October - November 2009

Half term has arrived only moments after the summer holidays have ended, or so it seems.  In fact the weather here has been fantastic most days since the end of summer with lots of warm sunshine and not much rain.  The plants and the animals are getting very confused as they think it is spring and our male peacock is becoming very energetic.  We are still having huge fox problems and our free range chickens are having to have a much smaller range in order to keep them alive.  Our two remaining ducks have become very nervous but this seems to be keeping them safe.  The two adult peacocks are still spending most of the time locked up and will continue to do so until the baby is too big to be picked up by a buzzard.  They are let out for a couple of hours a day when someone is free to watch them.  The alpacas are still in the big fields whilst the grass in their paddock grows and we hope to move them at the end of October.  They will hopefully then protect the chickens when they are all let out together.  We are just starting to get more eggs after a 4 month fox induced lull and we hope to be able to start selling them on a regular basis to guests again.

We were delighted to be awarded Gold Awards on some of our cottages again this year.  It is nice when the tourist board agrees with our improvements.  We are debating registering with Green Tourism for next year.  It is unlikely to increase our bookings but will at least let guest know more about us.  We would hope to get a silver award as we do a lot of what they ask already but if not, they would give a lot of information to help us move forward.  Guests are very good about using our comprehensive recycling centre and the refuse collectors are delighted at not having to sort our rubbish out. We have just had a borehole dug to stabilise our water supply. Our water has always come from a local spring but as this could be more at risk than a bore hole with the recent climatic changes we decided to make the change.

It is heading towards the time of year when we get our improvements done.  There is less to do this year as we did so much last year and we have been very pleased with the feedback from guests.  A hot tub has been ordered for the three small cottages to share on a booking only basis, so that it can be private.  We have cleared a beautiful spot high up behind the cottages where it will have a superb view.  In order to get to the hot tub we are arranging to dig out some steps and a path which will be illuminated.  As the cottages become free for a few days the decorator will be coming in so that everything will look nice and fresh for the new season.  It is hoped to get the shower room in the swimming pool redone after Christmas though as we never close the pool this could be challenging. 

 

August - September 2009

The school holidays have come and gone in the blink of an eye.  All except one week had a reasonable amount of sunshine so guests have been able to spend time on the beaches.  Of course now the school holidays are over it seems as though the real summer weather is here.

Summer has been very busy with all the cottages and houses full and the swimming pool being put to constant good use.  Many of the young and not so young children have really enjoyed seeing the alpacas and the birds, with some of the braver ones feeding the alpacas their food.  Sadly we have lost a lot of birds to various foxes this year and we are taking ever more precautions to protect them.  It has meant seriously curtailing their freedom and doesn’t always work.  We are now rarely able to sell our eggs to guests as there are not many laying chickens left.  This will however improve as the young ones mature, which tends to take a few weeks.

We have being making the most of the summer to get as much of the outside of the buildings repainted as possible.  The intermittent downpours which we have seen during holidays have slowed things down and we are only now getting to the end of the job.  It is all looking very smart.  The sun has been heating up the swimming pool via our solar panels and is saving so much oil.  A bonus with the solar panels is that the pool gets a few degrees warmer and that they also seem to work when the weather is not so good.

The hot tubs in the larger houses have continued to be popular and we have now ordered a large hot tub to be shared between the three cottages.  We are hoping to put this behind the cottages where it will have a lovely view down the valley.  The plan is for guests in the cottages to be able to reserve private sessions in the hot tub on a regular basis and we are aiming to have this in place for the start of next season.

The grounds have been producing lots of fruit now we are coming into the autumn.  The wild blackberries particularly are producing a mega crop. A lot of this has been turned into food for guests with apple and blackberry crumbles and French apple tarts being very popular.  We are experimenting making lots of things from the hedge row though most of this is for us as can be rather hit and miss. Our frozen meals for guests continue to be popular and we have introduced a beef in ale and a mild curry.

 

July 2009

The summer holiday season has got into full swing and we are as busy as ever.  Summer weather has got rather more unpredictable over the last few days but at least all the plants are doing well.  We have had an arched walkway built up to  the Georgian House and are in the process of planting wisteria and roses to scramble all over it.  The roses are looking super now but by next year it will look beautiful.  All the out door pots which have survived being eaten by the peacocks are looking bright and summery and hopefully this year will survive the winter.  All the grass and plants around the new ponds are doing well and it is starting to look as though they have been there for ages.

Now the ponds have settled we have got some more ducks.  We have two Indian Runners which are very comical, an all black duck and a black and white magpie duck.  On the advice of the breeder as we already had two males, we got all females.  It has worked really well, they show no sign of flying off and just spend the days following the males around.  We don’t think Henry can believe his luck and think that we may have a lot of ducklings soon.  Penelope our peahen has suddenly made a secret nest and started laying eggs.  We are getting one egg every three days but as peahens are notoriously bad mothers we will be lucky to get baby peafowl.  Our chicken’s eggs are proving very popular with guests so we have bought another two hens. We are hoping during the next few months to get some chickens which will lay blue eggs.

The alpacas have been shorn of all their wool and now look so small and dainty.  We have been given an old spinning wheel and are trying with absolutely no success to spin the fleeces.  The wool is exceptionally fine and soft and would make wonderful garments so we must persevere.  As soon as they lost their warm wool it got cold and windy, so now they have their own waterproof coats which we put on every night.

Today was our annual inspection for our star rating.  After the storms of last night it was not a good start for the day.  The Georgian House games room had an internal water feature courtesy of a ripped off roof tile and broken bits of trees were littering the grounds.  We got everything sorted out just in time even though the inspector arrived early.  He was very complementary and gave us five stars in our largest two houses and a high four stars in our cottages.  This is what we were aiming for and are now delighted to have.