Translate

Wednesday 31 December 2014

Happy New Year

Christmas seems to have come and gone very quickly this year and now the new year is upon us. Our first frost of the year in the campsite, arrived over the festive season
and the water buckets had ice on them for the first time, not quite thick enough to make use of a hockey stick to break the ice - which is a favourite activiy of the 11 year old - but ice nevertheless.
Even the pigs' and gooses muck heap had frost on it. The heap also seems to be growing a yucca.....only in cornwall does one find a yucca in one's muck heap!
 Beautiful blue sky, as the shetland cantered up the field for breakfast
and long winter shadows to play with.
In the reservoir garden it is a sleepy time of year. The weeds have grown up, protecting any succulents below and the plants are left to their own devices. I am surprised by how much is in bloom still. The high winds have blown one of the echiums over which I need to trim, so that it will regrow, but otherwise garden chores are at a minimum.
Looking back on the year at the campsite, it has been a good one, lots of lovely campers. Looking forward to the new year.......a great view and a smiley campfire-storyteller to come back to.
Happy New Year, see you all in 2015!


Saturday 29 November 2014

Christmas Tree Decorations

For all our lovely campers and all the interesting people who 'drop by' my blog, the opportunity to hang a little Ash Farm momento on your christmas tree.
These slate pebble baubles have the same ditsy design you will find on all our signage at the campsite and we hope they remind you of warm sunny cornish days and clear starlit nights, the clean smell of wet grass in the morning, the yummy scent of marshmallows toasting over the campfire and the crackle and flick of the flames reflecting against faces, as we gather and tell stories round the fire in the evenings.
The pretty slate baubles can be purchased direct by emailing me at wallludgv@gmail.com and cost just
£4 for a pack of 3  (sizes vary, the biggest is circa 2cm x 6cm and weighing circa 70g per pack)
£2.25 for a single slate bauble
Postage to UK is free.
Let the festivities begin!


Friday 14 November 2014

November 'hedgelets'

November brought us hedging plants, fagus sylvatica, beech to you and me, to plant along the reservoir garden hedge, to the side of the shower. The hope is that once established, a beech hedge will add a little more shelter to the tree ferns and date palm than the brambles and nettles have afforded over the last 12 months. Beech reminds me of Devon field hedges too and I love their foliage.
At the moment the bare root hedging just looks like twigs with a few leaves, 'hedgelets' we have nicknamed them. They have certainly been well watered-in over the last week, due to our inclement cornish weather!
Not that every day has been a rainy day, I have managed to squeeze in the odd sunny ride - just to check out the local horticultural crops and gardens, to compare how they are looking next to our wee site - all necessary research. As always, could not resist a #throughtheearsofahorse photoshot (look out for these in our campsite tweets)
And looking at ways to promote the campsite and ensure a trickle of campsite income I have been tapping into the art-and-craft side of my character and trying to emulate the campsite slate signage, which our campers find so appealing, to create some christmas decorations. I hope the ditsy christmas baubel-pebbles will appeal to those of you who would like a nostalgic ash farm "summer memory" to hang on your christmas tree this festive season.
Look out for the Christmas Decoration 'post' coming soon with more pictures, prices and how to order.

Saturday 11 October 2014

Enjoying a drop of October sunshine

Have spent some time in the reservoir garden today and transplanted new phormiums from another 'home'.
Had to trim the leaves down, so they look a little worse for wear at the moment, but hopefully a drop of October sunshine and a little cornish rain will settle them into the ground and they will look lovely in time for next season.
Some plants seem to do better, the less I fuss over them, for instance, my Acanthus mollis which is lovingly known as Bear's breeches (how could I not have a plant with such a fab name in my garden) is in flower and growing along nicely now, yet when I tried to nurture it, it did very little.
Much of the garden is looking in dire need of some attention - the weeds, as always, are trying to reclaim the paths and flowerbeds - and that wretched bind weed from the field next door is persistent with its attempt to strangle one of my hydrangas with its tendriles. Have spent some time today clearing it, amidst murderous mutterings from me. But pockets of the garden are still looking lovely.
All work in the garden and no play makes a campsite owner very dull though, so I have also taken time out this week, to play with the little white horse on the beach and in the sea. 
Love messing about on the beach with my little white horse, paddling through shallow pools and out into the surf with him. Spotted, what I thought initially was an old wooden pier, but having taken a photo, I have been reliably informed it is part of the hull of a shipwrecked boat.  Have never noticed it before, despite all the years of rummaging in the rockpools on the beach here. Perhaps the recent storms uncovered it?


Thursday 9 October 2014

Winner of the Campsite Competition

We have a campsite competition winner, actually a group of three.
All the 2014 review authors' names, whether on the UK Campsite website or in our Visitor's Book were transferred onto identical pieces of paper, folded identically and tossed around in a blue, felt hat. Then our lovely neighbour Liz delved deeply, stirred them about and retrieved a winning ticket.
We look foreward to welcoming you next year to your complementary one week (maximum 6 nights) camping holiday.

CONGRATULATIONS to Clare and Steph and Lee.

Sunday 28 September 2014

Autumn is most definately upon us

Autumn is most definately upon us, I am a huge child at heart where autumnal leaves are concerned and swathes of sycamore leaves at the edges of fields and lanes just implore my welly boots to scuff through them and send them flying up in the air.
I have even been known to gather handfuls of these rustling autumn colours, to return to the air, liberating them from their gravitational graveyard, back towards their benefacting branches, to fall once more to the ground.  Purely so I can do it all again!
Our campsite is now closed for the winter, the last of our campers have been and gone.
The ponies will be allowed in to mow...so long as they do not eat my plants! There are hedges to plant and weeds to pull up, new plants to go in and any number of projects to explore as possibilities.
Most importantly we need to draw our campsite competition, results will be on a seperate blog post, surfice to say the competion will be drawn on 2nd October, so if you forgot to write in our Visitor's Book but would like to write a review and enter the competition (see July 2014 post), please do so as soon as possible on the uk campsite page http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/details.asp?revid=12503

Sunday 31 August 2014

Busy summer

We have had such a lovely and busy summer so far that I have not found time to write on the blog, although I have tried to use the twitter account. Not that I am complaining you understand!
There has been a steady trickle of visitors, some returning for their second year which is a real treat for us and speaks volumes for what we are trying to achieve on our small campsite. So thankyou everyone.
August has been particularly busy, yet I am always surprised by the number of holidaymakers in August.  To me, August is our 'rainy season' and May (tucked into the cliff on Pednvounder beach) June (down on the beach in front of Hayle SLSC) and July (sipping a cold glass on the terrace of the Godolphin at Marazion, keeping an eye on the kids, down on the beach at the start of summer hols) are the months with perfect weather, when the gardens (like our gorgeous local Tremenhere Sculpture Garden) are looking their best. Again though I am not complaining and congratulations to all who camped over our wet bank holiday weekend.
I often think of August as bridging the gap between summer and autumn. In this part of cornwall we are frequently blessed with a sunny September and October, the sea is still quite warm and the leaves on the trees blend from green, to amber, to red and gold and the falling leaves allow children to kick a riot of crispy colours up into the air with their wellingtonboots. Whatever the month however, there are always garden chores to do and this week I spent some time pulling up monbretia invading the orchard, to move to the reservoir garden.
My campsite reservoir garden is developing into a pretty little space this year. There have been a couple of small disasters, which come with the territory of happily sharing the garden....the eucalyptus lost its leafy top, broken half way up the stem ...possibly a football hazard and lots of the fronds on the tree-palm disappeared, leaving bare stems....possibly a little fingers hazard! But some plants have really done well, I even have a few tomatoes! Apologies to the german couple that loved the campsitesite and the shower, but were bemused by my not-so-pretty old roadtyres....they surround my compost heap....so campers, please 'embrace' them as garden-art, balloons in the Tate St Ives and Tyres in the Reservoir Garden!

On the subject of art, I recently spent a pleasant afternoon wandering round St Ives with a cousin. St Ives is just "lovely", it has such an appreciative balance of life. There is an ambiance of culture, nature and art on every corner, with a picturesque harbour, blue seas, boats bobbing about, seals taking advantage of the leftovers from fishing trips, wonderful clothes and book shops, colourful cafes and a population who live and work and play in the town with a fabulous swimming pool at the leisure centre (and views to die for) and a top rate secondary school. What more could you ask for? ....glimpses of art and surprises from pretty courtyards? And here is one...........
Returning to our campsite, the shower has finally got a little mirror - for all those who need to shave -
and a couple of hooks for a towel and a wash-bag to the right of the tap and sink. All good improvements suggested by our campers! (Keith with the Harley-D, if you read this blog, I know you suggested a mirror at the beginning of last season, but it is only recently that David going to Troytown camping with Gabi also made mention to a mirror, thus confirming its necessity.)
And so August is over and we are winding down our holiday season, with only a few weeks to go. Time to plot and plan with ideas to work on over the winter months, all to be revealed in the blogs to come.




Friday 4 July 2014

Campsite COMPETITION

We thought it would be nice to have our own campsite COMPETITION this year.

And this is how it works.
Any age can enter, as long as you have written the review, although you will need permission from and to come with a parent, to collect the prize.
There are no questions to answer.
You simply have to have visited us during the 2014 season and spent at least one night on the campsite.
AND you must have written a review about ashfarm campsite.  The review can either be written in our Visitors Book, on site, or online at ukcampsite.co.uk.
Visitors who have already camped with us and "forgotten" to write a review whilst staying with us, can write one retrospectfully by logging onto ukcampsite.co.uk as soon as possible.
 All review 'authors' names will be put into a hat at the end of the season and our lovely next door neighbour Liz will be asked to draw one name out, to be the lucky winner.
And the prize will be:
One week (maximum 6 nights) camping holiday for maximum of 2 adults and 2 children on our little campsite in 2015 season.
We provide only the camping paddock and usual facilities, you bring your own tents etc
 Management reserves the right not to include reviewers who clearly did not enjoy their stay with us, since they would not want to win the prize anyway. And, should the winner request a week that is already fully booked, we also reserve the right to offer an alternative week.

Monday 16 June 2014

Cortaderia for lunch

So, having opened the campsite and had our first trickle of campers, we have been able to spend a bit more time in the reservoir garden, taming the terraces. This, naturally also means spending some time in garden centres, looking for plants to fill the gaps and make it more difficult for the weeds to regrow. A favourite venue for plant shopping, is Gulval Plant and Herb Nursery, who have this fine agave specimen growing at their gateway. Couldn't resist taking a snap of it ...not sure which agave it is, but I want one!
Not quite so impressive, but nevertheless a flower, is my magnolia bloom. Have managed to fail at growing a magnolia tree twice already, so hopefully third time lucky! Big thankyou to my "Auntie Jimmie" for this one...lovely gift from her.
Less successful has been the cortaderia or pampas grass, that was looking really nice and growing well, up to 1 metre high, but then I let the horses into the campsite paddock to mow and one of them "ate it"! I think it will regrow, but it looks horribly sad for campers at the moment.
And here is the innocent looking equine who ate it - if he wasn't my favourite equine I would be very, very cross with him.