More mess, storms and the wettest January every!

Hello there!

We are now well into the New Year, and what a start to 2026 it was! January 8th brought us Storm Goretti and Cornwall is still recovering from the chaos and damage caused by the wild winds that battered us on that night.

Just on the farm, sadly we lost a number of trees (one of which took our phone line with it) and we had damage to barn roofs.  We also had a late night chicken rescue mission as their very solid, heavy house took off across the field with them inside!  Besides ruffled feathers, they were thankfully fine and both laid us an egg the following morning - whether that was through trauma or gratitude I'm not sure!

I have to say I have never felt so unnerved by the weather as I did that night - the wind was so wild and violent, it was quite scary.  However I am so grateful because the damage we had could have been much, much worse - many households were left without power for days and suffered far greater than we did.  In many places, swathes of trees were flattened and have changed the look of the landscape - the clean up job will continue over many more weeks and months.  

The storm has left us with quite a number of tasks added to our 'to-do' list - the mending of roofs, the clearing of fallen trees.  On top of this we have had what I believe is the wettest January ever, so it's impossible to get into the fields with vehicles to deal with some of the trees, so we'll have to wait for it to dry up a bit before we can tackle those!  

(tree pic)

I've made a start on this blog post on 25th February, and this is the first day that we have had our internet back since the storm!  Hooray!  We rely on it so much these days don't we?

Cottage progress...

Despite the dreadful weather we have been soldiering on with the internal work on the cottages - walls have been taken down, spaces have been opened up and we have now officially broken through from one side to the other downstairs, so two are now one!  There is so much more light reaching all areas of the spaces downstairs and the living 'zones' are now defined into kitchen, dining and lounge areas.

We are getting closer to the point where we will be ready for the trades to come in to do the 'professional' side of things.  We've finalised some plans for the new porch area and getting things clearer in our heads about the order of tasks to be done.  There's so much to think about!  My mind is already whirring with where the plug sockets will need to go because you can never have enough of those can you!

We are currently removing the tiles from the kitchen walls and floors and then there will be the task of taking off the plaster in a number of areas where we have some 'issues' - so still more mess to make but we are getting closer to the point where all the mess and demolishing side of things will be finished and my goodness I'll be glad when that day arrives!

(cott pics)

Spring is in the air...

Although it's been extremely wet it has been fairly mild and there are signs of spring all around.  The snowdrops have been in bloom since January and the daffodils have been glowing gold in the fields...better days are on the way (we hope!).  It has to dry up at some point, right!?

(snowdrop and daff pics)

So, as we hurtle towards March we're in a fairly good place with the cottage, we are managing the overwhelm quite well and there is no mention of divorce!  We are looking forward to fitting in some walks soon to share with you and show off our wonderful part of Cornwall - the furthest we've managed over the last few weeks is down to our local beach in Lelant (Porthkidney).

(porthkid)

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook or Instagram where we have been sharing reels and photos of what we have been up to - we'll be back here again with another blog post soon!

Best wishes

Tanya