Jacquie welcomes Betty Stogs to the farm for our serious ale drinking groom this weekend -

the van did also have a barrel of the irrepressable  Ginger Tosser 

A year ago, together with other landowners bordering the road between Trelawne and Pelynt, we gave over land so that the parish could create a footpath into the village. The path was created last March, the work unfortunately involved the destruction of the flora growing on top of the hedge as this was moved a couple of metres or so into the field, thus creating safe footpath along the road.  The contractors FJ Ede, did a lovely job reseeding and today the hedge is lush and green. However the top looked a little bare. This year Pelynt Parish Council very kindly allocated a small budget with which we purchased 200 hedgerow plants. These were planted just before Easter and given time they will look lovely.

Unfortunately, during the planting we cleaned a couple of black bin bags of rubbish out of both sides of the hedge, including a not insignificant number of glass bottles, some broken. Such a pity that those walking this path, and driving the road for that matter, do not consider the consequences of these actions. For them its “just” litter, but for us its a major and very real hazard as the field is grazed. Broken glass is a HUGE problem for livestock as lacerated hooves are a major problem and very hard to treat. Even more frightening  is the possibility of glass, broken or otherwise, getting into their mouths, virtually impossible to remedy if it happens.

Lets just hope that this never happens, that the hedge grows quickly and prevents litter debris from unthinking individuals reaching the field.

Meanwhile here are some pictures of the new hedge.

South Devon Cattle  - The Natural Breed

As many of our visitors and friends know we aspire to a very low impact model in our grass fed grass finished beef production. We only feed our South Devon cattle grass and we try to keep them outside year round.  This morning I was feeding Billy-Bob’s family out in our main overwintering field and it struck me how good they looked.

These girls have been maintained on a diet of winter grass and a bale of silage every other day throughout the winter. They are all pregnant and coming on very nicely. We are keeping making every effort to stay quiet around them, between the wind, cold and rain of the last few weeks and their advanced pregnant condition they have been getting moody on occasion. However this Easter weekend with its fantastic weather has brought out the best in them and I wanted to share this picture with all of you.

One of the hottest topics of conversation down here in Cornwall this past few months has been the weather. Principally the pessimistic interpretation and very broad brush used by our forecasters when telling the nation about weather. In fact weather in Cornwall is usually much better than nationally broadcast.

South West businesses have started to use a hashtag, #weatherornot, when tweeting in an effort to communicate just how good local weather actually is when forecasters effectively lump most of the South Coast in one forecast.

This morning national weather has been gleefully predicting freezing temperatures, snow, rain and a downright miserable Easter break. BBC news reported the exodus of British holidaymakers escaping the horrible weather.

Only, Spotlight, the BBC TV local news in the South West broadcast a weather forecast that suggested that rain was only a possibility . Yesterday was beautiful and today is slightly overcast and cold, but absolutely the sort of nippy spring weather that will make a great Easter break enjoying the Cornish countryside, attractions and food.

Yesterday we launched a live forecast which will run on this website’s Home Page. It is provided by the ultimate weather site, the Weather Underground which is using our own weather station for it real time feeds!  Click on the link in the weather panel to be taken to probably the most informative weather and climate page for you will find on the internet.

If you feel more traditional the Meteorological Office provides a very good forecast for our corner of Cornwall here, you will need to select either Looe, Polperro or Pelynt as your location.

Hoping to see you soon for a great visit, whatever the weather….. #’weatherornot