tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30928413142037055672024-02-19T03:18:03.381-08:00A Nice Little Place in The Country by Sarah WintBed and Breakfast and Holiday Cottagesnicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-85664765965206713592015-10-17T10:15:00.001-07:002015-10-17T10:15:16.054-07:00Blog For Sale<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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We’ve loved this place since 2003.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve renovated, decorated, cultivated and
planted – boy have we planted!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve
made what people describe as a ‘magical place’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>‘a place of peace and tranquility’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is one of the good things about Trip Advisor – people say such nice
things (mostly).</div>
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<br /></div>
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It’s been hard work at times but for the past few years
we’ve been able to enjoy the fruits of our labours as well as those of the
garden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With nearly nine acres of
garden, woodland and meadow bordered by a gentle brook and two pretty and
popular self-catering cottages we’ve been able to share this quirky,
characterful historic nice little place with hundreds of people now and it is
nice to make a living by essentially creating happiness.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sharing a little piece of long lost old England with
stressed executives, exhausted parents and romantic couples – watching them
relax over the course of a weekend or longer is actually a very rewarding
occupation. So what’s it really like running holiday accommodation in your
home?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In truth we are the scaley legs and webbed feet working away
under the plain sailing serenity of the Brook Farm Swan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But with the help of local girls with the
cleaning and the support of local suppliers and neighbours we’ve been blessed
and things run smoothly - most of the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And when they don’t – a broken tap, a wasps’ nest, disappearing WiFi –
guests are always very understanding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
think this is partly down to the whole place setting its own scene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not the Ritz – it’s not a hotel with hot
and cold running staff – it’s just what it is and people seem to like the
relaxed unpretentious surroundings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
shabby chic, it’s pretty, it’s Country Living magazine (not Country Life
magazine) – it’s rustic and not particularly elegant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As soon as you arrive you know it’s not the
sort of place where you have to leave your shoes at the door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The garden is wild and romantic and people
instinctively know they can flop wherever they want for as long as they
want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is enough space for everyone
to get a little lost if they want to for a while – a real escape from the every
day.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Of course behind this laid-back ambience we’ve had to get a
lot of things right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apart from the
layout and décor you’ve got to then get the hospitality right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There has to be a genuinely warm welcome, an
attitude of nothing being too much trouble, always being available to help but
not invading privacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people like
to talk, some don’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ve got to be
able to read people and be what they need you to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes this means being several different
people over the course of a weekend as different guests staying at the same
time might want different things from you.</div>
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There is no point running a hospitality business if you
can’t be hospitable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seems obvious but I
think we’ve probably all been places where we’ve wondered why on earth they’re
in the business if they can’t even manage a smile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With this sort of accommodation though, it is
your home and people are willing to accept ‘Your Way’ of doing things so long
as you do it with a smile and a warm heart, even when faced with a rare difficult
guest: Getting a smile on Saturday morning from a grumpy Friday night arrival
is a small but pleasing triumph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s my
job to make sure people are happy and it feels good when I can see that they
are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We all know that more pleasure is gained from giving than
receiving and doing this for a living has been very rewarding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sharing this lovely old place with others is
a win-win lifestyle – I get to work at home and in my garden, I get to give my
time and hospitality to people who really enjoy it and then they pay me!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what’s not to like?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Why are we leaving?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, this
nice little place is almost perfect – but it’s not by the sea and I’ve always
wanted to live by the sea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This year I am
50 and it’s time I headed to the coast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So, with mixed emotions, as they say, we’re selling up and moving
on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the property market these days
you can’t be fussy about who you sell to, but I’m hoping there’s someone out
there who will love this nice little piece of England as much as I have and
will live a happy and fulfilling life here, caring for it in the way we have.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So if you fancy taking over this blog, this life, this
nicelittleplace you know where you can find me……for now…….</div>
nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-23779345413847388992014-03-25T04:52:00.001-07:002014-03-25T04:52:02.179-07:00Enough Said<p>With the garden opening on a regular basis shortly and the hospitality season kicking off, I’ve decided on a new shorter variety of blog. This may come as much of a relief to you as it is to me.</p> <p>The very best thing that has happened recently is this…..</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSkQ1LhjCbd6vUTyira62lG4j5pOuiRC5S9TG8B9o0hY61tYP_gBDqEVN9DxKIS3FVtB3yGFyfzzrYq_DeVw8OQw3zPdRsoLLZo93IW9AhPou4i8y_4nGI3cCiYPnLO4hE_ZzH_iKy_ew/s1600-h/clip_image002%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="clip_image002" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline" border="0" alt="clip_image002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDVl9QZw8hStJUvlrBzY4z45QgV9YI835WQvvHcvqRYp4sDgbFbUs6Dn899TpTTRLLmC8CH3_4jQ5Ia7rrUYACSzTlOrqf4jARZ0RPg3IiBySoqssEGtSOvR7g98ozmW8Tc0oNB9cyILQ/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="148" /></a></p> <p>Last Saturday the people of our local town Tenbury Wells came together to dig a River of Poppies through its Civic Garden (to be found in the centre of town - by the car park handily) In summer we hope for a drift of red to float through the garden in remembrance of the soldiers who went off to war one hundred years ago.</p> <p>The poppies will be encouraged to re-seed over the coming years as a lasting reminder and tribute.</p> <p>Sometimes words just don’t cut the mustard.</p> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-31427232055289333472014-01-26T12:06:00.001-08:002014-01-26T12:06:46.146-08:00Minding My Business<p>A kind guest recently described this place as a ‘healing retreat’ which is precisely what I hope it to be for our guests so it was very nice to hear, but I couldn’t help feeling a little envious of the feeling. As this place is my workplace as well as my home and the chores are seemingly never-ending, however lovely it is, it is actually quite exhausting. I therefore decided to take myself off on a retreat somewhere else to see what it feels like and if I could learn some tricks to perhaps appreciate this place in the way others do. So this week found me at The Barn at Sharpham in Devon along with eight other retreatants and the three co-ordinators Patti Dino and Peter.</p> <p>At the end of my stay as I drove away I turned my phone back on and stopped to ring my husband just to check all was well at home. When he asked me how it had been I said “Amazing” which surprised me as it came out of my mouth, because while I was there I wouldn’t have described it as ‘amazing’ because it was all so, all so ….simple. It wasn’t ‘amazing’ in the way that I would describe a luxurious hotel with a spa and beautiful food amazing, but what made it so wonderful was a group of like-minded strangers coming together and becoming friends just through sharing a time of mindfulness, silence and meditation. </p> <p>In the cosy barn sitting above the River Dart we each had our own very simple single bedded room and shared the bathrooms (of which there were plenty and there was never a wait or a queue) and we each had our own daily tasks - we weren’t there to be looked after and pampered but nor were our tasks onerous. After the morning wake up call at 6.20 it was my job at 6.45 to ring the bell for the first meditation of the day. We shared a 40 minute meditation in the meditation room and then we all went about our next tasks diligently -continuing the silence that had started at 9pm the night before. I prepared breakfast, in silence, with my breakfast buddie Naomi and somehow through working together in silence each day we became friends. </p> <p>After 9am there was a house meeting and we went about our outdoor jobs until lunchtime which again was cooked by two of the group each day. In the afternoons we were left to our own mindful practice and we came together again with the ringing of the bell for a teaching meditation around 5pm. These teachings, from the Buddhist tradition, were utterly absorbing and each left me filled with a new hope and excitement for the way my life can be.</p> <p>Then a DIY supper – sometimes shared, sometimes not, followed by our last meditation of the day after which we chatted or read (or wrote a silly poem –see below!) until 9pm when silence reigned once more.</p> <p>A few days of simple mindful work and meditation has left me feeling like a new woman! I can’t wait to go forward with my business and my garden here in a more mindful way, maybe punctuated with some calming meditation from time to time. I feel I may now have the secret to enjoying this place as much as my guests do. I’ll keep you posted….Meanwhile … here’s a link to The Barn </p> <p><a title="http://www.sharphamtrust.org/The-Barn-Retreat" href="http://www.sharphamtrust.org/The-Barn-Retreat">http://www.sharphamtrust.org/The-Barn-Retreat</a></p> <p>……..and here is the silly poem I wrote….</p> <p><b><i>Thank you oats, </i></b><b><i>For making the most, Delicious porridge gently</i></b></p> <p><b><i>Than you prunes, And the sun in June, Ripening goodness - juicily</i></b></p> <p><b><i>Thank you bees, Happy happy bees, For making this honey - runnily</i></b></p> <p><b><i>Thank you berries, For our jams and jellies, Sweetness enjoyed mindfully</i></b></p> <p><b><i>And nuts that were made, Hidden in their shades, Sprinkled and crunched now thankfully</i></b></p> <p><b><i>Thank you tea, For there is no me, Without your leaves quite honestly</i></b></p> <p><b><i>Thank you wheat, Dino’s no cheat, Heavenly bread made manually</i></b></p> <p><b><i>(Rice cakes! Dearie me!, I’d not like to be, Allergic to gluten – earnestly</i></b></p> <p><b><i>Thank you sweet earth, For the perpetual birth, Of all that we need – generously</i></b></p> <p><b><i>What rhymes with banana? Only manana, Well – thanks for tomorrow too – sillyly </i></b></p> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-77150333792804075742013-11-18T12:57:00.001-08:002013-11-18T12:57:26.375-08:00Guest post from a working guest<p> </p> <p>A different perspective on Brook Farm from our wonderful workawayer Amanda.  Way over qualified for the work but apparently strangely happy …..</p> <p><a title="https://amandalovizavickery.wordpress.com/2013/11/17/working-to-make-brook-farm-lovelier/" href="https://amandalovizavickery.wordpress.com/2013/11/17/working-to-make-brook-farm-lovelier/">https://amandalovizavickery.wordpress.com/2013/11/17/working-to-make-brook-farm-lovelier/</a></p> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-66332309121194106982013-10-19T10:26:00.001-07:002013-10-19T10:26:27.249-07:00Autumn Forage<p>I’m learning to love autumn. So long as it is dry enough there is so much to enjoy still in the garden and woods and meadows here. The colour change is coming slowly this year though as usual the Liquidamber at the end of the wiggly beds is showing off and ‘Being The Best at Autumn’. I am laminating some of her leaves – I don’t know how I’ll use them, but I just have the urge to preserve the beauty.</p> <p>There was a lot of preserving going on here while we were in Scotland. My friend Jacqui turns our soft fruit into jam for us and our new housesitter Katrina who has been a forager for years (it’s the thing now to be a forager I think, but she’s been doing it for ever) was very excited about the amount of food growing here and set about making all sorts of chutneys preserves jellies and jams. Happily she has left some for us so we get the fruits of our forest so to speak without having to do the tricky bit. But she has also left me feeling that I’m not really making the most of this plot. I’ve been all about making a beautiful, peaceful and healing place to be and not so much about feeding. </p> <p>Of course there is so much healing and good about eating food from your own soil – it can’t be fresher and more full of goodness than that. So my new love for autumn is also a new love for home grown food and instead of groaning every time Willy brings in another twentysix beetroots, I think “What lovely little balls of goodness – how shall I cook them this time?” (OK I try to think that)  Even better though Willy has started cooking them too – he’s in the kitchen right now preparing something ‘unique’ with beetroot which we will have alongside our homegrown curly kale and some mushroom tart.</p> <p>Outside, by the way, we appear to have a parliament of owls (Yes I did look that up) They are really quite chatty but sound so very much friendlier than the noise that comes out of Westminster. Which is nice.</p> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-23836435742884001152013-10-04T05:58:00.001-07:002013-10-04T06:11:46.926-07:00Lichen Love<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUp3g3olETtNDPySQbQAVXDSB0G1or4DKfDBWh0rfgK068Fy2EVx-w6QV6GqttPPMGoPqQxXczgVfbKhg_arn1hN0cSeYBmBMOJeZbFpeFKH3nXJteuTSR-LC0c03E5l2Fd1FIbdRKWL0/s1600-h/highlandsoct13%252520%2525281%252529%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="highlandsoct13 (1)" border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn9fHpNi6tIbM-2K98J2Kw-RSwtMq2IenwxN4h1FFuxmRB0BvMD0gUKZ02EKGjnXFk93yGLbyIuUJ34FPjNsQuDHkUUxVX5hTL-zLex4lmOA1JfeQmE26PoMIypEs9ge60IA6kfcSY5fA/?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="highlandsoct13 (1)" width="244" /></a> <br />
So after a busy summer here we are having a nice little break in the bonnie highlands of Scotland – and jolly bonny they are too. I include both spellings to clearly demonstrate my willingness to accept variations in spelling and grammar having been accused of previously being a grammar and spelling policeman-woman-person and conveniently switching my attitude when it came to a discussion of lichen today. OH likes to call it like-en, I call it litchen to rhyme with kitchen. Either is perfectly acceptable as I confirmed with a surprisingly high speed link to google from a far away place called Applecross. <br />
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The point was and is that the lichen here is truly beautiful. I have lichen envy. And moss envy too. I want to fill my garden in Worcestershire with these mosses and lichens and this will be testing my Gaia Gardening thinking to the max over the next few months because there is no way I’m going to manage it without her. We do have a little lichen on the old apples in the orchard and we do have a little moss here and there because the garden lies at the bottom of our own little valley and is quite damp – but I want MORE! However, you can’t order lichen and moss over the interweb so all I can do is slop some diluted yogurt around and hope my friend Gaia gets the idea.<br />
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In the meantime here are some pics of the lichen at The Walled Garden at Applecross which we stumbled across by accident though it appears it is actually quite a well known place with a well known kitchen in the old potting shed. We had a fabulous lunch and a lovely walk around the garden in the rain which we actually enjoyed just as much as our walk around Inverewe garden in the sunshine a few days ago.<br />
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This is my first visit to the Highlands and I am quite bowled over by its beauty. We’re staying in the fishing village of Plockton where last night we ate in the pub and listened to traditional music and where we have a sweet little self catering cottage called The Shed, which is really very nice but a little small for us as we are too old and unromantic to be living in such close proximity. Which reminds me of the eternal mystery of the ensuite bathroom….it never ceases to amaze me how many people book our room with the ensuite bathroom rather than the one with the bathroom next door. We really don’t need to be this close to….well whatever it is the other is doing in there….am off to turn the music up…..nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-40943750577868351642013-09-26T02:01:00.001-07:002013-09-26T02:01:19.755-07:00Guest Blog by Ros Bissell of Moors Meadow Garden<p>Ros wrote this in response to a challenge to her monthly column in a local magazine.  Like me, Ros has no children…..</p> <p>Our Environment: Why Should I Care? <br />I would like to say that the information I obtain for my articles is from reading numerous reports which are mostly from the EU and USA also some from other countries around the world. I also try to be sure these reports are from recognised researchers and specialists as well as from those for whom the subject matter may have touched personally both ‘for’ and ‘against’ any particular subject. <br />I am not an expert but I am very interested in world affairs and all things environmental however I am NOT a ‘bunny hugger’, I am also interested in politics but do not give my allegiance to any political party. <br />I have an agricultural background, being brought up in a farming family, now I am a horticulturalist though through the years I have worked in numerous fields (no pun intended), in both the paid and voluntary sector. I have also had close ties to the armed forces and been personally touched by the horrors of war and chemical use. <br />I have travelled quite extensively and seen for myself how great a detrimental effect that our excessive consumerism and throw-away attitude has on communities and wildlife and their habitats across the globe. <br />I like to meet and talk to the people of the countries I visit, and I am in touch via the internet with many people around the world in agriculture and horticulture who use both organic and ‘conventional’ methods. <br />I will not guarantee to getting everything correct but endeavour to try my hardest to give the facts and do not knowingly write anything which is not true. <br />At a young age I was environmentally aware and very concerned about the serious degradation man has on the Earth. The environment is not something we just look at in our free time but we are a part of it and anything we do that affects the planet affects us in return. We cannot just change the planet for a new one when this one becomes past it’s sell by date, there will not be another passing planet we can hop onto. Everything we do is interconnected, everything we use or throw away just because we ‘want’ the latest model, everything we waste all comes initially from natural resources. Even man made things originate from the earth, they do not appear as if by magic on the shop shelf nor will they always be there whenever we ‘want’ them. I feel that society as a whole has lost the distinction between ‘need’ and ‘want’. <br />The earth’s resources are not infinite and the human race is depleting them at an alarming rate. I am not being alarmist, if I were to class myself as anything it is as a realist, I realistically know that money, power and materialism, as well as over population is the cause of most of the worlds problems. I write about the environment to try to raise awareness of some of these problems. <br />I have no children so there will be no grandchildren or great grandchildren coming after me who will have to suffer the results of our excesses. So why do I care? I don’t know but I do. </p> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-89503396550808338492013-07-02T13:12:00.001-07:002013-07-02T13:12:54.140-07:00The Garden Opens and You Can Have A Lie Down<p>The Garden Opens & You Can Have a Lie Down</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNULFZeyGSdUhAHuzcRLCFlCH73jZBHTslqND-H1HiV5dHx50DiUSUjNP-BppO4BqKSxe2XCRgzB1PJcUCBXeaxrJRMnuKQNQETmYoc3_tO_6Xt_uksunh_qBcATDC33xm0oq6eZILiX0/s1600-h/clip_image002%25255B3%25255D.png"><img title="clip_image002" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline" border="0" alt="clip_image002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO9DX2yS42MUkiLJMQ_KSz2aJG-HrdBtU3oilngA-kBDD5LrPx8zk4YxnpCOjo0FkAOJvb6mUNnqIlNURVoT4oNaeLlfW9M69RthFm6zYqk30aWih3ee_NpYBv0IsQnxhu1oQl5jIK70Q/?imgmax=800" width="207" height="244" /></a></p> <p>Anyone that knows me will know my favourite pastimes are gardening and having a nice little lie down. How absolutely right then that The Sound Sanctuary has opened in the old hopkiln in the heart of the garden. Roise (pronounced roe-sha) is a lovely gentle Sound Therapist from Australia. She has created the most beautiful and welcoming space next to our mini tearoom and performs the most magically relaxing sound therapy over and around clients bodies leaving them in a state of utter peace and harmony and, frankly, pretty much good for nothing for the next couple of hours so I won’t be indulging too much this summer or else my TripAdvisor reviews could take a turn for the worse. Sound Therapy is new to me but is apparently The Latest Thing and was described at Glastonbury as Massage by Sound. How can we resist?</p> <p>Roise is very happy to have found this place and her current clients say Brook Farm and our garden is the perfect place for her to have her sanctuary. It is peaceful and full of the sounds of nature and Roise says she may even do consultations outside with the brook babbling by and the sound of the birds. (I’ll just have to make sure hubby doesn’t fire up the chainsaw on those days.)</p> <p>I have taken the plunge, with husband William’s consent, and advertised the garden under the name The Heartfelt Garden. Some of you will know this is the name of the little book wot I wrote and I did hesitate as it is such a personal open-hearted book. However, I really want to attract people new to gardens and gardening here, to share with them what we have created and hopefully encourage them to have a go themselves. I think the name and my actually very groovy leaflet *buffs nails* might appeal to a new sort of garden visitor. </p> <p>I have this urge to share – not in a saintly altruistic sense (we’ll be charging a whole three pounds each) It’s more a “if we can do it, you can do it” sort of thing, but also a “you can feel what I feel” sort of thing too. In a frantic world we’re all looking for something – sometimes <i>anything</i> – that makes sense of it all. Many new and old spiritual ,mystical, new age principles and beliefs allow people to find some sort of bliss and I think it is actually bliss that we gardeners feel (as well as the cold and the thorns and the backache). I think spiritual bliss is right here outside in our gardens.</p> <p>Someone do stop me if I become too evangelical about it but it seems to me if the world were full of gardeners it would be a happier and nicer place to be. I’m opening my Heartfelt Garden in the hope that it goes forth and multiplies and spreads a bit of bliss. There are worse things you could aim to do with your life I suppose.</p> <p>It’s open Saturdays Sundays and Mondays through the summer and you can come to The Sound Sanctuary pretty much any time with an appointment. Roise is on 07511 621856. She’s very gentle – don’t shout J</p> <p>O and of course there are some rooms and cottages here if you don’t live down the road. (Got to pay for the garden somehow)</p> <p>Image from my side of the leaflet up top, Roise’s side here…</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMKswPaxoJhW3AfFWFcsX0Wj6DWrbW7rlBDclqF5_enEL_y82bcgZDoljx9Geixa5RRCjkjaF31OwRCgDSyikA3JWTSnGtlfSSzEOzqCszN0BmZkTFKuOwiqT-W79vCi2TW4-7PX603VY/s1600-h/clip_image004%25255B3%25255D.png"><img title="clip_image004" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline" border="0" alt="clip_image004" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Huy-6dGpY3bSPXv3VD0iUPUDKxMMdos_Y9z7Vi5f_27c-IQ4_uqLZEqiLzQvcC5hkEGG-GSTXp9rXotW3A2Htown_D6UlbWwjIzZxD6kGkk1ZoLWHc5vesPBa0ASMin16aaVs2fcVWU/?imgmax=800" width="196" height="244" /></a></p> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-3266120967997146422013-05-12T02:21:00.001-07:002013-05-12T02:33:13.020-07:00My New Gardening HeroesMy first gardening hero was Geoff Hamilton, my second Alan Titchmarsh, my third Mirabel Osler, then all together in a rush of green buses came Christopher Lloyd, Carole Klein and Anne Wareham.<br />
If you’re not a gardener perhaps these names mean nothing to you (apart from Alan surely -where’ve you been?) but I adore them all for slightly different reasons which I won’t go into now because I want to tell you about my new local heroes. These are people who are members of our new Herefordshire (& The Marches) Horticultural Hub which was formed by Tamsin Westhorpe who is pretty amazing as Editor of The English Garden magazine but who has also tipped up back in her home county of Herefordshire and seemingly effortlessly sprinkled around her ancient house an authentic cottage garden that looks as though it was planted by the first occupant five hundred years ago.<br />
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Though Tamsin’s garden isn’t open to the public her family garden, Stockton Bury, has been for many years and is possibly the most beautifully maintained garden I know. Raymond and Gordon who live and garden there have the most enviable soil in the area. (You know when you are really into gardening when you envy someone’s soil) Most of us round here are getting sticky with clay on a daily basis whilst they, thanks to years and years of being part of a working farm, have improved the soil so much it looks like it’s just been emptied out of a compost bag. Walking around their garden delights and depresses me in equal measure as I know I will never ever manage to achieve such excellence. To be honest I mostly keep going because they serve the most delicious lunches in the barn which is a comfort after another brutal realisation of my limitations.<br />
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On an Arctic April day I first saw Whimble Garden out in the wild borderlands. I had previously sent a shopping list of small spring plants to nursery owners in the Hub. I thought this was a neat idea and I hope it will catch on. I had a great response and on this day the owner Elizabeth Taylor (no, obviously not that one) had some cardamine for me which is incredibly sweet and I hope will spread happily in our spring garden. Whimble was beguiling in its wintery spring clothes – lots of hints of what might follow and I can’t wait to go back and see how it grows up. In the middle of the garden is an iron structure in the form of an old church. It is obviously smothered with some climbing beauty during the summer and this is one thing I’m especially looking forward to seeing - there’s even an alter inside. The whole garden is full of quirky bits and pieces like this.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4pwadknMrvy_nFUhfOJaUrXoblxBfqD1Rgycd2kudcNBR8lV5HIihwpm8JpBC8lVjjxS0KTZYqKFv_cDVFnL2iMBuOCoY36XVYOZhUa6EokfPKIQ7jKuThNTucM4VqjC3ltMqiF3USH8/s1600-h/clip_image004%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image004" border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi14OsQayS4NxCiP7GlLqrI2GzTzP3-SjcXzt3dDhXsgyGXbtS-QCGOEEIWpU4JN8SkKwYc-UVmdwd2UvUqP6SfS2gVRkeinijVf2WS2ekGbXl2aWtqepPHBaIvGJ66Af05JQb85y-H4TY/?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline;" title="clip_image004" width="148" /></a><br />
On a slightly warmer day with the sun shining we revisited Moors Meadow, somewhere we have known for some time but now through the Hub we have got to know Ros who gardens there with her mother and part-time help from youngsters keen to soak up their knowledge of plants. Another member of the Hub, Joshua de Lisle, is based here following on a tradition for ironwork in the garden started by Ros’s husband. Even with interesting art pieces scattered about Moors Meadow is such a natural looking garden that you hardly feel you are in a garden at all – it all feels unplanned - and this is what makes Ros one of my new gardening heroes. She has done precisely what I am trying to achieve here and I came away thinking my garden was too ‘gardenny’.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrptGJscEUgCka1-kFgejV-zpwy8BPzutYlpv6YJBNOVtUfOngX0OteYohl0I8Y1wv4MUHAk8kT9kAydPVYb1slPI3xq76DP0gm0lDsqTfPhmsVC4fASciqHt9klBPYV3dHiaRFgmT9jM/s1600-h/clip_image006%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image006" border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS7Zs7ckcv2v4qgAwlIyg_BHhkAudEBMB6eDpRMTM6fQipzGX2NCa7sqzC7mTj5u1h_Bwd_8sfdOd0XrTd-5UX5RSiVeaUcaGFB1tGhTIiDIRkKxx5-uM_koZi8No08yCxS78HC_ZHtSo/?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline;" title="clip_image006" width="148" /></a><br />
However, a visit to Aulden Farm showed us that there is a way of combining the two. Their enchanting spring garden looks so natural and pretty with skilful planting of drifts of honesty and heucheras, solomon’s seal, forget-me-nots and a little pink chickweedy thing that I’ve forgotten the name of…. In the rest of the garden we found neat lawns and borders poised for the season ahead with, amongst many other things, clump after clump of the iris we had come to buy. Alun and Jill have the national collection of Iris Siberica and many other beautifully cared for plants besides in their nursery which in itself is the prettiest I’ve seen. Of course we came away with far more than just the iris. But Spring is the time for plant buying so that’s OK – we won’t do so much in the summer ….er probably…<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik8ywD55hSInTQTGYJBQ9L2f9KqBBxeUST_oGrsxwLzDlFAok3mYKk7D8WoWIfFV6vjh_ejlgFNaRT6AeaUmGxNQnqxbY0WEodH8qwVEmeVW0Gy1-fZzaEL2FQ0Eo_awADg05vjDFNRtA/s1600-h/clip_image008%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image008" border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifg3-zGLS0Pg02jO0jVDkYleaP8xYsG3ZVaAzxah9LdnJvelLS89uPtmHGDIV3J8MDbXHZNSBm0vDUu0HR1M5tQtiQxgqoR4r0p-FIM0wMDQyzsPP2Y09jPvffrDeuepBruIpATGy71es/?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline;" title="clip_image008" width="244" /></a><br />
Over the last few weeks we and other gardeners have been complaining about nothing flowering – everything being so late. Walking around Aulden Farm made me feel that we really just haven’t been trying hard enough! And this is why they too are my new gardening heroes.<br />
All four of these gardens have nurseries and I wonder if that is the sign of a really good garden with heroic gardeners. They really know their stuff – their plants. And as an amateur isn’t it nice to be able to see something in a garden setting, then be able to chat to someone who is actually growing it, buy the same plants and copy – er emulate – these professionals? To me it’s a gentler way to start a garden rather than being faced with the brashness of a garden centre and its confusing row upon row of plants. I would recommend beginners start this way.<br />
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I now fully expect to find more and more local gardening heroes as I visit all the gardens and nurseries on the Hub website. This area I think must be very blessed with so many horticultural businesses, so if you are planning a visit do take a look - we have gardens, nurseries and places to stay, photographers, blacksmiths and complementary products like the nicest plant supports you can buy. My garden is full of lovely rusty metal plant supports – they truly are the secret behind good gardens which makes Colin and Tina who make them gardening heroes too.<br />
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I will introduce you to some more of the Hub members in future blogs. In the meantime you can meet them yourself at <a href="http://www.hortihub.co.uk/">www.hortihub.co.uk</a>nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-21250002964544686962013-04-13T00:39:00.001-07:002013-04-13T00:39:48.556-07:00Desperately Seeking Springtime<p>I thought my holiday timing would mean arriving home just as spring was springing…..Here we are April 11<sup>th</sup> and still no spring. Hmmm. Not to worry it’ll be here this weekend apparently and good job too as this lack of green is very dispiriting. Although not quite as depressing as the sight of more snow. I’ve never known so much snow – not the actual amounts but the frequency of flurries.</p> <p>Normally getting the garden ready for spring is like running for a train – I just about make it in time and flop into my seat and soak up the gorgeousness as it all sets off on its summer journey. This year, the train was delayed and I’ve had time to sweep the platform, polish the rails and have a long conversation with the station master. The garden is so ready to go it actually looks like a proper ‘open to the public’ sort of garden. (This will never happen again.)</p> <p>In the meantime in this cold long winter I leap on beauty where I find it – artworks by a friend, immersing myself in music, reading stunningly written books and enjoying clever design. Art, music, literature. Have I finally grown up or has the lack of spring forced me to focus on other things? Maybe this is a new sort of happiness? For years I believed in true and pure happiness, but it doesn’t exist does it? Or at least it ceases to exist the older you get. You can’t reach middle age without having experienced or at least noticed pain, suffering, injustice and loss. These things make me unhappy – whether they are my losses, my pain, or the suffering of others. How do we live with it all? We do what we can perhaps through action groups and charities and tea and sympathy and maybe, hopefully, as a race we humans are becoming ‘better’. But in the meantime beauty in its various forms is our solace and spring, when it comes with its sunlight and colour it is always a mood booster.</p> <p>Our garden is now in its tenth year. Shrubs that I couldn’t imagine being more than a few weedy twigs are now gregariously filling more space than I had allowed, the tree peonies may well take over the whole garden and I am giving away plants like people gave me plants at the beginning when I couldn’t believe I would ever be able to spare such precious space-fillers. This year more than ever I can’t wait to see how the garden looks in its summer clothes. But this year more than ever I am having to wait, so my ABC of music (Albinoni, Bach, Correlli) accompany me while I read or write or make some little gift for my guests to take home. Beauty gets me through. I try not to listen to the news. </p> <p>And if the arts and crafts fail to cheer and the skies stay cold and grey we can always turn to humour - to laugh at it all – the insanity of life and human behaviour - and thank goodness as a race the British are particularly good at humour.</p> <p>So here I am, just turned 48, focussing on beauty and humour and I will leave you with my favourite joke of the winter …What did one snowman say to the other? ……”Can you smell carrots?” And that is absolutely the last I will hear about snow this year.</p> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-29663194570996930792013-03-21T13:47:00.001-07:002013-03-21T13:47:05.017-07:00Dragonflies in the Desert Part Three<p><b></b></p> <p>While in Dahab we, well I, make a decision to take a camel ride to Ras Ab Galoum, a Bedouin camp along the coast from where we are staying. Camels turn out to not be as uncomfortable as I had imagined, (though a couple of hours is more than enough) and I am really impressed with the way they can negotiate the rocky outcrops along the shoreline. They just keep on plodding on with their massive padded plate sized feet over rocks I could barely see a path through. When we arrive at the camp we are the only three there. Our guide disappears and lunch arrives from nowhere and is delicious – fried fish with rice. On the way back my nephew’s camel decides he’s had enough and takes off at an alarming pace. I am stuck on top of a less energetic animal and can do nothing. I yell at Willy who is a little way ahead of me looking at the rock pools, to “DO something” but he just turns to me and says “Huh? What? What?” totally oblivious to what is happening. Being in loco parentis turns out not for the last time to be nerve fraying, but it all ends well when the camel stops on reaching another group further along the way.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_26ZGetufZ7JDW92SbxSvEM4jg6H_ZABdx1zYE3Jj_O41iINRoj7R8HTMowc9RZGpQ7kdzfHnn96FFTRwuKwZ6XiqNK7ezmIK8dvBJZerjWHc5yL9mgvcCcLeggL_HXGhoGx_2j-dhzU/s1600-h/clip_image002%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="clip_image002" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline" border="0" alt="clip_image002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9LSesAUQTBJeyWz20YqjwkkRtVQhtAUURPbW9mlztUJGOER_WqKBO9g1vhyphenhyphenQzxvwiswbo4MrufcCHoISBnjKzuuTVX29A4FNzGbLbaTtOKHn8-Iiu4CmSOq2HyIa7VTufE8ZAuAfk_3I/?imgmax=800" width="148" height="244" /></a></p> <p>Climbing Mount Sinai a few days later we are offered camels to take the strain off the 4km hike up the mountain. “No thank you” say the three of us in absolute certain unison, each nursing our own individual sores. What a climb though! Doing it alone I can imagine could be a very spiritual experience and I half wished I was doing that, but we had such a lovely group of fellow climbers that I was happy to walk and chat for the three hours it took to reach the top. This is the mountain where God handed Moses the ten commandments and is the highest in Egypt. At the bottom is Saint Catherine’s, the oldest monastery in the world and an incredibly welcome site on the journey back down when the temperature dropped so much that we were hugging each other for warmth and even a camel would have been welcome if he was prepared to cuddle.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb3oIsxEsMG8ymYobxEnqNAgXUpkf5G3PNMpm6cldUbKdmcID5luV4M3Q1buAacx87MJGR6YwapHmVFXLluzqw_5YigY5csYf2G5WuORoYYfP1kwHZHnQSmfFxaoIw7XmS7-zWK0vx9HQ/s1600-h/IMAG1468%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img title="IMAG1468" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline" border="0" alt="IMAG1468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmAFP_DSwpwphHNYeIT_YfIzBa8bRdtcemlhfV821fwRsi6NTM-l1_z4hnMXO6ebWGqTnTHwgyJrmInWOtwi5hVtwkXu7AhIgJwopda111TygO4g1stdu-hfighdo9OnA3CsbXGGksYwI/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="148" /></a> </p> <p>Back to every day life in Dahab and we venture a short way along the beach to ‘Happy Village’ where apparently the snorkelling is good. New friends Barry and Tracey come along and we flop down onto the cushions in the beach side café for a spot of lunch before our swim.</p> <p>I order vegetable rice and so does Barry. When it arrives we discuss what the vegetable might be and agree it must be carrot lying on top of a huge pile of rice lying next to a huge pile of chips. We taste it and find that it is coloured potato. So rice topped with potato and chips on the side. My carb free diet is now firmly postponed til we return to England.</p> <p>As everyone squeezes and pulls themselves into their wet suits (what a palaver) our host comes to clear the plates away with his lovely big smile. He looks for a compliment and I oblige. “That was lovely – thank you <i>so</i> much” and it was lovely because we are sitting on well used mismatched cushions on a concrete floor covered in assortged rugs, under a bamboo roof on a sheltered Sinai beach, with friends we have just made and sweet sweet Egyptian tea with camels strolling past, the sun shining and the sea sparkling. It is very lovely indeed.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdV7TU-dV1ZzhNlhgA_dseGiSNqax7xrUhl9NQ1FjGe6oYYF9VnkStXMWTssgzbgCa4V7KBcrN0KmuN1Q921bSbsrIOVm9OtgdP3JPwa_Ir0M2USj4ZcrH1GKjlklZSjpnaFH2Qm63Ss/s1600-h/clip_image006%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="clip_image006" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline" border="0" alt="clip_image006" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixjDQIv_-c9GK_099R2fS6xaw7B1hLX_PnzcAv3dX1ZZ-aLaChivg_fYqnCIl7YTxx4rlbEVBBScwY54YoMEx6Rg7J5TPyHPI-q_0QZ3PEUsA7amtfeppaH7a6LTy8oK79BHmKtTGsDtI/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="148" /></a></p> <p>Ah the sea, the sea. I have agreed nine days in to our holiday to go out with everyone else to gaze through a plastic mask at the many and beautiful fish. Up ‘til now I have been perfectly happy to stroll along the shoreline while the others are immersed in the blue and I have met many happy little creatures scuttling, crawling, flitting around the rocks and dead coral. I am so taken by their separate universe and their tiny lives that I resolve not to eat seafood any more. Previously I’ve been sanguine about consuming prawns and the like as I argued, they, having such small brains and therefore awareness, barely know they’re alive anyway. This has been an excellent excuse for eating prawns, whitebait, clams, mussels - basically all the things I like to eat anyway. No more. It seems to me as I watch them that yanking them out of their universe and eating them is doubly selfish and that eating chicken might in fact be a better option. I am slightly annoyed with myself for reaching this conclusion. </p> <p>Anyhow, I have agreed to join the others in the sea – or at least on the sea and am the only woman in Sinai to be found on a bright blue lilo. I am very aware I am uncool, but at 47 coolness is well on the way out of the question and self-preservation and keeping water out of my ears is way more important. Though it must be said that scuba divers don’t rate much in the cool stakes either – they look as ridiculous as men in jodphurs to me - and more frightening, immerging like black Cybermen out of the shallows where I am quietly paddling. Still whatever floats your boat I suppose. I last roughly twelve minutes in the water and declare “Well that’s all jolly lovely, can I go back now?” Apparently it‘s not that easy. I thought I could just head for the shore but I have to be tugged inelegantly, lilo sagging, back several hundred yards along the reef to a gap where I won’t do any damage to the coral while heaving my bulk to the beach. As I said, what a palaver.</p> <p>Safely beached I return to my book and my daydreaming and my daydreams turn to my garden. I make the mistake of thinking England might at least be as sunny if not as warm as Egypt when I return and I am filled with excitement at the coming season in our garden. I have some ideas and I scribble them down on the back of a boarding pass and then I fall asleep in the sun in Egypt thinking of my nice little place in the country in England and I feel very lucky. </p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc_ovCH2HX8UrUn9Cl4S4wsvWhNDcbGDrtSSN8ws85bCryageF_P1dKh1o2KN-E9ys7-oCiP2PkIIUiTcGhSkMWXm7pInZt25e7scn2Ve3AHTUWEiT450mJPXCOGl5dEtISMnLi3rQJcQ/s1600-h/clip_image008%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="clip_image008" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline" border="0" alt="clip_image008" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF4RY52pGQopuF9d3tgy7JwkhWn2SBLkOM2pi7X4hvVXFGF7FJ292U3tPLfDGpwJsqdFkr5-2vPot-hjaarP0FZEpLw_7N1YI_t5AoYkzeyLRuofiLTd8YP251iVEGQzQAmgGrN-LJpUo/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a></p> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-81584172978978781192013-03-16T01:00:00.001-07:002013-03-16T01:00:09.493-07:00Dragonflies in the Desert – Part Two<p><b></b></p> <p align="left"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxkUQ3wI19J79PrJxfhpO44GTrQiYuXTguHm2X-IFoJBgiuMPzgYc0SPYOq8_JDzbt-clPxWtGDO7YHuSD24xB180JhzBd5UG1p76DLWAzJchDuHiVJbEuINYx4XulJxmsbJedMUC6nj4/s1600-h/clip_image002%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="clip_image002" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="clip_image002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYwnisTA6dY_duZ2G4PDZ3bTkSvTx8sdRlhyRdtPqW10Wr6RX_k5P2g7SHjoOrQFmyhnPTorqdkLer5GaS12D9rP7Br0J39kJI0C2Vi8b5B0JK-JooUTd0q9xd3l6D7h-mtR2iuwgu-2U/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="148" /></a></p> <p align="left">I totally LOVE the Middle Eastern dispensation with chairs. Shack after tearoom after beach bar after café simply scatters big comfy cushions on the floor – perhaps leaning up against short concrete divisions – divisions that hold at least twelve people for a gregarious lunch on locally caught fish and rice (lots of rice), or for a gentle afternoon spent with people you’ve just met sipping Egyptian tea- which, after only two days in the area, you pour sugar in from the bowl like a native rather than spooning a carefully measured “Just a half for me” teaspoon. </p> <p align="left">Lazing around on these cushions with tea and a book is turning out to be my favourite holiday pastime. While the others push themselves into their wetsuits and head off for the coral my mind flits between the Egyptian sun-baked shore where I am anchored and South Africa, Norfolk, France – wherever my literary companions are taking me. Is there any better way to spend a day? I am full of ideas of making the same sort of colourful den at home for guests to lounge around in during their stays. Of course the Egyptians have the advantage of the ground being mostly dry, which cannot in truth be said about Brook Farm, but I am considering a raised decking area outside the old 1950s caravan which will give me a fabulous cushion buying opportunity. Months of rain will not put me off the cushion buying.</p> <p align="left"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp26cSoViL44C4BHJ_RnuN4sMmn2JwT6-TZdn5IRVZW9V9hdOrMyVJb2jCeAT25vKXsbD_nEv3FAEFtcrwxlxUb0jrdH1AMs8qndH1AuxaD7sMjhIqSwVGD3Q3fM1_iejJyjPgyYbqKz0/s1600-h/clip_image004%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="clip_image004" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="clip_image004" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaW9-0zEzWsgMMfV55lYKKhkJmpK5K7A_FR2OnbejrQEnNHbshUXroLucLhkW8ElJzFCIj2ISu8qpezGBVXtFn97ZiaG5g8ivsJZkVp_1pmNwHuDKVMQ_Ufm-_6MXLfMLTljpw8pJnJrQ/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="148" /></a></p> <p align="left">The restaurants in Dahab, perched on jetties sticking out over the gentle waves raise you slightly off the ground with huge chunky wide benches – the sort I would pay over £300 for in a shabby chic secondhand shop in England but which here must be two a penny given all the restaurants have them in great numbers. Bright coloured drifts of fabric drape the make shift ceilings and wrap around the supporting poles. A massive variety of pretty lanterns hang with red, green, blue and orange bulb, hubba bubba pipes adorn the tables of the ageing hippies stranded here since the 70s and the young twenty-somethings trying to recreate the vibe. At another table a group of young British girls, presumably blissfully unaware (or uncaring) of the Muslim preference, have dressed in tiny shorts and tight revealing tops and are giggling and flirting with the good looking waiters.</p> <p align="left">Near the pool at the Dahab Paradise is a large Bedouin tent for lounging. In front of the tent a very successful ground covering succulent sprinkles little pink flowers across its front and attracts more butterflies than I saw in our English garden all last summer. (There is more than one sort of Painted Lady attracted to Egypt at this time of year.) Dragonflies flit over the swimming pool and we wonder how on earth they came to survive here – surely dragonflies need freshwater? We ponder lazily about this as we sunbathe attempting to google the answer, but the connection was too poor so we promise ourselves to look it up when we get home. I still haven’t. Procrastination has always been one my strongest attributes but the Egyptians are world leaders. Absolutely nothing is done in a hurry, perhaps it is the only way to cope with the heat. Maybe we rush around like mad things in Britain simply as a way of keeping warm.</p> <p align="left"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNF-MnOzCMr6zIKXy7eySQcnF_3tuOi3Pz9-rqw0nbq4tf5duwu3uVCu-RjI_2TB99GOk_7n7oKPW6A9iQsx4CD-HBBDbtsjU72rYHtBthG1y-vZtQ6MgPNsYIJXpNEKqNtCupIBWKioQ/s1600-h/clip_image006%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="clip_image006" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="clip_image006" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv3EXp4kmz4q_H1Y2IXuX7zIhamKJN6NKtBv54rr5miwmQwGe5gsdEWXHZZCdIuXW7aGdsvtQrj7HLbSH19ztf6nFvBSHsRxkHtYRGpXL_vmwlaXuzaM3eJcoMc0b3AsTejl0Xmba22lM/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="147" /></a></p> <p align="left">It’s a pity then that they expect so much of their animals – though worshipped as Gods in ancient history, animals here today have a tough life. I knew that the hardest part of this trip for me was going to be seeing abuse of horses and donkeys and I travelled armed with a list of contact numbers and addresses for the Brooke Hospital (<a href="http://www.brooke.org.uk">www.brooke.org.uk</a>) so that in the event I could actually contact someone who would do something. How relieved I was then to find that most of the animals I saw were in reasonably good nick. Just as pleasing was the very prominent presence of the Brooke in Luxor in the form of long rows of palm leaf shelters providing shade and posters around the town and even at the airport. The Brooke welcomes visitors so we went to visit the office and hospital seeing a horse who had been in an accident with some scaffolding that morning nicely stitched up and resting in a cool box. Two other horses and three donkeys were also being cared for there and we were told that the vets go out to other towns and villages every month. They offer a totally free veterinary and education service. What worries me now is the effect the huge reduction in number of tourists is going to have on these animals. If their owners aren’t getting paid to drive tourists around town, how are they going to afford to feed them?</p> <p align="left"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqEHLwvxMTXbs6rTiMY3vT-5M4EjDFyrvBbfr-1oqYuaC9aKgwVhOQ9MjqMAjvl_n7pD-GsiOdU_hiLbUdj65Jxa19vhFUp53Nv-RgSWn6MLNL-po21CVkIwQqWif7mPWIbsGVfFOPD68/s1600-h/clip_image008%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="clip_image008" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="clip_image008" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4_coODI4QgWOrt2recX_Z1bwajLnz1vveqwhEnGqmfaztKN4M9DZ2UcHruiFv0GdByGTrLte9CWilfXY_RvKKQAspGakaeFU0gcKE4owJcgPEqqyp7576Zc4rFYb66P8MwC6uZ6Ciyis/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="148" /></a></p> <p align="left">I leave you for now with this worry in the hope you will visit the Brooke website and send support!!</p> <p align="left">End of Part Two…</p> <p align="left">#bitesizeblogchunks</p> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-38499129959574131842013-03-11T14:24:00.001-07:002013-03-12T00:52:01.834-07:00Dragonflies in the Desert<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>DRAGONFLIES IN THE DESERT</b><br />
<b>By Sarah Wint</b><br />
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Few places can beat Egypt for sun-starved Brits at this time of year. Being in the UK tourism trade February is the best time of year for me to leave home and emboldened by a well-travelled husband I happily ignore the Foreign Office warnings not to travel to Egypt and head off for some warmth. And warmth is what I get – not least from the Egyptians themselves. A more welcoming race I think I have not yet met, though the Turks come very close. (Indeed this must be a friendly neighbourhood) <br />
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Fourteen days on the shores of the beautiful Red Sea and three days in Luxor to end with a mind-boggling tour of 4000 year old temples and tombs. At the beginning of our second week, my sister rings to check we have not altered our programme and found ourselves on the doomed air balloon flight in Luxor. We are safely sitting on the beach at Dahab, but my heart lurches at the fate of those poor people and our own proximity to a similar one. A hot air balloon flight over the Valley of the Kings comes highly recommended and is perhaps something I would have eagerly undertaken.<br />
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When we arrive in Luxor the place is unbelievably quiet. We walk to the Museum of Luxor along the new promenade by the side of the Nile – a new area planned and started before the revolution ready for the perennial masses of tourists. Since the revolution work has stopped on the promenade and as we are three of maybe a dozen people using it, there seems little point in it continuing for now. Tourism is down 80% and the horrible accident in Luxor is not going to help, not to mention stories of kidnappings, however brief.<br />
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As we’re travelling with my 14 year old nephew we’ve decided to avoid Cairo on this trip – more for the peace of mind of his parents than our own – but we meet other travellers who report it being entirely peaceful. It saddens us more and more as we tour this country that people are being warned against travel, seriously hampering the high hopes of a new democratic prosperity. On a personal level however, I feel bold and intrepid - like a proper traveller, not just a tourist. I feel quite pleased with myself and then immediately ashamed.<br />
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To my eyes this is a tough and chaotic place to live, but apparent poverty here is actually just normal life. The difference between the residents of Tenbury and the people of Luxor is mirrored in the difference between my fat spoilt donkeys and the working animals in these streets.<br />
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In Luxor I have found us a nice little B&B La Maison Pythagore – I like to support other BnBers - and from the website the Pythagore looks authentic and pretty. The owner kindly arranges a pick up from the airport and after speeding through the outskirts we eventually bump down the broken back streets of Luxor to a point where the driver can go no further, so we drag our cases down the narrow bumpy sandy back alley towards our temporary home. Children are playing and shouting hello to us as we pass donkeys and carts laden with vegetables or building supplies. Luckily we stop at a door just before a vast hole in the ground where several builders are working and our guide rings a doorbell. At this point, even after our experiences in Bedouin desert camps and make-shift mountain ‘cafes’ (with make-shift lavatories), I think I may finally have to say “I’m sorry – I can’t stay here”. I am a fish out of water – I actually feel a little scared but I give myself a notional slap and the door opens and a short man with a friendly face says welcome so we step in. Inside I immediately relax. The vibrant colours of the walls the welcoming sofas and cushions and a garden! A garden! At last some green! Now I feel at home. A lovely patio garden with bougainvillea and frangipane and lemons and bananas, more sofas….and a cat. Our host Mosin (who turns out not to be so short –it’s just that there’s a big step down from the alley into the house) brings us tea. A garden, a sofa, some tea, a cat. I’ll stay….<br />
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End of Part One</div>
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(I don't like long blogs!)</div>
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<br />nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-52331388621098279772012-11-28T12:01:00.001-08:002012-11-28T12:01:58.068-08:00Reconnection!<p>Following my recent blog in which I bemoaned the modern condition of ‘Being <i>Sooo</i> Busy”- the words “busy lives” being used by everyone, repeated again and again in the media like a mantra so that it has, I believe, become a kind of affirmation. We say it and hear it so much that we believe it must be true and if everyone is saying it then we all must unquestionably <b><i>be</i></b> it and if we’re not then we must surely be some sort of loser or slacker.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7blzUigc5Zb7mJ6RwqbXjRcs5hoeMDKrfV4DTMlLsSSJeLCCOzvvCEhdaFcewp2hnA6TUmEtgd4fMZWXh0MCQ4RwWngPm2OF8ZqQmZjG1s9jwCMKia4CQ0UjVjfYjPcWl7n5vtjOjfsw/s1600-h/birdcagegreentn%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="birdcagegreentn" border="0" alt="birdcagegreentn" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh4Gh-oAYaQBXkiDFrQ8jKytmcHsvT27PVChqli9IRiocuaoJpqBsFODPs6ySShBPk_0nn6VOlftH-dsqC8FSgwJFv4n4g4Y0dSg-azGPE6Tbn7YH741dw6_dWboqHAx3DHYuxdLQTbd4/?imgmax=800" width="307" height="280" /></a> </p> <p>Perhaps it’s just me but I think this is not sitting well with a lot of people. I think some of us might be saying “Um hang on – is this really necessary? – must I travel as fast as possible to my grave?” Some of us might, without even knowing it, be physically uncomfortable with this modern way of living and becoming ill or depressed as we move further away from our instinctive roots and natural habitats.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimY_zMwdblJg3rV0Dsr5q5mgVUp1Rub7wfgLymA_K8zOdVfV-yG0jJq1yTZHLDuALBH0BUGztai6R-Kx5uUvcV_EbE_1G0vS-rcN_EV8sQ7am-dFqYPYTPmvt_QuOoaoxLtJQENKYORCs/s1600-h/bluebell%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="bluebell" border="0" alt="bluebell" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfB7DDyzdNCyzeR3gy83OejfBMnFgw-L-RPeHDb81QBtbRNKkL0yom7A09bvW4jyC1S2nK9hw7nm5b84ZL6x6ul05rei_kSx6ZzIZ3ZlM7EzGGCk2zv2981z-CFl1Ik-ikRhNmNtxG-Rg/?imgmax=800" width="309" height="235" /></a> </p> <p>But it is a hard habit to kick. Even those of us who grew up happily making our own entertainment with Barbie and Action Man will now turn needlessly regularly to our smart phones to check on the latest communication from outside. I will quite normally watch television, read a magazine and keep an eye on my email and twitter accounts of an evening. To not do so feels, well a bit isolating, uncaring and even unprofessional somehow. It seems just one occupation of an evening is not sufficient any more. </p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSnc0x_kOYYyhbSpy9yfU6-VNUOPnKm5ySgvndQ0W_RnBTkbHqg1LT08LauLd_OA1O_d8bNzGdqUvc7v3k2H-nfcWt0Y-02xL0yDw3xv-fZR8f-Ibb2SKJWYeRZtdR7OCsjpiMNRro89g/s1600-h/mrsbdoor%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="mrsbdoor" border="0" alt="mrsbdoor" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDhNaauimhsdRqnNl2Yt4y122AnDUEBquTEHzOpdkbh7yNVai7k8sR75HzBZ2WjiqE6dVpJyz0cQI4apqphoh_cFyy0vn5FbNX_FeEicMcAJ_vk1jty-3lbq6izcHTi2f5xSUkfzsT0ss/?imgmax=800" width="353" height="243" /></a> </p> <p>But I am tired and I might often have a headache and though I know that constantly doing stuff without rest is not good for me, if I stop briefly it is such an odd sensation of inaction that I am not sure I like it. William and I went on a boating holiday on the Norfolk Broads a while ago and I well remember the strange feeling of coming to an absolute halt. All we had to do for the next week was steer a very slow moving boat. We were forced to slow down and we loved it.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXDSgXufJRk1rPpuFIsxdlKnEaNkTLRsdzo_XxPJU1BW-89gs9XP5AIrHML6A0wvY3dwbuP2YztnK6v_EfSok6Ab2bAzMbr6nUyJ21iXo0AD3sAcF6nnw8qPTXy-IDtv3ozWsaoR5Rj3U/s1600-h/brooksm%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="brooksm" border="0" alt="brooksm" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizb_r0EB3M5F2DVTIZy8XILgkDpNyDnXKzaeXejREX1MKYDCJ_N4fVhWfEE-cJ7tISvHJ3UYoF46Efz2ltSk206ZdgPwNcwp1Y4lr_-FTFnWSzXdWyS8Dpf_JrXjwnme-vA2fzl5jCOy8/?imgmax=800" width="320" height="219" /></a> </p> <p>I live in a pretty little valley with a bit of woodland and meadow and a brook and our unruly but heartfelt garden. I am lucky. I spend a lot of time outside and every day I have enough time, if I take it, to stop and lean on a tree and just be in my space for five minutes. It is enough to check back in with myself, reconnect with my place, the season and what is happening around me. </p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM5kMQzKOsc6YiKDoJfXfJK7O9vwpRs1lTazWPQnf_QH8xGlncSItKdDHEIdb4nXJxjgmzpUoE3BGcGaZtyPuVfxgOsWUHqWMFCAETI-_KO7uBeNR_H29c-oftq7bw5qHgaEwwpwfIlG4/s1600-h/cottage5%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="cottage5" border="0" alt="cottage5" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg10Q0XUnvhaQXEUaC_ezQ0FJ7Ws_wolvHyaw6iytZhVe1r-7depMdepeYNbuaNiU7bt38FRVGVO5TpdyVyQfzVqyWqcd9q465rzAqHS3UF0PtaQja9xMKf256z9NpGY873aeEWcGOBkdk/?imgmax=800" width="324" height="221" /></a> </p> <p>My friend Penny and I, thinking along these same lines, have come up with the idea of offering other people this same ‘reconnection’ opportunity. We’ve teamed up with Jackie Thorne and Kayte Thompson-Dixon who specialise in Dru Yoga (a gentle form of yoga that anyone can do) and Mindfulness (also something we can all do but need reminding how) I’m looking forward to learning more about both of these disciplines. We will be running four Reconnection weekends a year – one in each season….A time for folk to simply get back in touch with nature and themselves.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQaLjRmRipBGotHncENpuwaNX7EG-RPxgCCja7epxd6dgvDRdLo4oeFDY4fhX74r98zOChoptMqrIbHLv59JUp8DRmNsuTeq7Ul664BIULJJei9erSoz8Ucs5g-HctAJqimMP_9xhK6HU/s1600-h/HPkitchentable%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="HPkitchentable" border="0" alt="HPkitchentable" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg57X2aZ9ppb2lWpq19L-gqMz-gfiG-aHk8qnAxDs8vjZHgAuSU-R-gIsQ3_qoykQXJaYNZJecVvGEXKaZ_MeRoFmRigS-R3QHOb0e9kTHvHPTv7xNe6L_vyWA3rO63Ad1IevE_D2_x5Q/?imgmax=800" width="300" height="205" /></a> </p> <p>This is of course something anyone can do at any time of their choosing in their locality but it seems fewer and fewer people actually do it and moreover don’t realise how much better they can feel if they did. Using simple mind and body exercises combined with beautiful surroundings and hospitality, we hope we can help people slow down and get back in touch with themselves and their natural environment. Quite simply to experience their own Reconnection.</p> <p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_viowfGZ7Vb4Y_kreCNg-XXLTov9mKLWQHA2kNV9rciaBWCDaKQ6L-D-b_2wnn6zvWORBmeDJsZDPglkxnR_igPP8wBhfq-dN_ki99hFVP-wg6vMiq8uSbIWxVu3yytVUdnm5jrDkpAQ/s1600-h/platterhome%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="platterhome" border="0" alt="platterhome" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizl8qTeQyY87EskDudhyMU-TqzaNZcdxYsZK6NSJ3iUP0g4NvawQ8bti-g1vutaz0aBpSCZ8_ExAeauhHw_avGrZuhgqp54JasCuVQa9kxnxZOdwiMWwCRG9CJxcvfOu7TAMZRf6yrJms/?imgmax=800" width="321" height="222" /></a> </p> <p>Our first weekend will be 1<sup>st</sup> to 3<sup>rd</sup> February. There will be log fires and candles, gentle music and good food, a cosy kitchen for friendly chat & laughter and plenty of private corners for solitary reflection. I hope it will be a magical weekend of peace and reconnection for the busy, hardworking, preoccupied, utterly exhausted folk of this land! Come along whether you can spare the time or not!  You will be very welcome.</p> <p><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="brookfarmxmas2010 (9)" border="0" alt="brookfarmxmas2010 (9)" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE7sD_kzM101kF4LpfHACq0FSaCfWgvtjuqWj3G-cy8rvRBdB6xJkrXkcP04km9uYtVVFAWqfR1czRMMycu793UhfyCsUo9fBsXXYsAmqwNAJVBHJUFpxSsNPwuZi-nSJylFKMPa4NuM0/?imgmax=800" width="328" height="223" /></p> <p align="center">xx Happy Christmas xx<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2PMdAxoWKJFcpOLwlVIoQ_jypaMH8l0oUKj5LcDVsVEMP-RDtFseK-BrHsE93KNfPE-lIjk-dpd7n21YHN6EBMP7BCDlfAHO-BeH1sS_RPO5Ed72ZlThdb6YYNzfuRwmegw2FDxw09uY/s1600-h/sarahcontact%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="sarahcontact" border="0" alt="sarahcontact" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVOsRJiWPl39YxtRksLboZ8JnWkK3A8sAmWIEF9AvKVq45TiBQo8-CTVwv1sNTbZZY5zLE3RiZg1lkeYwZDsDluPUXsMV0wYiW9dq_OLDQpuOANLQGtZFyIV8O0Rz4SFkykQDCxR9lqJ8/?imgmax=800" width="95" height="139" /></a></p> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-17968850349210287832012-09-12T23:49:00.001-07:002012-09-12T23:49:25.735-07:00I’m on a roll<p>There’s quite a lot happening in my life at the moment. Well quite a lot happening in my head anyway. I’m on a roll. My little book is at the printers and about to become a real beautiful touchy feely thing. In the meantime people are actually buying and reading it on kindle and even more wonderful they write and tell me they like it too! I suppose there may be some people that have bought it and don’t like it but at least they are polite enough to keep quiet J</p> <p>It’s funny how self-publishing is kind of embarrassing – like you simply will not be told you have written a load of rubbish and stubbornly forge ahead anyway. I had some nice feedback from the agent Darley Anderson and the publishers Frances Lincoln but neither wanted to take it on – it is in no way a bestseller. But now I am so glad that I’ve gone it alone because my whole heart and soul is in this book and I feel happier – safer really– having it quietly available to people who want or need to find it. It will remain something special and personal but to be shared with the right special people.</p> <p>From the book came the idea to set up The Honeysuckle Trust a charity that intends to provide gardening breaks for people coping with bereavement or depression. And from the creation of the charity came the idea of offering Ecotherapy Weekends here for absolutely anyone who wants to come.</p> <p>In the meantime, I have been helping a friend set up the Herefordshire Horticultural Hub and meeting all sorts of fabulous horticultural types that aren’t at all haughty-culturals. I think many friendships will be made through the Hub. </p> <p>It feels as though life has been patiently waiting for me to open the right door and it is now welcoming me in and ushering me through to meet more exciting ideas and even more wonderful new people who appear to be in the same room. Synchronicity is happening all over the place!</p> <p>But possibly the most exciting thing is that I have discovered a new way to instantly improve areas of the garden. I did this while standing in the Blue Garden trying to find some blue. I renamed it The Square Garden. It instantly improved no end! I think this is something that might work elsewhere. The wiggly borders could become the floppy beds. The spring garden could become the snowdrop patch. Like I said, I’m on a roll.</p> <p>Anyway, lots of good things happening but life will undoubtedly chuck a spanner or two at me soon enough, And lo – I have just remembered that I put some mushrooms on the stove when I started typing this. Burnt mushrooms for supper then.</p> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-81680618183546080172012-07-25T14:05:00.000-07:002012-07-26T00:04:01.845-07:00A little piece about a little peaceWhat busy lives we all have. We all know that and we're always being told that too. It seems to be accepted that modern life is to be lived at as fast a pace as possible, keeping in touch with as many people as possible, networking, sharing, liking, blogging, following and being pinteresting simultaneously twenty four seven.
But I can't do it. I am a failure! What a relief to admit it! I think for me, it is just too much of a conflict with the life I have chosen to live, given the absence of children. A country life of gardening and housekeeping, welcoming guests, having a moment or two to chat to visitors, looking after our animals and caretaking our little piece of England. It sounds like a simple life doesn't it - so why isn't it?
I suppose because running a successful B&B and holiday cottages and now having a garden people appear to like to visit, we have created more and more work for ourselves. Being a success is great and we don't mind the work either, but something has to give and it's not going to be the business or the garden so it has to be ....um....my blog? So, is this just a long-winded excuse for not having blogged for so long? Maybe, but it is also a heartfelt plea for a little peace in life. There are so many blogs that I would love to read, so many people I would enjoy chatting with on Twitter and no doubt all sorts of cool things I am missing out on on pinterest, but for now I would just like some peace and quiet please. All those virtual voices can be quite deafening sometimes. Is it OK to pick these things up and put them down again when it suits you? Or does that make me amateur, not really playing the game properly? Does anyone even notice if I don't contribute for a while? OK so enough excuses for the gap between blogs....
Sadly my desire for calm has even affected simple pleasures like visiting gardens. I find myself irritated if I can't go around a garden in a logical way, taking in all that is to be seen and instead have to double back or go in and out of garden rooms the same way. And mazes! Surely life is complicated enough without people going around making mazes. I'm not the only one that's after some silence. Yesterday morning about 4am I heard a tiny little bird voice start his morning song, followed by another sharper older? tweet. It was very much as though mother had said "Not yet you fool, go back to sleep" And there was silence again for a while.
Maybe I've become so obsessed with making a relaxed and peaceful country retreat here that I can't see the good in a faster more varied way of life. Maybe in fact I am just becoming very very boring. Perhaps I'd better ask my Twitter friends which it is ........<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsqfeFRdIItHR0WpqQwxSd0bRFcMTQ4s9JML0-E-0LwSWFuabJZwpM2zxNQhLQxjt_VeL7d2KncHeTtgyD-7X-fkZ4YRK-bXR3UoO98mtWfN3PE_iQNhxhBpvsA_3H0bHdX2myrDA0vj4/s1600/dogsbottomsm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="213" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsqfeFRdIItHR0WpqQwxSd0bRFcMTQ4s9JML0-E-0LwSWFuabJZwpM2zxNQhLQxjt_VeL7d2KncHeTtgyD-7X-fkZ4YRK-bXR3UoO98mtWfN3PE_iQNhxhBpvsA_3H0bHdX2myrDA0vj4/s320/dogsbottomsm.jpg" /></a>nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-11812214016737583882012-04-09T13:55:00.008-07:002012-04-09T14:14:04.869-07:00All Hands On Deck<p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFaDlSuPS6Xs4sPtXbXvaQQJkxJs6dsZtyuHQ0S4UtQdIf4MVGHCpO_Mb6-pimShlhykLbx__jrJcOpwuxTuw_KjO3nbbR02F-eRZ84hxtUv9dyGllSf6hyphenhyphencmtpGM7Sn3S9bb00k5xG-o/s1600-h/clip_image002%25255B6%25255D%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image002[6]" border="0" alt="clip_image002[6]" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdPtq-WDCUBnR-NF2Dch1OLJvW-fCEft0Vcl_jQpCDO7Vn6T7D7j_uTrMFH6jZemsUiLwzI1yAWdjgDKZQjF6v0D2NcIuUw30zfnBwm9k_PR_qTVGYd9wxi8S-vOMiNqLjlhKgkFw4ZGw/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a></p> <p>So it’s all happening down here on the farm. Not lambing like the proper farm over the road who now have their lambs bouncing about in the field opposite our kitchen windows (poor little unsuspecting mites) – but we are busy spring cleaning, repainting and creating new bits of the place for visitors (and us) to enjoy this year.</p> <p>I returned from Australia in mid March where I spent time with my downunder family and felt very loved, did some lone bushwalking and felt very intrepid, and did some abseiling in the Blue Mountains and felt quite sick. I also spent two weeks as a workawayer at a fabulous house near a beach north of Sydney. As a workawayer I got my bed and board free with my own room and balcony overlooking the ocean, in exchange for a morning’s work, so after a few hours cleaning each day I was able to laze around on the beach watching the surfers in the afternoons. One day, as I contemplated my return to the UK, it occurred to me that I could do with a workawayer myself so I signed up to the website <a href="http://www.workaway.info">www.workaway.info</a> and fairly quickly found a willing volunteer.</p> <p>Heiko has been with us nearly three weeks now and has been a great success. Not only is he a good worker, he has been great company, his English is near perfect (he is German), he has a lovely sense of humour and an interest in, and encyclopaedic knowledge of, everything. He has cleaned all the windows and repainted the front window frames of the main house a lovely dark blue (I get the fun bit of choosing the colour, he does the painting which is marvellous) He’s repainted the front of the Hen House weatherboarding as well as the windows and doors. He has scrubbed all the algae off the picket fence, dug out a new path that runs alongside the brook and shifted four tons of soil and four tons of gravel in preparation for the garden for the newly converted Hoppickers House.</p> <p>When I was in Oz my friend Margaret came to stay to look after the animals and while she was here she drew up the perfect design for the new Hoppickers garden – splitting an awkward area into three different raised beds. By the time I got back Willy had installed the old wooden sleepers and the garden was already taking shape and he’d also built the raised beds for the herb garden that I had asked for before I left. </p> <p>The Hoppickers itself has been transformed in my absence from old travelling hoppickers quarters and latterly pig pens, to a really beautiful holiday cottage by our wonderful builder Tony Whitney. Everyone who has seen it so far has gasped at how lovely it is – and I haven’t even done all my pretty bits and pieces yet! Tony has a feel for these places and totally gets my desire not to over-smarten it, though he will step in and say “No Sarah that is not lovely and old, it is just rubbish and falling apart.” He now just needs to finish the fireplace for us and then we can get the woodburner in and start letting it at the beginning of May, although it is so nice in there I am seriously considering moving in myself and letting the main house as a holiday let. However, this may cause problems with B&B guests expecting self-caterers to share their beds and make them breakfast so I guess I will have to stay put for now.</p> <p>Heiko’s wife Hannah has now joined us for the Easter holidays. She is studying fine art at Newcastle University so for her bed and board she is doing some painting for me and creating a builder’s mark in the Hoppickers to commemorate the year it was rebuilt and who ‘<i>fecit</i>’ it.</p> <p>So, all in all, great progress has and is being made and I’m feeling very lucky to be surrounded by such helpful and talented people. Delegation is a wonderful thing.</p> <p>(You can contact me if you would like more info about the workaway organisation or if you need a good garden designer or a builder!)</p> <p>Here is a pic of Heiko and the new brook path he has made.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8G4FFn2e6FODhiDu6uCicFFPHRzMHgVa9SJ_SjcO2rI_a1Cwh6uWqHmxOmtJTJEPY8OJzdPLTV5PlwpuwM4q-2ZhCvBjf586-uvsjbiWGR7JCWpVTujp-iCBDzjQhW1AxI3BCBVgP8vU/s1600-h/clip_image004%25255B6%25255D%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image004[6]" border="0" alt="clip_image004[6]" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXrBY13smy17XDbIxCsr_z7AuJwW7dD53EwZTzJMk7LFT_C86Jm229kzVY8KcB2GEeavVf9HUCTxCVdlC_ZgVcGQ2vlVQ_eltuLgbckD_lt3JBaoCupG4PwEwtW_xwXIo59sjKWK4usyc/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a></p> <p>Here is a pic of Hannah’s builder’s mark on the stairs incorporating the Olympic rings</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUF5EFt3Fdbl0iC875UQzwHeiimGAKB9hoMI08tFPhVa8iHIYHU806l-7dqjAyLcKztg29XU9SVPgYC3gq3IHW7Jg76Pf2-hWnnPl5eVqXOmF-3yrbsCBJPYWcwqNQoeWntpgr4QtD-8/s1600-h/clip_image006%25255B4%25255D%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image006[4]" border="0" alt="clip_image006[4]" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBtm-NqNf0Vep7YBqZExYcosYQQDdgf-wovTZSzNp7cbONxcklKkiu1KrJjKz4j2eVjjQQzCQ-q313jNmtlimNGRIEPVSYwaNHSJ0Hz8OmPR3ljiJqFuvkO3_SqdS_cTS2Y-1ZjvcEO6I/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a></p>nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-48552246469664363352012-01-18T12:22:00.001-08:002012-01-18T12:36:01.722-08:00A short note to the Pet-Sitter<p>Guests are often interested to learn about my many animals so I thought I’d share my short note to the Pet-Sitter who is looking after them all while I am away in Australia visiting my brother this February…..She should be fine shouldn’t she?</p> <p>Dear Maggy,</p> <p>Just a quick note to explain who is who. It really is simplicity itself…</p> <p>Firstly my beloved dogs Harry and Dixter. Dixter is the friendliest easiest going dog you are every likely to meet though sometimes a little embarrassed by too much cuddling. On the other hand if you are not paying him enough attention he will chase his tail until you tell him he is the cleverest dog in the world.</p> <p>Harry is gorgeous but getting on – he is now 14 so really very old. If you translate that into human years he would be saying “I’m 98 you know” to anyone who was listening - or not. Which reminds me he is also deaf so there is very little point in calling for him. The trick is to catch his eye and do an exaggerated beckon with your arm and hand Barbarba Woodhouse style.</p> <p>The dogs have a walk in the morning and the evening just around our bit of land. Harry is too rickety to go further and Dixie is just happy to be with you and Harry. If there is some distance between you and Harry, Dixie will stand somewhere between the two of you, not wanting to leave either one. Loyal little dog.</p> <p>The sheep are Soays and are the easiest of all the animals to deal with….simply give them something to eat in the morning and evening and check they are alive. There should be three.</p> <p>The hens are pretty easy too. There are five. They are fed in the morning and evening and roam freely around the place in between. Their stable needs to be cleaned out once a week which is not such a bad job as it might be so long as they are getting their Bokashi mash which miraculously prevents a horrid stink.</p> <p>The donkeys are bundles of gorgeousness. Don’t be afraid of them – just pretend they are large dogs ( but don’t feed them meat or let them off the lead) Alfie the grey is the more inquisitive of the two and likes to push the boundaries a bit. Sometimes he will rush up to looking decidedly menacing with his head down and ears back. You must stand your ground and he will skid to a halt right next to you, his ears will come forward and he will know you are not in the slightest bit affected by his silly sabre rattling. Talking to the donkeys is a good way of making them relax around you and convinces them nothing scary is about to happen to them. Truly if you treat them as you would a dog you will be well away.</p> <p>Queenie is the quieter of the two, personality-wise, though she is the only one who can bray properly noisily. (Alfie is still learning and sounds like a teenage boy whose voice is just breaking- his bray is very sweet and funny.) Queenie is the boss of the two and she can give Alfie a really hard time when she is in season. You will know if she is in season by the way she snips at Alfie and generally looks pissed off. Neither of them have ever hurt me but I do take a little more care around Queenie when she is like this. Standing too long behind her back legs would simply be asking for trouble. If either of them bites or kicks you (which they won’t I am certain) you must not waste time writhing around on the floor in pain, but return a swift boot to the bum (or whatever bit of you can easiest reach whatever bit of them ) within three seconds of the attack. After three seconds they won’t associate the two things and just think you are horrid. Shouting loudly works just as well with bad behaviour so if you find you cannot rise to return the thump, do make sure you yell at them.</p> <p>The donks get fed morning and night, go out in the field during the day and come into the barn at night. This is the most pleasurable part for me – seeing them bedding down happily in their straw, munching on their hay in a nice big dry barn. They will come to the gate to be taken in – don’t go and collect them from the top. They will take their time about it which can be frustrating if you have a million other things to do, but hopefully you will be in roughly the same state of mind as them – perfectly relaxed and not seeing what there is to hurry about. Alternatively you might decide that it is quite true that donkeys are indeed the stubbornest of animals. If they don’t come, go away and come back when they start yelling.</p> <p>The barn needs mucking out every morning but I am doing a deep litter system which means you only need remove the poo and not the pee-soaked straw. There is a rather dubious idea that this creates extra warmth for them over the winter but I use it because I don’t have the time to completely muck out everything every day and prefer to put off the day in spring when the whole lot needs to come out. Lucky for you you will be well away by then.</p> <p>So that only leaves the cats. Well, there’s just the thirteen of them.. Eleven are fed in the utility room but Twinkle (small black & white) and Holly (named because she was very prickly as a kitten but is a sweetie now) are fed in the barn.</p> <p>Willow (tabby with white socks and bad breath) will welcome lots of cuddles. Dilly (tabby with only one eye) will also welcome cuddles and likes to nibble your fingers. Brookie (ginger and white) would love a cuddle but will probably be too shy to ask for one til the day before you leave.</p> <p>The others will probably only come near you at feeding time in the utility room. Fast movements, noise and normal speech alarms them. Spotty is a tortoiseshell with an orange spot on her forehead, wide round eyes and a kink in the end of her tail. Scally cat is similar to Spotty smaller, thinner, shyer. Keep an eye on her as she is very shy and prone to illness so you need to be sure she is actually getting some food. Albie is the floppy pretty all over ginger, Smithy is the less pretty solid looking ginger. Albie has just discovered the delights of being stroked so you may have some luck making friends with him. Rosie and Molly are the fat multicoloured ones, mother and daughter, Molly (mum to Rosie, Brookie and Willow) is the enormous one, Rosie is the simply large one. Bella is the large tabby and mum to Dilly, Scally, Spot and Albie.</p> <p>Mincie is the black and white one with wobbly legs. He is a law unto himself and will in the space of five seconds come for a cuddle and then swipe the nose off your face – so watch out! However, it appears he saves most of his aggression for me and has now also started sabotaging my business by doing unmentionable things on the floor in front of potential guests. (This has actually happened just the once and he has been left in no doubt about the error of his ways.)</p> <p>The cats will eat a box of Felix pouches and two or three tins of food a day. The dogs will push them off and eat it themselves if they get the chance. The cats and dogs will eat the hens’ evening feed of sweetcorn and sardines. The hens will eat the cat food in the barn and everyone will eat the bread put out for the birds. The donkeys will eat the sheep food and the hens’ breakfast corn. All such sharing of feed is to be discouraged as much as possible…..(good luck with that)</p> <blockquote> <p>And that’s it ! As I said, it is simplicity itself ………………………….(*Heads off to the airport whistling*)</p></blockquote> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-5755638543589285992011-11-08T03:43:00.001-08:002011-11-08T03:43:12.315-08:00A Guest Blog – featuring Me as The Guest<p>This was a Guest Blog I wrote for Tree to My Door <a href="http://www.tree2mydoor.com">www.tree2mydoor.com</a> where you will find the loveliest of Christmas presents!</p> <p>‘How to Make A Cottage Garden’</p> <p>First buy your cottage in the country, then plant lots of roses, lavender, foxgloves, aquilegia, hollyhocks, pinks and delphiniums and Hey Presto, Bob’s Your Uncle, Simples – you’ve got your cottage garden!</p> <p>Well OK maybe it takes a bit more than that. For a start on slug infested wet clay soil delphiniums are going to struggle and that’s why we don’t have them. Hollyhocks like it dry too, so it’s taken a long time to encourage them, foxgloves that grow all over the old vegetable garden refuse to do the same in the cottage garden, and no matter how many pretty different aquilegia we buy, the same old blue and pink ones dominate. I have no idea why the pinks are unhappy.</p> <p>But roses, we can do roses, they love our clay and we’ve chosen varieties such as Felicia Buff Beauty, Ellen Poulsen and The Fairy which go on and on and on and on all through the summer into the autumn. And if there is one flower everyone thinks of when they think ‘cottage garden’ it’s the rose.</p> <p>So, with a good selection of roses happily flourishing, we have had to find other plants that while perhaps not immediately obvious as cottage garden plants are giving a very convincing performance as cottagey. Shrub potentillas, for example, like the roses flower all through the season. Being shrubs they stand up properly and are useful for propping up their floppy cousins the perennial potentillas and the equally lax but deeply gorgeous geums.</p> <p>Santolinas and box balls give a little structure and act as good supporting acts for the flimsier plants either side and behind them. The santolinas can be cut into smart balls if you sacrifice the flowers, (which we actually don’t as it just seems mean).</p> <p>Mingling a few herbs amongst the flowers also works well. We have lovely grey leaved sages and a lot of marjoram which, though quite good at collapsing, flowers late and insects love it. Sadly we are too cold and wet for rosemary and have killed off I think at least a dozen before finally accepting the fact.</p> <p>Lavender struggles here too but I cannot have a garden without lavender so I now have it in pots down the front path which keep it drier in the winter and will also be rescue-able if the weather drops down to -18 as it did last winter.</p> <p>The main thing I think is to get as much in there as you can, repeat the plants often, get some spring bulbs in early for spring colour and also for later on - a favourite of mine is the drumstick allium which flowers mid to late season and whose seedheads look presentable for a long time after too They do have a habit of ducking around a shrub rather than growing through it which is what I would prefer them to do, but nature will have her way. And she’s generous with it too providing desirable ‘weeds’ like poppies, campion and cowparsley – all of which are welcome in our garden.</p> <p>A cottage garden should be billowing, frothy, lively. Have a little patience – fill in the time and gaps with annuals if you’re any good at them (I’m not) and deadhead like mad. Pinks, blues and mauves are my favourite colours in this garden, although the rose Evelyn May is bright orange and is one of the best performers we have. Make some rules, then break them! Have fun!</p> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-84315618601263629872011-09-22T03:37:00.001-07:002011-09-22T03:37:02.095-07:00My Cheerful Little Town In The Orchards<p>I thought, dear reader, that you might like a little look around my local market town, Tenbury Wells. It’s where I get all the food for the B&B and the Hen House and is the friendliest local town I’ve ever lived near.  Some days it's a bucolic reminder of times past with many of us tromping around in our wellies and tractors pulling trailer loads of potatoes or apples or hops, and other days it is a bustling modern country town serving its widespread community with things as exotic as sunblushed tomatoes, polenta and the interweb.</p> <p>So approaching from the Berrington end of town my first stop would be the fabulous and ever busy Farm Barn Shop where I buy local tomatoes and mushrooms, free range eggs if my hens are being slack and butter.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBzgQgn0u1MX4IhHdozaHJl6h9bBssYhcI5tu4-tUHplylJUcoT0TYo97w6vVkVIYJxlvHDGru-BKuw1Hn36HHUNsspHAbSgU-uQkuklUuGthOLp-KTwnxGAvz3GwCFZ-R75jVBgzpSlA/s1600-h/clip_image002%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image002" border="0" alt="clip_image002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXo2uFiv2i8CMHw8O5yzeGPu__LnMB68usz2a2_5Hp4oxYwMKb08sQnxBKaSPZXqjzu47Wltbcrhvt49_G826EcRAm7qF5VhdQgqXJGrqgnLoBW1jfoR-4QeQoNcchNtVzBDkFfEf5EIs/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a></p> <p>Right next door is the lovely little fish shop which is a rare thing in many a town so we are very lucky indeed.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKx7qMp1hTXhh1_-vnJLvZxwHWtejfeQoCyEnDeqfdGQchEZQNPMZyvPNK8DG3nArHTj0bV8wh9tC2F_Dl_GVqi0LG6V4SBwTMoHhzPRsn3dm9tNKyZoMQhyBPZpjP2coxEVylkP2xGy8/s1600-h/clip_image004%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image004" border="0" alt="clip_image004" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIh4wuM35To-bFDoYFg57Tj6AyJes0p2KYlPeZ36P9KdItKi3sUpq9DXw9Qgl9Voo5PwKxHwwwpJxg4ZMSgaSr5rVPUmp71tEJDZYj8Dat4c4YrDoDiRpDjewJKkCdQ2X6JiNE7bgjioY/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a></p> <p>And opposite is Caldicotts builders merchants and funeral directors, a family firm who have seriously got it sussed because everyone needs somewhere to live before they die.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTtIq6lBSnEfsVh1tjFDUK2YmCLL92wdkzUYOfxYuRQXYNU6EmNDYnlFYmsIyVuB1ZvfszynfGj5AVamBxsfDdFvSKRPGI33MpivTRXi-3LIujjvN1HGH_vOknfgZ8X6b-pQ7S7Palz6k/s1600-h/clip_image006%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image006" border="0" alt="clip_image006" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYMZBPFn3kfYNobBStmYaCSLCVwSiFNbBfFkjlU7AY0kBmFWyt3W9XRslzskgEfqI7rb9-q3rRXKcAL_LrQ-pnIvUGk3KdjAXB7C5Qqzv8aOu72oRu8YsePAPiYabkACWLOBS0AmR6zJ4/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a></p> <p>Further along is the lovely Spotty Dog Café & Gallery which has local art, crafts and jewellery and serves a very nice latte too – and lovely cakes.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicf5BzOT9DgCa5xedVNK0-DRxhGKbW2fes4HGa_00f7tv9KbFuDBqjRl5nD6D_rZFE-o1nYziIZK54hFO7bHNrtYJpr04FdqLj_byJ7H9etLedzUriCIYtCwH3yE9-L2m8h1zGHT-TGVE/s1600-h/clip_image008%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image008" border="0" alt="clip_image008" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPggBb1ZCpyN7ULQ-MXgR_NGRFcZ6AjzSyLJEAU_Oo6zPfIFPtPT1aepqH8PemVRLY0nRu1t05ZSkxxzttq44ipyybSdPyMLwzsV9W3fmQAsBwJlrBLuuieit8Dmzz87Lp-0DNY4yAlHw/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a></p> <p>You can also get jolly nice cakes from Swifts the bakers on the corner and opposite them is Country Flowers where I buy flowers when I can’t bear to cut my own.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6jf8KRcYOBfpBPW1ReYKxEQ0qXS_3lBZaNnXHplnAD5OefORCmbhDJ_aoHd9k5_89gJiRMrM-6gYgCXVirXdP3vpKrMl8q4xaH6NvB-O9ekNcxQLVwn2k799xpvCUmmTsZjY6VYgrQ9Y/s1600-h/clip_image010%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image010" border="0" alt="clip_image010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXT5Zyqft0PCFmlwm__KVzHOGKqmgMciE2sRRCKX59V3yFfUATuzY47epNdpRY4k72-XkKFQ2ukfR6YhoiP6uievQMMG65GinRJJ6yhnDKp1G8pTPewZQ7ivnVxviU4EtRw80_ZasQHhg/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="164" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigiXQYrrsYJRT7F1eS9EY3dIgO3JBkCZr3sYjFJ4KrRP-tfjFiEQNpSU3Crw9_tWFYH9QM00NuyA8WPCf5FyhPQvvclWfork4pMt8rmd7KnhR33ejrBtOeuGdwtJRIvW1cF3FF0zEzuE4/s1600-h/clip_image012%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image012" border="0" alt="clip_image012" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuJXltLKLnafBLRiiEDiivqi_9qSG4T2rb3jYP8AxIAZvAqATFupr4ZeIN-R7wX5ZoxG0oQFM-hxZC7DyVdYuVKVYaEvbWBTMJT2EPucMBgze1PV-t2FaCS6D7vlwdsPOYyqqQr_gVqPk/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a></p> <p>Heading up Teme Street towards the river there is a dress shop, a jeweller, an optician, an electrical goods shop, a book shop (for which I have 10% off vouchers if you come and stay!)</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjIdr-74hzP-BisVYowNiMK05jonggk8Mix5ClV0l59t-Sl4Hzw-incxsc1MnX2i4oDhK4MzRLs8nxEP7j2rECjjJr05uKJTv89MxhGb7gBML4-uQTDa8uNS-bgeGTCcWkYUNClmwUngg/s1600-h/clip_image014%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image014" border="0" alt="clip_image014" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqQzZIYnBy_OCUkqGYKhF7wxbrdAYuRI1WUYLC2VR-i5Diqs8ksOsB0aEHzXXH9Gubh8DDLUnwC-VRnuvt6RWf-0FitX9Hl09BLwHQujUM3ncBb1GRM8iLydkvB52eLdcvMRXTnjcFZ8M/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a></p> <p>And then after the library, The Food Hall which supplies all my free range meat (well all <i>your</i> free range meat if you stay cos I don’t eat it but am happy to support ethical producers and cook it for you).</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQTBENTk-Gv8F8c18yaxC8WlmO4C9yY2Ptx2F1y4em5yk5KMXhIpT2DV4ugYSXqIQLrngPszvy-cricpm4chnKWCV0Iuoq2rGrCmgMGP5PnUGswTBCTti5gh4eyrO9zQV9a7lLVX-304M/s1600-h/clip_image016%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image016" border="0" alt="clip_image016" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYeujhS06r2LUaBr4nnsW8KWxpT2fxu_ejJME3TUEtc0NddQOc2qjTblNjrHbkIBoq6LDbpBK9Ce0ciDpqL0cFE7QwzHM9CAejj5qq3AXaA6W3XlEv2i3ciTVKcKzCK3PGJlj4hNm6mic/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="164" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5V9E2RkKfwBkURan4zhwLYAJcsvYSwryu4R4bqvLqrUgvRUcXVV-WFT9wJkfsSz_d_gxCwx8OPxpL2kcZn5FHdNZe3nR59mSIK13JfUCWx0BsYbJR2JEhPA9jAsuVR4KzWuFcDOPTkLQ/s1600-h/clip_image018%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image018" border="0" alt="clip_image018" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilNnWxkbzkh1ZdSNUeBw2_GEnxLmFYWZV6Vyh2qwKz68eW3G5m0gWS3Qleai0ZkGZuXE-zShB8IwIbVazNphUFjJfWOLFBBxHVpSQKcIZd6j-wJ8lwd-_niogOV0uvfaCtYjf3XqhYUvo/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="173" /></a></p> <p>Then there’s the proper little sweet shop and the newsagent and a shoe shop and the dentist (opposite the doctors) and then the fabulous Banfields where you can buy anything from fork handles to four candles and where they have lovely old drawers behind the counters.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSr70knT-vBSRQMRDtAYEt4z3mOEdTgXwv6vOV7V3r0CXAqCzWRynbzoent5XVSQeNPIyt6TPpbploDp_gvXuu_XFBb6bTcYso6LEyqkTI2zIFrcye0qj9eK4wDm5AvouMb3Qe53B2o8A/s1600-h/clip_image020%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image020" border="0" alt="clip_image020" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW4UpHz0Ff33isOsPUgc643NMGbC36ul4DTP8fida8sqaaCYJk9DmsHq3MAEmsQOXbROO1UTFfVqO8D4OC4xVxusiYlASA-_YNm4XnVGqF97jGDuMdWXT6KNuXcbcgccEDZNe3Tf8TZ2s/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a></p> <p>Then you get to the girly end of town where you will find Soap Opera my hairdressers and Pure Beauty Salon where all my beauty secrets are kept! (Actually that might not be a very good advertisement for Jules the owner – but she is really very good, she can’t help what she’s given to work with.)</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsRsaHbRjolC0unC6l-14VQPXNH_EW4_ekYh-8hI_Ybp-AFnIdq6vEIJPciQQ2KYhYw6O2YgTNQWZuZuii3CEk5jwRiike2NgpfiqYwwC89sb8WY5VMnpTavD8skIcmTHRp7pAm58kUf8/s1600-h/clip_image022%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image022" border="0" alt="clip_image022" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRYwMdF5PiBPhla7CsXD_QUVub2yoEvBEzX_1Ww3DUwezmnSZa1q_6thBybvKs_MymeXFNLWI2blq4X0n3OcLAekJULrmZ5wDwCZaAqGakaYN7joMkAMaoW6q_uQS2VbrZWDpS9yJBfyQ/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2MX_bAxwrrK3fEQhqml2h53djtAoyDJ0ckP5bdC-Fi7lJ8JBhXgzWyjoTO3DhVOfxp6Dh-2srz2L9GXzKAQznNPDZZKNVy-dA77SEXc727ETGK99d7hH8VkuIbKg0WMlV_IYsBsabLrY/s1600-h/clip_image024%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image024" border="0" alt="clip_image024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiblNNMbN56zgTzAaukUashyphenhyphen1uHUyTdeCr2X88AP_zNod-ogmfljWTNVk6TuLYbXrfbPlULnGdhCzxSCfoAUcP4VLaEjzM-Zu9DhRihrgV5-y00k9O08wGRfetebsvsTLQJfJI3ybcubbM/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a></p> <p>And up this end there are the banks too and the Spar, which of course we couldn’t live without because they never seem to shut and any B&B landlady will tell you how essential that can be at times…..</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4mbc17pi_Xq8ayBg-NarFnC7RGK6ZjnIermw-ge62eywjGGkylWMQVYEllUbkrGFsrNO6N-hLkUDr7bF4EeaUWqITDtUSINFI8vHL9h4utBDPMc6Fty42r2nJK0c2p8ozw065M2NQe8A/s1600-h/clip_image026%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image026" border="0" alt="clip_image026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilmB2i4OPw-guOkegj_72wbbd78g1cEoFY154vhqv1o_-fybsmU3VKGf09DxdYcSyGKmv4n5dnwzlVHxtBe7hQN7kISrQ7heiuNo7JszGuJputiGmnwe4iKVfioLTLuBFE9DZROn60HtY/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1heBzdtRmPb7Q0J30vmVvX92VTLnynlZI6D8AC5JPcoVRw_lUpywu7IZbQ60U3VAu7vB2DfpkjHomJyUZg1piPcNvtgy8nkanMv5ug7ebHB0ChZR2lZq0uqeB1NEucrCyiEQHjHMeO1Y/s1600-h/clip_image028%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image028" border="0" alt="clip_image028" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvZAMEc228uVMH3QmUrolRigZq4K_WVYpFqpVhvVf_SY8KLTGquCgxaRFtHsyX-JGnz3nNJXCway2QLD_B30QkiafExl4xXNRiX6Mu4jtUaflZd-SpCHbvOYcXH5BcFuRzShesZ79A3L4/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="174" /></a></p> <p>Pop over the bridge and you’re in Shropshire, drive along to the left a bit and you’re in Herefordshire, but this is Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire. It’s not fancy, but I love it and I can absolutely guarantee you will receive a very friendly welcome when you come to visit.</p> <p>And I haven’t even mentioned the pubs yet…….</p> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-10986294919452403322011-07-28T12:40:00.001-07:002011-07-28T12:40:00.098-07:00Summer<p>Forgive me readers, it has been several weeks since my last blog. A little round up of life here in the summer might be in order….</p> <p>In between hosting lots of lovely guests (I truly think there must be some divine intervention on the interweb thingy that sends me only nice people to stay) there actually isn’t that much spare time when you run a B&B. Happily I have my garden on the doorstep (obv) so as soon as I’ve finished breakfasts and cleaning and tidying I can get straight out there and play with the flowers. But we actually shut the B&B for a couple of days before our charity garden opening so that I could devote all my time to trimming the grass edges with nail scissors and other such important tasks. (Meanwhile Willy managed to break the big lawnmower and had to do it all with the little one which was only what he deserved really.). It took three versions of the “Please Don’t Feed The Donkeys” sign before we managed to place it somewhere the donkeys wouldn’t eat it.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3Ie9s8AheznHo8Fwv_BtrPMcmTG0MTDX9dmQDDT78euLDoyHp1d0B4G_un92klNR-R4hWl-KCcC6aFaArV1qF2uvo8cJKMqMVSXoYGq9JgqX-79-41tVENDWGIEMRHxDKDm5oVfnvdI/s1600-h/clip_image001%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image001" border="0" alt="clip_image001" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv6e9nrWI9Yz096I9w9JrDxYYaLcbUgxPLxRV0JlXLuJZiqDkuHfXC1ksKE-nHkG8AdOwhM9tXEURYj4Ob1XTQWduGRuTiI-RAl56OpoSpRb9lMRI47UxNoLm_GgAn9oNUc6JgABoXUvg/?imgmax=800" width="176" height="244" /></a></p> <p>So the day came, the signs went up, friends and family came to help (and supplied enough cake to feed the whole of Worcestershire) and the gates were opened. And the people actually came! And they seemed to like it! Embarrassingly, some wanted to know the names of roses that I had long forgotten so I felt a complete fraud. But they enjoyed smelling them so that’s the main thing (I think someone from Stratford might have put that better once upon a time) </p> <p>We had chosen to open on a Friday for our first time to see how it went. We had heard from others that we might expect 200 people – and we had the cake to prove it – but we had 80. Eighty is good, we raised £400 for charity, but it’s not as good as 200 so I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Next year we will open on a Sunday and expect a stampede.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP11JCHe9cX4F7vJvA3chsZJGi5nsM3ZWugdlokcqrCaHKVTD8ShyphenhyphenRuythPHA5ZknhQjKlEj3DTLOVq5nT_36KsqN_ujguv4w30wpqAKqQKAyafGbFcem_9dzzWVd8ZvlHu3UKJudkfm0/s1600-h/clip_image003%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image003" border="0" alt="clip_image003" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_l9QzMKOoM_oJlmINsyN69Wtq539vVenfC_SDFVz-0a1O72K-yUA9s4LpGbkRUrZwa5MmpJZ8TU_MogtkJSjuV4E4E2-5CnS4e3mMOAt4jYOiStAs9ESLRR7vd9rs49gkbIP_fTugh4/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a></p> <p>After the open day we felt we could legitimately venture out of the property when we had a moment and one lovely Sunday we found ourselves looking around the village gardens of Whitton. The tickets were being sold from the church and it was this that turned out to be the real find because not only is the graveyard covered in wild flowers but there is a William Morris stained glass window in the small old timber raftered church. When I popped back up there recently they were clearing some of the wild grass and flowers to make way for a small tent for the annual blessing of the medieval preaching stone which was to be followed by the christening of a local farmer’s baby – a small community church doing the same thing it’s been doing for hundreds of years. I’m not at all churchy but it is now one of my favourite places in the area.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyrXJXdtfGvceECz-AQrHhZFPufn95If14Q2llKMAG3GO91C3kZU2Q8iBqrGu91Sbw2oQSnlBl5ysUsdwr3WBFV_5ezJeF9I4Ow_-pFkP5kdbDppv_AxQR418LTiZst6nnEnf8-q7lQos/s1600-h/clip_image005%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image005" border="0" alt="clip_image005" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbJmkZ2YWnRfqVIT6P-ZoGwG0bJYbLRJmRJNADHu3uVllDyRfc-HLvWdA4_t4lmlhAADUIOYV-tbFjgpUzvVH3mTHjQzkB37cA5pR0JaVtwMKBIBZs7cpvZiNrwKjj2jXJQY11iGkvgnc/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="164" /></a></p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6MEHjnBJlMtSRTOTEV3Ob8VOQCCJVgVH5mf2XOCH_9WjegzbGN08S2Ap_J0jiremJNim3aTY7EqFkFiXVnoC7c6R65-3oH2m0mKRMZCFpq9xCPfLw6EsHRVyM3m8kd2FoWoOqC7soetk/s1600-h/clip_image007%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image007" border="0" alt="clip_image007" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1rvJkACpY73IvPRxGfldDgappFMwdFfhGLUGmF0aVDpFLrqe_lVg4tK8wAxr5nE_VzEWFfqXa8pI4t3HJHfFUZoMIFAfag9PH_sNyOaXJGPFZzY23-d8xJkQBNa5Resse12d3H_iFa_A/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="164" /></a></p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcqkDUyyr2Mc_FTqKRcKttzdiAa2IlgwEAFrfIgUBaV1iP-Q8WocTidmubTN-9RM7ZiJ3AgblrJvoJc4aE9iqGZv9uvFYNXrQnqiyhbnou33dgwrt-3z0F_y-HElcuN4zSTK7_0hVLapg/s1600-h/clip_image009%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image009" border="0" alt="clip_image009" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRDgxmRygihLYNQoavawtT67qyo0_a-AeWpcTGbuJZ4R4r5NByfU46cbWj1gTd0huu86AlEgVEIUUNvZnOnxdadZkCiBrNR9oWP8zosqdVPNvMC8fvKhOtclS9AQ8UcFQKgVmXHivQ94M/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a></p> <p>And then for something completely different….The Richards Castle Soap Box Derby. Set high up in the hills, an amazing venue for a mad event where gravity fuelled carts race down the hill against the clock. Some built for speed, some built for fun. Locals and visitors picnicked on the hill, the Tenbury Brass Band played and some classic and kit cars showed off their polish too. A little eccentricity in the beautiful English countryside – a perfect Sunday.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUIpOkpUxr_AOpA8_gYw6v2BR-s9v-soluxxNxk5uoDfegBtJdtNQXjRU7c_sAmPNWFUBhRvcNQ5w_iGDBDlquewmPDh99y03TMosDoqclUQqUdd-HYIHEm6AAODwEdsB1QGsm-IQn8B8/s1600-h/clip_image011%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image011" border="0" alt="clip_image011" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwv4fqyJKYfXhMKPD-Rd29_dEPVxrNpJlRnrkzhyphenhyphendUbO8LindtvbFWR1Mi7XC3AtcCOZyzNceb6AveOA0ymfzRam23RiU8LPYg0ckxMw5NQOAc-gKHbAWfcfUNJ9p5RRnAoP8IRaGYg9Q/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="164" /></a></p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaFwbuM7pbuAI_oxxTsvdKfShLOno0C1njdz-IlPbdehZ4KQue2mrjIfn10JILcLwWZVUMDj-KJiiGGghx0MURLwKAQS4qpBFeTuYEEyNJMSSffe4xAKXqWqxRvhyphenhyphenuNL125zvfwAzjwAc/s1600-h/clip_image013%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image013" border="0" alt="clip_image013" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn4PaZ_DgjPZ4qq6vN1RObPWL8I06E8el-7gbaH2KePX3gLlqKoUlBOWN_DWmnihyphenhyphen5_0fZX12nHEgbQUGBMzyyHEFYdD2HQND3i1tuybZOAulvsz-vBx8PFEvjX8fQ8ip5goCIeZPhIyg/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="164" /></a></p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTBzTurQ8El95kD6tZa1yMf8xdVOX1RiDK4F8Jon6JMo3o6SL3QCB23FjNwaSQAzZRXzTiiIOBPf6CAYiw5VbKPUHskyJ6HhH-KiHfNCj4IhbfV2Zxo7Hl8TfB8-OjHAjD7b05R4UwQOo/s1600-h/clip_image015%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image015" border="0" alt="clip_image015" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY2nrn0XJdQkCNhUUE7NPgosjOFyLmmPbS_447fKakHzGeAxT7NvUvZ5VVct1w4QuTgiLU32KX3IhGFPMtDBwiQ1CH6BPqnea5cBheF7KbaIgIoJg0KOZfHM7lWEG6wBsv003W1f2PHV0/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="164" /></a></p> nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-50038692992484160722011-06-04T11:27:00.001-07:002011-06-07T23:27:04.456-07:00A welcome to England<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-GrzHaEV0N4nmUIcZZRh-azbSBcThsnfiZPK9l5wxTjScDzPPq2LN_3nTXJLMiedOJZdelbPqrhABvTCJe9XQ3OQGoS4nCZmdaZJaqu98ZUBEslLbkaYsHxBF09eqhYMZa4VIJLiq5GU/s1600/haha.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-GrzHaEV0N4nmUIcZZRh-azbSBcThsnfiZPK9l5wxTjScDzPPq2LN_3nTXJLMiedOJZdelbPqrhABvTCJe9XQ3OQGoS4nCZmdaZJaqu98ZUBEslLbkaYsHxBF09eqhYMZa4VIJLiq5GU/s320/haha.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615187149004535458" border="0" /></a><br /><p>As you may have heard me mention (!) we are opening our garden for the National Gardens Scheme to help raise money for charity on 24th June. I am not going to talk about our garden here because I am reaching combustible levels of stress thinking about it and to write more will only wind me up further.<br />But what a fantastic thing this garden opening scheme is. How many countries can you visit where you can, on any day during the summer turn up at someone's private house, wander around their garden, drink their tea, eat their cake and chat to the owners all for about five quid? In some cases you can even stay in their bedrooms! (Book now to avoid disappointment 01584 819868)</p> <p>If I was a foreigner wanting to visit Britain and get a real feel of life both in the country and in the cities, the Yellow Book would definitely be my travel guide. It's like every year the whole of Britain puts on a Grand Garden Festival - a countrywide flower show of big and small gardens, allotments and whole villages opening together - all with just normal everyday folk there to welcome you in with a smile - whatever the weather - and a quintessentially English afternoon tea. (The quintessential bit being the rain)<br />Last weekend I visited Glanarrow at Eardisland in Herefordshire.I could just imagine the gasps of tourists as they wandered up the path to find a gorgeous house with it’s lake complete with little boat and a newly planted avenue of trees leading from the lake to the fields beyond </p><p>I really liked the combination of the silver foliage of the weeping pear with the santolinas in the white garden.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSpDNywaHYioHAYcSPjKBlOZJi45h3voYAAFIcEOvVdScrj_t64c2SE3dWRRGx4SGk09K4q9MzF5BbC2pP3moBNU1t8-nvRTcb-kex4Y30Ugpy0trkcbbEYPp6I_6Ug7DBeX5m3iXxHIs/s1600-h/clip_image008%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image008" alt="clip_image008" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4QhEQ9lAGckxOleRXcCQL_gjN51oEZRMy-V1N_lEb6TR4R_vMUrC1xbcU3y8qcJ9Eh_uLYvBQIyJ_7NF0QguJKVvR9yBE6iPEgAX-3GhvJlizd3YHtkfInVGDR_gXOWmuqLaKMlQoNIE/?imgmax=800" border="0" height="148" width="244" /></a></p> <p>The best bit of all is this wonderful herringbone haha which I had never seen before … beautifully made with elegant steps leading to the top lawn (Blogger has decided to place this pic at the top)<br /></p> <p>Behind the perfectly planted herbaceous border with its hedge backdrop is the neatest potager I’ve ever seen…</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhlKIt0JDzX4Mses7gE1o330bkuwhyphenhyphenjJ6ATcBPnwyVwkmcSudq3fvQwWaeT-20eBMdBXP0LPUdjgfIW23RJzlR88VwL55lzNGZM464u7gz9vut9KsM4f70wBmGkovNfsL2t8uo2Kd1G58/s1600-h/clip_image012%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image012" alt="clip_image012" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvJHAJL5ZmSgTnO2WHEeII5nm-WTQ_gVAkpdNvdUiMtqemFqTiMH32gWuSUh5S3u0D2_jBeDT4lFEZR0cyqkW68IlORvN1nm8NY9e4RRAeVCulVJqKAk-B6STUt7lKV37OuvJM55TBJPw/?imgmax=800" border="0" height="148" width="244" /></a></p> <p>But what I loved most was where part of the house became more cottagey and so did the planting. This was where I had my tea and a slice of Victoria sponge….</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJa238-jTIyUa3l-yj0rUFtCZQfnpTb0OVXOaodyeQ6Jo6hu2C6CN3uYa9MAi4yW0PyqF0YAHNVOb8QXX13kY3I_VECWoltrN7hzhYEvUm5edQbkW8OYvq4bXXpn-P3jlqW3J766ktYDk/s1600-h/clip_image014%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image014" alt="clip_image014" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLUByu_7g_8z9tqaVreG-u9AQIorJsh3UyZBPmcCSlcIM5QJlBj2AeaMUrtPH5EvrCJPwR0DydLeF1Su3VYdg93fJlhkVo5fZkLlhrgZDcPu8Em6S1B73vPPiwwsP6L1Ee1E8NfIERByQ/?imgmax=800" border="0" height="148" width="244" /></a></p> <p>…..at a table outside the kitchen door looking towards the potager</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwmPDuvZOsykFv4KwfWD_CKbIDxmVjxruSIk30HDNuxj1A7ftfbQqp1n9FCoTg8vBygAeBogiSpm9KEKvwov7JAKisDXjeMmHRi68ddT_RZCSN5c5jl-uPzRVPnAy6cIdp1LOVN41yyRc/s1600-h/clip_image016%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image016" alt="clip_image016" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7gFfMxmuhagh90FFHaBWNcxoHKoSWZNFhyAK9itRe1dzD9yy5zp1EFF6anmdoTdvdIobRq7KLXoHO68ktB9-nIXmOVIYwqxZdW0baIWhw8iXy3XNmxbPkXo4fkduCfDjiFNTil4BH58/?imgmax=800" border="0" height="148" width="244" /></a></p> <p>An interesting contrast was this bench looking very rustic and pretty with the daisies coming through it backing onto a planted streambed leading to the lake, </p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXVLhHd3kuFmO6Xn0CglIS_YFyN-hR0ytmzwohLspXZ_UoyDErEH0caAUWsre2YGLbCl8SIEjjWKaifknNnv4s9Jxmr1CcTBYcgu43_-DXUNfFd5MXqW1tU84-AaG-0aCgHSq5_9_9VCY/s1600-h/clip_image018%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image018" alt="clip_image018" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjplLcTM1CB7TeAjr6bQ-AjBt9RP8oCZGhQ1xsdWJ82gv-L_4aAK_Yk7uT5M4I29HNYDmAnQYJw-r-N89iRiGrEviZoAa171QbBkJR6NoT0An1IiAEHZfPjlAPeP0WtcU5OyiA01mCJn34/?imgmax=800" border="0" height="148" width="244" /></a></p> <p>….but facing a large expanse of plain lawn with a smart Lutyens bench in the distance. A deliberate contrast or the setting of some new project?</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZqxEcdIVKpG59erOIDY03xAFTmB_hBKUp9V_0kmp1p22FqKH0Sed_YQLVuAd-PSCWFO_bkQfFA9imPurHrzRymQ4pd3ly-AppwtF_VIf61tRA_-l1UqKwK2CfmKXseETVx-cUAlzWyKE/s1600-h/clip_image020%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image020" alt="clip_image020" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9sbFeuXezPZQzAUxao-3lDrBY2CcD274wgDLUfiWzaXPClTisdb5anVVd-RUj9mpESIKUsgc2BdRdWfyD-GiDV98I5_bauOQFq6sf3F2e0fd7b9ji00eZMTl_k0TNJSf1QJfxtV8QGwQ/?imgmax=800" border="0" height="148" width="244" /></a></p><br />Glanarrow is open again on 18th and 19th June in aid of the local church funds.nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-32458601550881419412011-04-27T09:17:00.000-07:002011-04-27T09:53:28.491-07:00<span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Areas of Concern</span><br /><br />It is just under two months until our Garden Opening and I feel like I'm flying. Not in the sense of gliding or soaring as happily and nonchalently as the buzzards mewing overhead, but more in the sense that I think we'll probably be all right but there is a chance we might crash and burn.<br /><br />With the warm weather everything is threatening to peak too soon. Usually our roses would be looking good at the end of June - the NGS day is the 24th - but if this weather keeps up it will all be over with only us and a handful of guests having seen them. But hey, the people who visit gardens are usually gardeners themselves and they will understand won't they? Won't they? Or will there be frowns of disapproval and mutterings of "Hmmm how disappointing" ?? If only we didn't have to be so visible. (We have to wear badges stating 'Garden Owner' - it will feel like a badge saying 'It's all my fault' or 'Direct your criticism at me' It would be so much easier to bear if we could just blend in with the visitors and tut and pass comments such as "I don't know why they've planted that there" (And indeed we probably don't)<br /><br />There are three particular, or four particular, no maybe five or six particular areas that are causing me concern.....First why, in seven years have we still not managed to camouflage the sewage tank at the end of the Not the Daffodil Bed. Second, why does Not the Herb Garden still not look quite right? Third, will anyone actually find the Not the Sweet Pea garden so does it matter that it is empty? Fourth, when will we come up with some decent new names for these areas. Five, will the wildflower area under the apple trees actually ever germinate this year or will it remain bare for both the June and the September opening. And six, will the Buggery have anywhere near enough in it to attract more than a couple of lone bees?<br /><br />And I haven't even mentioned filling the gaps left by things that have died over the winter. There is an area where a big old buddleia, that used to cover up an awkward slopey corner, has just died. We decided to tackle it at the weekend. What shall we do we wondered while sipping our coffee staring unenthusiastically at it. "Why don't we get some of those big stones and pile them up and plant some aubretia in them and plant a philadelphus over the top?" "Good idea - let's get to it." Half an hour later - hey presto - it looked...well ...like someone had piled up some stones and planted some aubretia.<br /><br />When things aren't going too well in the garden I am glad I can at least take pride in my B&B business and one of the very nicest things about it is having people say how much they love it here - inside and out. And so I guess it can't be all bad out there. In fact I know it is not. There are some lovely bits and on the 24th June I shall stand by the lovely bits wearing my 'Garden Owner' badge with pride and cheerfully agree that some other bits are actually really awful and need to be better next year.nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-82075115280677064602011-03-31T13:00:00.000-07:002011-03-31T13:56:36.427-07:00Country SportsIt's spring again and the wildlife and I can relax for a while and live in peace. No more hunting til autumn means no more worrying about whether my animals will be scared or hurt and no need to will the foxes to come and hide here.<br /><br />I have spent all my life sitting on the country sports fence. Having been involved with horses as a child and teenager, I managed to avoid going hunting myself though my pony was taken by a friend a couple of times. I've always been an animal lover and couldn't see the fun in it but I've always been surrounded by people who do. And as a fickle youngster I managed to think nothing of going to hunt balls, (probably because the most handsome boys were to be found there - the rich have an annoying habit of being beautiful).<br /><br />I once went fishing with a boyfriend - a beautiful spot and almost a nice way to spend a day. The moment when I first felt a tug on the line was quite exciting even for a split second, but then I immediately felt awful about yanking the poor thing out of its watery world, a barbed hook in the roof of its mouth. Ouch.<br /><br />For several years I worked as a PA to the owner of a large country estate where one of my duties was to help organise shooting parties. I don't like the idea of shooting wild birds for fun but it's another one of those traditional country sports that amuses the county set over the winter. They're a funny lot... I should know, I married one of them.<br /><br />Thankfully William had long given up shooting when I met him and had also decided a long time ago he was never getting on a horse again. He's also a zooologist by training so whilst he doesn't <span style="font-style: italic;">love</span> animals like I do, he has some sort of interest in them. He stopped shooting when he was a student realising the idiocy of shooting wild ducks one weekend and counting them for a survey the next.<br /><br />And so we sit here in our nice little place, both country people but with different backgrounds and experiences and we're surrounded by other country people with their own views and desires. Whatever happens nearby Brook Farm is, I hope, a haven for wildlife and therefore a quiet, peaceful place to stay. We like it like that and our guests like it like that.<br /><br />'Harm None' is my motto - 'Live and Let Live' is William's!nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3092841314203705567.post-48729213763147613032011-03-02T12:41:00.000-08:002011-03-03T04:22:01.838-08:00It's Not That Easy Being GreenToday I forgot the mushrooms. I haven't any B&B guests this week so I only needed a few to put in the Hen House breakfast hamper with the sausages, bacon and tomatoes. Should I drive the two miles back down to Tenbury for a few mushrooms or give my guests some lovely organic local yogurt instead. The yogurt it is. <br /><br />I have dilemmas like this every week. Ideally I am buying local, organic and fair trade and also keeping an eye on how much I use my car. But local doesn't always have organic and fairtrade. So do I shun the small local shops and use more fuel to get to specialist shops or supermarkets further away or do I buy the best I can get locally?<br /><br />I used to buy my bacon direct from a local farmer but felt bad because I'd taken my business away from the local butcher, so I switched back and now I feel bad about the farmer. The local butcher sometimes has organic chicken, but rarely anything else organic, but he does have local free range meats. Do my guests expect me to buy organic bacon from further away or buy the local free range stuff?<br /><br />If I go to the Spar in Tenbury for some tonic water and I also need tomatoes for breakfasts, do I ignore their dutch tomatoes in the hope that the greengrocer has some english ones? He's at the other end of town and might only have dutch ones too. It's easy in summer because there is a local farm that supplies the greengrocer with the loveliest juiciest tomatoes which I buy by the box and keep out of the fridge where they ripen to their most gorgeous tasty best. But they're not labelled organic. Should I visit the farm and check what they are putting on them?<br /><br />In an ideal world I would grow my own, but my success rate with tomatoes isn't impressive - if they manage to get off the ground without slug damage, they ripen so slowly that only one or two guests would get them on their breakfast during the summer and anyone who came in September/October would find only tomato based breakfasts on the menu. (And speaking of slugs - I garden organically and won't use pellets. And being a big soft veggie I am certainly not growing my own pigs.)<br /><br />Marmalade and jams come from the lovely ladies at the WI - they're not going to fork out for an organic certifcation but I know their fruit is chemical free. But if they run out of marmalade which happens alarmingly often what then? At the moment I have delicious marmalade made by my friend Karen from Hopton House B&B nearby. Otherwise I buy La Vieja Fabrica made in Seville. It's very good and it's going to be the oranges or the jars of marmalade that are flown over here isn't it? You don't get many productive orange trees in Worcestershire.<br /><br />And it's not just the food that causes hand-wringing - the laundry - OMG the laundry. For a few months I struggled to do all the washing and ironing myself, but was it such a good thing to have the washing machine and the iron running almost permanently? Now I use a laundry for the bedlinen and towels for guests, and whilst they are using environmentally friendly washing powders, they are of course using industrial sized washing machines, tumble driers and ironing machines. So though I can quite honestly say we don't have a tumble drier on green grounds and all our own washing is air dried, I am in fact paying someone else to use one for me. Oh, what to do, what to do.<br /><br />It's not easy being green but, dear guest, please trust that I believe in respecting this planet and all that live on it and I am doing the best I possibly can.nicelittleplacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04406840561932250254noreply@blogger.com3