Please click on the pictures above to see a bigger version.

We may have mentioned before the tremendous community spirit that exists in Cornwall, and we keep meaning to share a bit more of it with you. As with any thriving village the heart of the community is the local. In our case it is the Crown Inn in Crowntown, run by our very good friends Chris and Dave Hopkinson and their daughter Katie. Liz and I have re-christened it the RIC (Residents Information Centre) as opposed to the Tourist Information Centre. We have found a builder, butcher, electrician, roof repairer and Cornish hedge builder (to mention but a few) through the Crown. It's also the first time in our lives that we get insulted by name, when we walk into the pub! Dave keeps some excellent Cornish real ales (and has a CAMRA listing for the Crown).

This time last year we brought you some pictures of the Mousehole Christmas lights (which will no doubt be equally impressive this year). However, the RIC's representative on the Helston Town Band suggested that we take a look a lot closer to home. So last Saturday we went over to Sithney (about three miles on Cornish roads) for the switch on of the village lights. Fantastic! Considering that Sithney village comprises about 60 or 70 houses the light show is unbelievable. A crowd of several hundred turned out for the "switch on" followed by carols lead by the Helston Town Band and the obligatory pasty supper in the village tearoom.

Liz and Ian would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Peaceful, Happy and Healthy New Year.

Please click on the pictures above to see a bigger version.

Perversely the big gap in compiling the diary is due the fact that there has been too much happening to find time to write it, rather than having nothing to put in it.

Ornithological slant to this entry. We completed the RSPB Sparrow watch a few weeks back. The following day we felt like sending a revised report as a Sparrowhawk came down into the back garden and reduced the count by one! We only saw him / her the once.

One thing we can't escape from (not that we want to) is the Swallow's nest in the front porch. About the end of June a pair of swallows started daubing mud onto the beam about head height in the porch. When completed and lined with feathers, Mother laid five small speckled eggs. We were a bit concerned as she did not seem to spend much time incubating them. We thought it might us disturbing them by using the front door so we resolved to detour out the back door and round to the front.

Whether this made any material difference we will never know but we are delighted to report that all five eggs have hatched (on the 25th of July to be exact) and the young ones are growing apace. The first picture was taken on the 29th so about 4 days old and the second picture was taken this morning making them 12 days old. They are already clearly identifiable as swallows (rather than bundles of brown fluff) and whilst we love them dearly we hope it won't be too long before they take to the wing and we can have our front door back!

Please click on the pictures above to see a bigger version.

We have experienced our first Helston Flora Day and what a fabulous spectacle it was. On Wednesday the shops and houses around the town were decorated with spring flowers and foliage. You can get some idea what it was like from the front of the Guildhall in the top picture.

The day starts at something like 5.00 am with a champagne breakfast (needless to say we didn't quite make that) and the first dance (out of five) starts at 7.00 am. The two dances we were particularly interested in were the Children's Dance and the Main Dance.

The Children's Dance includes nearly 1000 children, who all have to attend one of the four Helston schools. Both boys and girls are dressed in white and the first picture shows them nearing the end of the dance back at the Guildhall.

The Main Dance starts as the Town Clock strikes midday. The gentleman all sport top hat and tails and the ladies wear their finest dresses. The dance takes about an hour and half to circle the town and they really do dance in and out of the houses. We were a little unnerved when our bank manager told us the day before, that they actually dance in the back door of the bank and out of the front! We put our money under the mattress overnight!

The story goes that in days gone by, the dancers could knock on any door and demand to dance through. Anyone refusing them entry was carried bodily to the bottom of the town and thrown into what is now the Coronation Boating Lake.

If you can arrange a holiday at Tregathenan around May 8th, do it. It is something not to be missed.

Please click on the pictures above to see a bigger version.

We had a full survey done when we bought Tregathenan and the report suggested that the Cornish hedge in the car park needed rebuilding. Cornish Hedge? Before we trotted off to the local garden centre for some hedging plants we checked on the 'Net (www.dswa.org.uk/Publication_frames_page.htm) and found that a Cornish hedge is in fact two dry stone walls either side of a six foot thick earth bank. Enquiring at the local RIC (Resident's Information Centre aka the Crown Inn at Crowntown), we were advised that Kevin M. was one of the more accomplished exponents of the Hedger's Art and a couple of pints of 'Dreckly' were enough to get him to give us an estimate.

After two days intensive effort the job has now been done and a fabulous job it is too. We don't get Kevin's best features in the first picture showing the start of the re-build after some slightly worrying 'de-construction' of the existing edifice.

You can just make on the left hand side of the finished job 'St Piran's Seat'. Lizzie asked Kevin for a step so that she could reach over the 'hedge' to feed the horses, expecting to get one large stone protruding from the wall. No such thing from Kevin who says that tradition requires a 'seat' to be built in for the next time that the Patron Saint of Cornwall passes by.

Ultimately the 'hedge' will be completely overgrown thus helping to bind it all together. It is therefore worth a 'word to the wise'. Next time you are driving down one of our pretty country lanes don't be tempted to nudge the grassy banks, they are more substantial than they look.

Please click on the pictures above to see a bigger version.

Slightly somber note to the diary entry this time, as we have witnessed our first Cornish shipwreck.

The RMS Mülheim lost all power last night and drifted on to the rocks in Gamper Cove between Lands End (seen in the background of the first picture) and Sennen Cove. Thankfully the six man crew were all taken off unharmed. It's only about half an hours drive from Tregathenan so Lizzie and I decided we should get a closer look.

The infamous Cornish wreckers were however to be disappointed as she was carrying 2000 tonnes of scrap plastic from old cars from Ireland to Germany for disposal.

Salvage experts have been aboard and found that there is a rock sticking some 12 feet through the bottom of the ship and it is not therefore possible to salvage her. The cargo will be removed to avoid any environmental complications but the Mülheim, which is only 4 years old will be left to break up. Since this is likely to take some time this year's visitors to Tregathenan can get a personal experience of what is really quite a sad sight.

Please click on the pictures above to see a bigger version.

After what for most of our visitors and guests is a fairly long drive, the last few hundred yards up the bridle path are always a reason to be happy. Just at the moment however, this short drive is even more rewarding as the spring flowers burst forth. The snowdrops have now given way to a 'host of golden daffodils' (to borrow a phrase from one of them poet chaps).

There is the promise of bluebells and wild garlic (look, but don't touch!) to come. The hedgerows are also a glorious yellow with blossoming gorse.

The birds and beasts are hard at it as well if you will pardon the expression. The large sycamore at the bottom of the courtyard currently boasts seven rook's nests and construction continues apace. Liz and I watch amazed at the size of the 'twigs' that are brought back to the 'building site'. Some of them exceed the wing span of the birds themselves which is not inconsiderable. It's a typical building site as the lane under the tree is about six inches deep in debris.

The toads appear after dark, playing leapfrog (or is it leaptoad?). They are not very good at it though as the little ones seem to keep landing on top of the big ones!

Please click on the pictures above to see a bigger version.

What an interesting county Cornwall is! Believe it or not these two pictures we taken only two days apart. We never thought we would get the chance to take a Christmas Card scene when we moved here, but there it is. It only lasted a day and a bit but it was fun while lasted.

We are quite touched by the popularity of our diary pages - to such an extent that we are now receiving requests for pictures from our readers! To fulfil one such request, here is a picture of one of the many daffodil fields currently in bloom here in South West Cornwall.

The daffodils from the Isles of Scilly can be found in London florists from Christmas onwards; the rest of Cornwall is not far behind. Daffodils are usually picked before they are in full bloom, so that they open out when they arrive in your homes. The ones in the picture are actually sols, I believe, and are growing in the fields at the bottom of Prospidnick Hill, just a short walk from Tregathenan.

Please click on the pictures above to see a bigger version.

A very Happy and Healthy New Year to one and all. Our first Christmas and New Year at Tregathenan were a roaring success. We were fully booked for the New Year and saw the New Year in, in fine style, with a party in the Visitor Centre.

For those of you who could not join us we thought we would try and share some of the magic of the Christmas lights in Mousehole which are justifiably renowned throughout the country. (Neither to photographer nor the camera do them real justice). Some 3 months of planning and construction and countless thousands of bulbs and miles of wiring combined to make a really spectacular offering. It wasn't just Mousehole either with most towns and villages entering into the spirit of things.

One of the things both Liz and I have noticed in the six months we have been in Cornwall is the tremendous community spirit that exists down here. Please join us next Christmas and see for yourselves.

We had always intended that this diary should be largely devoted to news of Tregathenan and the immediate area. We thought it was about time we introduced you to some of the 'neighbours'. Some people have fairies at the bottom of their garden but we have Show jumpers! These two have an almost insatiable appetite for carrots and apples, although their owner, Dave P., warned us that any offerings need to be cut up, preferably into sticks. Apparently they nearly lost a horse that all but choked on some carrot that was fed to it in slices. It's a bit much when four-legged scroungers need the same gourmet treatment that we lavish on our paying guests!

All visitors to Tregathenan, whether to the cottages or the house are treated to a traditional Cornish Cream Tea. Liz starts each new visitor day baking a batch of scones ('cos yours truly is no pastry chef), which are served up with Pengoon Farm clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam. We have produced something like 28 pounds of strawberry jam this year (Tom and Barbara again!), which we picked from a local fruit farm. We are now being treated to an almost unlimited free supply of blackberries, which if Liz stops requisitioning them for blackberry and apple tarts, will be converted into bramble jelly.
The other part of "nature's bounty" which has taken a hammering lately is the fruit of the Blackthorn, better known as Sloes. We currently have around three litres of deep red Tregathenan Sloe Gin maturing. Christmas and New Year guests can expect a small bottle on their welcome tray provided there is some left after Ian has finished 'sampling'.

At the risk of being branded "Tom and Barbara" and turning the neighbours into "Jerry and Margot" we thought we would give you a little behind the scenes insight into our activities. It might also help to explain why the diary has been a bit neglected. With two month's of full occupancy in all the cottages plus some serious 'construction' work, there wasn't a lot of time left for maintaining the diary. Our photo this week shows Liz emerging from her 'birthday present'. Although our grounds are not enormous, we will have a substantial requirement for bedding and hanging basket plants throughout the year, and what more satisfying way of filling the need than by growing them ourselves.

The next phase for the 'outdoor rooms' is to turn the back garden into a vegetable plot. Just out of the picture is our Swiss style log pile, with about two tons of assorted timber destined to provide us with a homely glow over Christmas and the New Year. We got quite a homely glow shifting them from the car park to the back garden!