February Visitors 2

The house has seemed quiet over the weekend after the departure on Friday of Karen, Nick, Charlotte, Curtis and Connor who had been staying for the half-term school holidays. They were blessed with good weather for all but the last day and this allowed them to get out and about every day. Amongst the list of places visited were Lusty Glaze Beach, The Eden Project and the "Britain in the Blitz" and "Victorian Britain" Exhibitions at Flambards. In addition they managed to find a number of GeoCache locations at Cardinham Woods, Roche Rock and Loe Pool.

Maria, John, Charlotte, Curtis & Connor at Eden

Around the garden Nick and I managed to trim the tops of our conifers at the bottom of the garden (mostly Nick as he is taller)and re-pot some Cornish Palms and a large, and very prickly, conifer, which, last year, acted as our outdoor Christmas Tree.

There is a ladder there somewhere!

On Thursday, Nick, Karen, Annette & Clive went off for a day by themselves leaving the children and dogs with us to amuse ourselves. We started with a walk up to our "mountain" and beyond to help wear out the dogs (and us).

The Children posing with the Cornish Flag.

Back home, I had promised the children that they could have a ride on the Mower and fortunately the grass was reasonably dry and the sun shining so, after drawing lots to establish who should go first, we set off around the top field paths before coming down to the bottom field which we managed to completely cut. All in all, we had a pleasant day with no upsets.

Unfortunately no photos were taken of the children on the mower so on Friday morning I decided to get it out again and record the occasion. This time, having established that they could all reach the brake, I got them to drive it by themselves, something that I think they thoroughly enjoyed.

Charlotte.

Curtis.

Connor.

February Visitors 1

Andrew, Amy, Joe and Amy's niece Molly, the first set of our February visitors arrived on Saturday 9th Feb and what a week of weather they had. No rain, little wind and blue skies for the whole of their stay.
We managed some time on the beach at Lusty Glaze on one day, where the children got very wet and an afternoon at Trevone Bay, where it was almost Springlike. Molly even went swimming in just a swimming costume, which gives some idea of how pleasant it was. Below is a short video of Amy doing a Back-Flip in boots - not often seen in gymnastics!



During their stay, we also found time to fly a kite, play rounders, climb our local "Mountain":

Clive, Joe, Amy, Molly, Annette & Andrew.

and do a trial run on the tractor with the children. Below are Molly and me navigating the paths in the top field and Andrew and Molly not really navigating the paths at all!

Finally, a couple of photos of the children with Annette's dogs.

On Tuesday, Amy and Molly drove back home so that Molly could, with her Mum, accompany her Dad to Buckingham Palace so that he could be presented with an MBE from Her Majesty, The Queen. Quite a day out for a 6 year old.

Andrew and Joe stayed on until flying back to Stansted on Thursday evening. We then had a day to change beds etc before the arrival of the next visitors on Friday.

JDT

February Achievements

Garden:

Just before the end of January, we managed to finish tidying up the Cornish Hedge down the side of the road; the following photograph shows just some of the dead vegetation that came out. The following day, the wind and rain started again so it was a case of "Just in time".


Mower:

I had success with the exhaust on the Ride-on Mower; having bought two new bolts, I established that neither would fit due to the damaged threads on the manifold. I went to see my friendly Garage in Newquay who found out what size they were and lent me a Tap to try and clean up the threads. I managed to do this without too much trouble and everything went back together successfully; a road or grass test was satisfactory and a little quieter.
I wonder how many businesses would lend out equipment at no cost and with no deposit? So, many thanks go to Treglowns in Newquay, who have probably saved me quite a lot of money and time.

JDT