May Day Obby Oss

The diary will be getting busy over the next couple of months with lots of events and traditions to be celebrated, the first main one being the May Day Obby Oss celebrations at Padstow. A very old and ancient tradition steeped in legend and mystery, something that you positvely feel when the hypnotic drums strike up click on this link and go to May song for a sample. But Beware the OSS! http://home.freeuk.com/bribbonobbyoss/

Our swallows have arrived...

With the fantastic weather, spotted last night, whilst enjoying another stunning sun go down, four swallows..... They were quite small so may well be our youngsters from last year already back. The males come first so there may well be more on the way, to be followed by the females. We had four pairs last year all of which had 3/4 clutches of young so we look forward to another summer of swallow chitter chatter, air dives and fly bys......and hopefully not too many that pop in to Mill Barn for a flying visit !

Summer Sunshine

With April has come the best of weather, Easter sunshine. Fantastic warm sun that is putting a growing spurt on everything - lush grass, hedgerow flowers and the new lambs and our calves.
The bright daylight has brought clear skies and beautiful sunsets out over the valley towards the sea, a great time for coastal walks and being by the sea. Cornwall at it's best, I love this time of year....

With Summer came a new arrival ......

Nancy, our other dexter cow had her calf early this morning....
We got close enough, in the tractor, to check all was OK but it was all sleepy, it's eyes still milky white and legs like jelly not quite yet ready for the world..so not sure if bull or heifer calf yet.
More to follow.

Spring to Summer

Today was the most beautiful of days with clear blue skies and really warn sunshine.
In the fields, early this morning, the tiny lambs were enjoying the warmth of the sun, our bull calf (now almost 4 weeks) was giving chase to all the other cows only to then flop in a heap in the sun in need of sleep - well he is still young after all... And our bantams kept stopping when they fell into pockets of sunshine curled in their heads, fluffed their feathers and had a quick nap.
The sunshine seems to have brought everything alive, the grass is growing (which is good for our cows) the hedgerows are full of primroses, the daffodils are in full flower and not long now until the bluebells open out in our woodland. Must get on with the vegetable patch am very behind with preparing and planting....
With a day like today we look forward to the extra evening hours after the clocks change tonight. Here comes the Summer......

Know your Onions

Cornwall is a County of positive food action, there are hundreds of small producers selling an enormous range of produce. Via our blog we will regularly post useful information about local producers that you might benefit from when holidaying in our County, we will also post information about local events and happenings. With all this talk these days about 'Food Miles' and seasonal veg we thought this small chart from the Plough to Plate campaign might be useful to clarify what Meat and Veg is seasonal at different times of the year.

The days you long for

After the dark and this year very wet days of Winter today is the kind of day we long for, bright warm sunshine with the countryside starting to burst with the joy of Spring. The view from the Beacon hill at the back of Tredarrup across to Roughtor was stunning this morning, large white fluffy clouds drifting across the landscape created a patchwork over the Moorland interjected by the electric yellow of the gorse which, although flowers all year round, is at its best at the moment. Several Skylarks rose as though to announce the onset of Spring spiralling ever higher in an attempt to either attract a mate or lay claim over their territory, the Sun was positively warm a hint of things to come.