking (beats the rubbish on TV!) raspberry muffins, strawberry muffins and strawberry curd! The curd is delicious like strawberry syrup and the muffins I did try and be a bit more wholesome and used wholemeal flour and they are not too sweet. Think I'll be trying both recipes with the blackberries later in the year.. And just when I sit down to a couple with cup of coffee I see on the Internet daily headlines the government thinking of introducing a 'fat tax' will have to keep up with all the Tredarrup jobs to make sure doesn't happen to us!

*Just in case as link not always working - Becky's Raspberry Muffins Recipe
A raspberry muffins breakfast recipe http://bandb.about.com/od/breadrecipes/r/rasp_muffins.htm