Family farm holidays in Cornwall magical for children, toddlers and babies.
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Coombe Mill Blog
"Tales from the farmers wife" shares the funny and interesting happenings on our lovely holiday farm with Farmer Nick and our 6 children. A behind the scenes look on balancing family, farming, the holiday business and cooking for all.
September holiday news from the farm
September holiday news brings you highlights from the summer and plans for autumn on our delightful family farmstay. ... Read More
A Month of Being Open for Holidays
Reflections on a month of our holidays being open again after the Covid-19 lockdown. How our no contact holidays work & farm news. ... Read More
Holidays opening from 4th July 2020 at Coombe Mill. Enjoy a farm holiday with animals feeding and tractor rides in a covid safe envirnment. ... Read More
June Farm News 2020 under Lockdown
June Farm News with a look at your holiday ahead and what's been happening here in May during lockdown from hatchlings to sheep shearing.... Read More
On a lovely sunny day in May what could be better than a little fun and a flutter on the horses? We are not big gamblers but love the atmosphere, a good deal of family banter and the outside hope of possibly coming home up on the day with some winnings. It was with Ally, Theo and Guy that we set off for the May Point to Point at St Columb Major about 30 minutes from Coombe Mill.
The location was perfect, set high up with a great view from the fields around the course. We ended up parking in the centre of the racecourse giving us the option of watching from the boot of the car or up on the grassy hill. The first job was to try and glean a little information by purchasing a race card.
A day out with teenage boys means food before they can think about anything else so we delved into our picnic. It was a rather unsophisticated affair compared to the family next to us with their picnic basket and champagne – next time!
Refuelled, and not much wiser from studying the race card, we trekked up across the course to the parade ring where the boys had me laughing so much with their banterful exchanges on why each horse should win.
Decisions made we placed our bets with the bookies, a grand £1 on the nose from the boys and £5 from Nick for us. I did say we weren’t big gamblers! It is all about the fun of the day. Watching the boys with Nick always makes me smile. Theo towers over his Dad and Ally is much stronger, however they have a lovely relationship that is great to watch.
We settled down to watch the race each with our hopes pinned on a horse. Everyone there had a great view and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
In total we stayed for 5 races moving between the parade ring, the hillside and the boot of the car. I haven’t laughed so much in ages as we each bigged up our horses to win, but actually lost on every race. Thank goodness we really aren’t big gamblers!
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If you are down with us it is worth looking into the local point to point races. They are very family friendly and a great day out. I may have teens now but mine have enjoyed the races with us since a young age. I couldn’t help but capture these girls who were having a wonderful time between races rolling down the hill.
Facilities at May Point to Point at St Columb Major
Entrance fee £10. Under 16’s are free.
Field Parking
Hog Roast baps and cake stall
Ice cream van
Indoor shed for wet weather
Potaloos – basic but functional!
Top Tips for Point to point local country races
Wear wellies or boots especially if it is damp
Be careful where you park if the ground is damp, especially without a 4 wheel drive car, there was no problem when we visited.
Bring a picnic rug to sit on (we forgot)
It is a perfect picnic opportunity but take your wrappings home as animals graze the fields.
Never bet more than you are happy to lose!
Take layers, even on a sunny day the wind up on the racecourse fields can catch you out.
Funnily enough I’ve just finished reading a book that takes racing to it’s highest level. It’s a great read if you have any interest in the sport, horses in general, or love a good fiction book with some real twists in the story. It’s called Citizen by Charlie Brooks
Holidays are perfect for enjoying family time and creating memories to last. Here at Coombe Mill we work hard to create the perfect holiday environment for families to do just this. It looks like our friends at Lonely Planet Kids also have preserving holiday memories on the mind with two adorable new titles in their kids range. My Holiday Scrapbook and My Holiday Drawing Book are two books designed to help children record their time away in a fun and memorable way. If you have a holiday coming up and want it to make a lasting impact with your child then read on to discover more about these lovely books and how you can win them both.
Holiday memories
Whether you are jumping in a pool in the sunshine after an exhausting flight or unpacking the car for a week on the farm with us there are moments you want to capture and remember. It might be swimming in our river, learning to fish, helping drive the tractor or cuddling a rabbit, they are times to cherish. With these lovely books you’ll learn some tricks of the trade for drawing and be encouraged to collect snippets from nature to bring back those holiday experiences long after they have finished.
Holiday Drawing Book
We love this book for the great first tips to drawing it gives. Learn how to draw in 3D, create perspective, give stick men emotions and much more. Our favourite is the lesson in turning basic shapes into creatures. You could create all the animals on the farm in this way.
My Holiday Scrapbook
This book with over 150 stickers will have you scavenging the countryside for flowers and feathers, saving bus tickets and activity entrance passes to stick into your book. Make the book unique to your holiday with the things you collect along the way. Even a rainy day is an adventure when you play dot to dot with raindrop splashes! We took inspiration from the book for one of our activity hour crafts here on the farm and filled in the nature colours to make flags for the children to keep.
Need to Know
My Holiday Drawing Book
My Holiday Scrapbook
RSP
£8.99
RSP
£7.99
Dimensions
172mm × 215mm
Dimensions
232 x 304 x 9mm
Author
Gillian Johnson
Author
Gillian Johnson
Publisher
Lonely Planet Kids
Publisher
Lonely Planet Kids
Warning
this book is not suitable for children under 3 as the handy book mark cord could be a strangulation hazard.
Warning
this book is not suitable for children under 3 as the handy book mark cord could be a strangulation hazard.
Last week I shared the lovely spaces pure and unedited here on the farm. This week I wanted to home in on colour. The transition from spring to summer brings out all my favourite colours on the farm; the rich Rhododendron, the delicate wisteria and lilac and the bright yellow and wonderful scent of honeysuckle. Rich oranges merge with burnt russets against crisp lime green leaves. These vibrant colours can seem lost in the green spaces on the farm, but going on a nature colour hunt reveals a rainbow of vivid colour. Nature is so clever and manages to make stunning combinations which in any other context might appear quite gaudy. Rainbows of summer colour has been the theme of our activities here this week and from nature hunts to flag making the colours have been fun to spot and collect.
Rich pink Rhododendron and sweet yellow Honeysuckle in the garden to Water Mill cottage.
Close up on the Honeysuckle.
Rainbows of summer colour all in one leaf on this colourful bush.
Flowering each year this rich orange flower frames the Coombe Mill train track.
Wisteria hangs over the old 16th Century Miller’s House.
Every summer I want to pause time and keep these wonderful colours for longer. Yet this is the cycle of nature, the summer colours will fall to be replaced by the burnt oranges of autumn before winter takes hold and the whole cycle starts again. Perhaps I appreciate the rainbows of summer colour more for not having them all year. For more beautiful gardens in Cornwall Lanhydrock National Trust is awash with Rhododendron at this time of year and they line the approach to Pencarrow House. The Lost Gardens of Heligan are full of colour as are Trebah Gardens. If the names sound familiar that’s because our Scandinavian Lodges are all named after these delightful Cornish Gardens.
Country Kids is the original outdoor family fun linky designed to:
“Encourage family fun outdoors, in an age where technology and screens are such a draw to a sedentary indoor life”
Welcome back if you are a regular to Country Kids and if you are new please join in. You will find plenty of inspiration for enjoying outdoor space and please do share your own adventures. We support the National Trust #50 things along with all other ideas for family fun outside.
Hello June
How is it June already? Summer really feels set in now. The farm is buzzing with summer life, our half term holiday makers have enjoyed a lovely week looked after party by us and party by Amber and my older boys in between revision while we have taken the triplets to Greece visiting family for a few days. I have so many outdoor adventures to catch up on, I hope you do too and will share them with me on the link up below.
Guidelines for Joining in:
Post must be predominantly outdoors such as in the garden, the park, the woods or the beach with crafting, learning, exploring or playing.
Despite the title, both countryside and urban outdoor adventures are welcome.
Unheated covered areas like a barn or tent count as outdoors.
Please comment on my host post and a minimum of 3 others of your choice.
If you use #CountryKids when commenting the post owner will know where your found them and hopefully come back to visit your post.
Please take my badge, without it you won’t be considered for winning the lovely Rockfish Wellies.
Linked posts should be written and made live within the last 2 months.
I understand sometimes you need to do catch up posts and write about something from a couple of months ago but the publish date should be within 2 months.
There is no restriction on the number of posts that can be linked up, however please be sensible, if you have more than 3 consider linking over a few weeks.
Thanks to all of you who joined in last week and for the comments you took time to leave, we had a week with no link dumpers so a pat on the back to you all!
Rockfish kindly sponsor Country Kids
Win a pair of wellies from Rockfish Monthly
I am delighted to have Rockfish as the sponsor for Country Kids. Rockfish are a local Cornish company specializing in stylish quality wellingtons for all the family. We have been offering their country wellies in our borrow room here on the farm for over a year and they are always popular for their style, comfort and durability.
Each week my favourite #CountryKids posts, which include my badge or a link back here, will be considered for a free pair of Rockfish Wellies at the end of the month; the perfect way to enjoy the outdoors whatever the weather throws your way. Keep your posts coming, it could be you winning next!
For more more information on the Rockfish Wellies on offer with us and terms and conditions to win see here.
May Welly Winner
Congratulations to Lucy from Kids of the Wild who is our May winner of the lovely Rockfish wellies. Lucy and the family came to Cornwall for a children’s cancer charity event and made the most of a lovely weekend whilst raising awareness for the charity. Lucy, do DM or email (mail@coombemill.com) your choice of wellies from the Rockfish range including size and colour as shown in stock.
Favourite posts from last week added to the shortlist for winning the June Rockfish Wellies:
Top Commenter: Louise from Little Hearts Big Love
Four Acorns have been on a magical weekend wild camping in Ireland.
Join the growing Country Kids Instagram Community with #CountryKidsFun.
I'll like and comment on all and share my favourites from the week with a tag on a Friday on Instagram and Twitter. With over 10,000 posts this community is flourishing with outdoors photos.
It was our eldest son Alistair’s 20th birthday and the bank holiday weekend. His favourite past time is surfing and the heat wave, the bank holiday and his birthday all fell on a day of great surf. It was pretty much a done deal that we would be a birthday beach day. There was only two flaws in the plan, one was that the temperature fell from a gorgeous 24 degrees at Coombe Mill to just 14 at the beach under the mist from the sea, the other was that we were far from the only ones heading to the beach. In the end neither turned out to spoil our enjoyment.
In the end it was Ally, Clio Jed and I that headed out after the feed run in search of the surf. Theo and Felix have GCSE’s and A levels fast approaching requiring reluctant revision and Guy was exhausted from a sleepover. We have a well oiled routine at busy times of year where by the kids carry the stuff onto the beach while I go off and park the car. I get the raw deal on this as they are always changed and heading to the waves as I arrive.
The sea mist was visibly rolling across the beach and the cliffs came and disappeared from view. It was very atmospheric and before going into the water I stopped to capture a few photos.
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Down at the water’s edge I tried to find the kids but there were so many in the sea all in wetsuits it was almost impossible. I came back with so many photos of kids surfing I felt sure I’d have one of them all but in the end it was only Jed I had correctly identified! I suspect Ally was too far out for me to see but he assured me he caught some great waves and stayed in the longest.
I couldn’t resist a little stylised shot of my drained coffee mug before heading in to the water myself.
Usually I like to hang around on the beach and warm up but it was too cold for that when we knew Coombe Mill was most likely still in full sun and anyway Jed had left the football he brought in the car. Using my coffee mug for a game of catch was not going to end well so I soon called Clio and Jed over as I saw Ally finally emerge from the water.
Driving back inland we soon left the sea mist behind and watched the temperature creep back up again. Sure enough it was still 20 degrees and beautiful back on the farm. Clio and Ally flaked out on the trampoline making up for the sunbathing time they missed at the beach.
I caught up with Guy and the guests over at the train and they all confirmed it had indeed been beautiful all day on the farm and they had enjoyed paddling in the river here. It is hard to believe it was just gone 6pm at the start of May and everyone was in short sleeves.
A family meal with everyone back home and of course a homemade birthday cake for Ally made the day just perfect.
I do hope the gorgeous bank holiday weekend was just a taste of what’s to come this summer. I never tire of beach days.
“Tales from the farmers wife” shares life on our lovely holiday farm with Farmer Nick and our 6 children. Step into our beautiful 30 acres and experience nature close up with farming and educational crafts in stunning North Cornwall. Family, fun and adventure start here.
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