Bedruthan Steps

As the last day of September disappears in the mist of the Cornish rain, we think back two days to one of our very few trips out this year. The weather was set fair so we decided on Saturday to make the most of the early part of Sunday, when the grass was too wet to cut, and pay an overdue visit to one of our favourite places to walk. This is the area between Bedruthan Steps and Mawgan Porth, where the National Trust has its Carnewas car park, cafe and shop.
We started with a coffee, booked for Sunday Lunch next week, then strolled off towards Mawgan Porth. The weather was superb and this meant that the sea was shown in its best blue with white breakers. A couple of Kestrels hovered motionless over the edge of the cliffs - oh for a decent camera - before swooping off out of sight. After some commotion further up the coast, a whole gaggle of mixed gulls flew past us, obviously heading for somewhere, or something, interesting. I took the following photo of the two of us - it has taken me about five years to figure out how the timer works on this camera.


This photo of Maria really shows how blue the sea was.


After the walk, we stopped in the shop and I bought some gardening gauntlets before travelling home via Annette's where we had a cup of tea. I then managed to cut the last of the lawns that needed doing. All in all a very pleasant and successful day.

September Sun

After the dreadful Summer, September has cheered us all up with lots of sunshine and very little rain recently. Lots of gardening has ensued with both Maria and I spending lots of time weeding and trimming shrubs. One nasty experience was to watch a Magpie killing what I take to have been a Greenfinch. When the Magpie spotted us, he flew off holding the poor bird by its wing with it still trying to escape.
I have now managed to paint the large shed with preservative; there is no point in showing before and after photos since they look remarkably similar.
With Amy and Andrew in mind, I decided to block up the hole at the side of the house where we believe mice came into the house (we heard them scrabbling about only a foot or so from where I am sitting and Tia used to go mad and jump on the window sill to try and get at them). I found a gap between two blocks and have stuffed it full of rocks so we wait and see if that is effective. As a consequence of that action, I decided to create a border as shown below. What I need now are some shrubs that don't mind being in shade all day - suggestions please!!


One day recently, one of our "neighbours" from the residential park stopped and asked whether I would like some more turf as he was replacing some of his lawn with chippings. I said yes and a few days later, I brought four trailer loads down as can be seen below:


24 hours later, the turf was in place and my wall was a little higher and longer:

Anniversary Time

Although Roseveare House became officially ours on 17th September 2007 we actually moved in on the 19th, so we have just celebrated our First Anniversary here. Just where that time has gone I don't know but gone it has. Both of us have been extremely happy and, despite the fact that I retired at the same time and we spend nearly all the time together, we have disagreed on very little. Have I missed work? - NO.

So, what have we achieved in our first year?
The house has remained virtually the same with no decorating needing to be done. Vertical Blinds now adorn the Conservatory and indeed the rest of the house and blackout blinds have been added to the Master and Second Bedrooms. Lighting has been added to the loft space and the space over the garage.
The earliest job outside was to sort out the Septic Tank, which now seems to be working perfectly. In the garden, we have had the Patio constructed outside the Conservatory and one of the areas of conifers "degrassed" and replaced with chippings. We also had an extra gate put in to join the main garden to the bottom field and replaced the old metal gate between the road and the fields. Speaking of gates, Nick managed to dig out an old gate, which was probably the original gate to the property. He also managed to trim the large conifers for which I am most grateful. The main garden has had a border cut and all the turf cut out from that and the patio has been used to construct a turf wall, which makes the approach to the house a little tidier (long ongoing project). The lawns have been cut regularly and parts of them now look more like lawns should, with expanding turf and less gaps. In the lower field, I have started creating an area for general sports use.
My own personal disappointment has been my inability to progress the top "lawn", which remains a bit of a shambles. Even worse is the patch of ground on the approach to the house below the large conifers. I think the grassed area needs flattening so that it can be cut properly, but I cannot decide how to do it. One other project that should have been done this Summer was the treatment of the two sheds. We bought the wood preservative but failed miserably to do the painting, partly due to the abysmal weather; the wood just never dried out properly.
Rabbits continue to cause some havoc and my efforts to keep them out of the garden have only been partially successful. Learning to shoot straight might be the ultimate solution!
Finally, how did we celebrate? Well, apart from the odd glass of wine, I had a bonfire, which may not be considered good for my carbon footprint. Perhaps a Garden Shredder would be useful as a Christmas present!

Anyone any good at making Smoke Signals?

Here's to the next year!