The shooting season is now well under way, it has been fantastic to welcome old friends and new and catch up with the goings on over the summer, which for many has resulted in lots of exciting hunting, shooting and fishing stories.

We could not have asked for better weather with overcast and windy days being the norm. Our partridge have held their own this year due the mild weather and are still making up 50% of the bag on most days. Now the leaves have finally fallen from the trees we are looking forward to getting into our woodland drives to really test the metal of our guns. We also have a new pheasant drive which we will be shooting in the coming weeks, early signs are looking very promising. If the rest of the season continues to be as good as the start has been then it could turn out to be our best yet.

 

 

 

With the weather as good as it has been, we have started to offer a two day event to hone peoples shooting skills. We have recently completed our first one which went exceptionally well. Our guests arrived late on Friday afternoon, stayed for two nights in our holiday cottages and enjoyed the beautiful Devon countryside, some fantastic shooting training as well as some of our home and locally produced food. Between the shooting our guests enjoyed some R&R in our pool and sauna with masseuses on hand to ease any aches and pains. The final evening included a barbecue cooked over our new fire pit with ample quantities of our different home reared meats so no-one went home hungry! Although we desperately need some rain, it has been great to see the weather as good as it has been.    

Our Mornacott flock of sheep have been gathered in for their annual shear. Each sheep is hand shorn and their woolly fleeces removed so they are ready for the Summer heat wave. Our early lambs which where born in February are looking fantastic and the first lot will be heading to market later this week. With the heat wave set to continue our sheep are looking for shade and praying for rain to keep the grass growing.

 After a busy few weeks with holiday cottage bookings, we managed to fit in our annual cottage rating inspection.

We are pleased to announce that we maintained our 5 star rating on Orchard and Old Stables cottages, and 4 Star Gold on Barn cottage. We now look forward to the busy summer season, and hoping that this beautiful Devon sunshine continues.

At last the sun shines at Mornacott. After one of our wettest winters on record we are finally getting the weather one would expect for this time of the year.  Our animal numbers have swelled considerably over the last two months with the safe arrival of over 80 calves, 200 lambs, some Landrace piglets and a brood of Maran chicks. All of the animals, especially the piglets, are looking forward to meeting our holiday guests this summer.

  The sun is shining, the lambs are bleating, spring is in the air here at Mornacott. We have been busily spring cleaning our cottages, ready to welcome old and new friends alike. Not only have we seen this year’s crop of new lambs, we are delighted to welcome a new member to our team with Grant and Megan’s new baby daughter, Olivia, being born on 4^th February. Let’s hope the rest of the year continues as well as it has started!