£475 for Tom’s Barn, Friday 17 to Friday 24 May (i.e. this coming week)

We are not used to Tom’s Barn having an empty week, especially considering I spend so much time writing emails explaining to disappointed enquirers that we are full when they want to come.

And now we have a week, without a single enquirer, not even someone who wants to book and  bring along Aunt Myrtle and three teenage kids (I’m serious – we do get requests like that but we always take them seriously and redirect them to friends and colleagues who are better placed than we to accommodate large family groups).

Anyway, rather than leave it empty we decided we would let Tom’s Barn, just this one week in glorious May, at the mid-winter rate of £475 (no lower winter rates for dogs unfortunately – they still will cost £25 each, extra.

If you haven’t been before and want to check out what other people think, have a glance at some of our TripAdvisor reviews.

Even if it’s no good to you, please do spread the word.

The skippers, viewed from the galley

We have been away for eight days and I must admit, have had a wonderfully relaxing and fun time, helped no end by uninterrupted sunshine and warmth and blissfully peaceful stretches of water where there seemed to be no one else but John and me and our two very good friends Erica and Colin on our boat and some wonderful views and birds.

Hopeful plans that I might sit on the deck of our Norfolk Broads gin palace composing one enticing blog post after another were soon dashed by the fact there was not at any stage the slightest whisper of any  internet connection or mobile phone network.

The outcome was that I had an even more relaxing time on the ‘ocean’ wave than i had expected and that we returned home to 396 emails to deal with and not a single word of a blog post composed!

Sorry. I’ll try to make up for it. The silly thing is I love doing the blog, it’s not that I find it a hardship at all. But after such a long silence  the first thing I must do before regaling you with tales of Norfolk is bring you up to date with any news. All I can really think of is that David our lovely joiner made and fitted a new bath panel for the Douglas’s Barn bath while we were away. Janet reports that it looks really good, but we have yet to see it…

We also before we went away, decided – somewhat on impulse – lured by a most enticing offer from the local Honda dealers – to trade in our purple low mileage 2009 model for a shiny khaki 2013 version with 10 miles on the clock. We picked it up yesterday, and since then have lived in terror of at the least scratching it on the narrow lanes, or at worst meeting a tractor head on round a bend. So far, after 24 hours, all is well and unscathed.

A fairly major minor drama arose when we discovered that my key to the old car was unaccountably missing, nowhere to be found. When we were told by Honda that to replace it would cost £250 we realised the enormity of the loss. They gave us until today as the deadline, when they would have to order a replacement… We spent two days hunting and rehunting, lifting cushions, going through pockets, even looking in the washing machine. Almost literally at the 11th hour I found it in a coat pocket, that John and I had both previously checked, but what a relief!

We are also in the process of  updating our  holiday cottage payment process, eventually transferring from our current static card machine downstairs to a ‘virtual terminal’ which we can access wherever we are. It hasn’t happened yet so we may find all sorts of disadvantages but are hoping that it will make everyone’s lives easier. At present, if someone wants to pay by bank card while we are away we have to wait until we get home again to process it…

So that sort of brings you up to date. Tomorrow, or during the weekend, I will tell you more about our actually trip on the Norfolk Broads, and then our little detour home via Wales.

We shall be away for a week from Tuesday 23rd morning early until late evening Monday 30th April. Janet will be around as usual, checking all is well, watering pots and generally keeping things running like clockwork. She will deal with any messages left on the answer phone and will be in frequent touch with us.

All being well mobile signal-wise, we will be contactable throughout, on 07813 686899 or by email.

We’re hoping for some good weather but after last month we’ll just be glad if it doesn’t snow!

We have two significant anniversaries in April. Many of you will remember my father, Douglas, who died on April 8th 2004, nine years and  a couple of days ago. Fewer of you will know, unless we’ve already told you, that April 3rd marked the day we had owned Orchard Farm for 30 years.

I will throw in a few photos of Orchard Farm as it was then, and you will see we have made some progress since then, which is always encouraging to remember. The photo at the bottom on the right is actually of the sitting room in the Orchard Farm house. It conveys the filth of 30 years ago, what it does not convey, fortunately, is the stench!

I always think of April as one of the loveliest months;  this year it has yet to prove itself weather wise although it is getting warmer by the day and the spring flowers are bursting forth. (My personal month of all is May.)

However, this year we have a real question mark hanging over April. We have always been fully booked in April in the past but to our bemusement, we have three blank weeks in Douglas’s Barn. Why? Who can tell us?

We’ve wracked our brains: “Maybe people are worried about the weather?” That can hardly be true, when we have so many return bookings for the winter months, and anyway, both barns are so cosy and snug once you’re inside you’re as snug as the proverbial bug. “Possibly everyone is going abroad?” – that doesn’t follow, when the next four months are booked solid… “Maybe they sudden;y don’t like Douglas’s Barn?” If you look at our reviews on TripAdvisor you’ll see how very positive they all are.

We’ll probably never know but the ironic thing is, if you want a holiday in Douglas’s Barn this summer you’ll  need to move quickly. Apart from these three rogue weeks in April there is only one week left in Douglas’s Barn between the beginning of May and the end of August. If you don’t believe me, check the availability calendar now!

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The Vanishing World of the Photograph Album

The Format 13 ‘Album Beauty’ exhibition is in the Derby Quad Gallery. The exhibition is free, and remains open until 26th May. It is described as an ode to this vanishing art form, whose purpose apparently was to ‘document and display the mundane’ – the private reality of people’s lives.

Mundane or not, I found the exhibition most touching. One moves through a rather dated personal photograph album. The subjects on the whole look self-conscious, and very carefully still for fear of wrecking the (expensive) film. There are little boys in corduroy shorts, and girls with bows in their hair and puffed-sleeve dresses. There are baby pictures, and couples, cars and bikes. Most have no description at all, so very private.

The two photos I have used are actually from one of our family albums, my father, and my paternal grandparents – his father and mother. I used personal photos rather than risk violating any copyright issues by using the Album Beauty images exhibited in the Derby Quad gallery. These Album Beauty images, once proud personal possessions, are all ‘found’ photos, taken from abandoned, long-forgotten family albums, bought from market stalls or car boot sales and curated by Eric Kessels.

Ask anyone below the age of 40 if they have an album and they’ll probably assume you mean a Facebook album or just possibly a wedding or baby album which is both a record and just possibly an ostentatious desire to impress. Nowadays our ‘reality’ is no longer private. It is brazenly public, viewed on YouTube, Facebook or Flickr, stored in the Cloud, buzzing around the ether like a swarm of flies.

The aim is to impress, entertain, amuse or embarrass, reaching as many social media viewers as possible; or to show the world that one has actually been to Timbuktu, or Derby Quad.

Some of the older generations – my own husband for one – will still carefully document the mundane in albums, for the quiet and private delight of a few.

But private or public, where will these images eventually all end up? Either lost for ever on an outdated memory stick, or mouldering unseen in a junk shop.

So will our reality vanish too, whatever the art form…

Marion Fuller-Sessions
18/3/2013

Easter Sunday has dawned with bright sunshine despite the fact we are an hour ahead of ourselves since yesterday, with British Summer Time.

Things have perked up a lot since this time last week, when blizzards were raging and Parwich was cut off. One can’t keep Parwich from the real world for long and thanks to some amazing work by Derbyshire County Council and lots of lovely local people the vital link was restored pretty quickly. Our little lane up from the grassy triangle, usually the final fatal slippery slope for all concerned was, thanks again to tireless and entirely voluntary efforts from our next door neighbours, the clearest road in town!

Many of us went to church this morning at 9.30, which was quite a triumph given that yesterday it would only have been 8.30. With lots of children present the vicar’s theme was, not surprisingly, eggs: Easter, new life, the unexpected. He had brought several bowls of eggs which he asked different children in the congregation to smash. To everyone’s amazement, and not just the children’s, only one egg had proper ‘eggy stuff’ inside. Inside the others were things like a bunch of feathers, some purple gooey stuff which looked like cherry jam. (In case you’re wondering, apparently he made two tiny holes at either end of each egg, blew out the contents and then with the help of a farmer friend, the surprise contents were pushed in very carefully with an injection needle!)

Anyway, the message was clear: new life, new hope, but it may not bring the expected. The surprises may be good. Now, hopefully we look ahead to better weather and just possibly, the good summer we have been promised for several years now but which has never materialised. Who knows what lies ahead, weather wise, but we can but hope.

But we do know that despite the weather, despite the recession – or perhaps even partly because of it – wonderful guests continue to flock to Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns for that very much special and much needed relaxing, peaceful retreat, in a beautiful part of the world. It means so much to John and me that we are lucky enough to be living here and to be able to help provide that for you. Our lives are enriched by meeting you all – such lovely, interesting people! It is our great privilege, and we are thankful for that.

It has stopped snowing but there is no sign of a thaw yet and because of the wind there is a lot of drifting; this means even some of the local main roads get blocked from time to time. If you are planning to come here today or even on Friday do check with us first, and also for up to the minute reports on our village blog parwich.org.

Two other excellent but inevitably less immediately local weather and traffic conditions sites to consult are for local weather conditions for BBC reports for Ashbourne and Local road conditions for BBC local Travel News

If you get here okay, your final problem may be the last slope up to our house. 4x4s are managing fine but probably not much else, and our drive and yard are covered with snow so it would be best to park below, well before the snow-covered grassy triangle with the Road Narrows sign.

The last week has scampered fast, busily and enjoyably but leaving very little time for quiet reflection or blog posts (let alone mundane chores like ironing…

Starting backwards, Mothering Sunday today was a very happy day for this mother but possibly more about that tomorrow. Ruthie and Nick, our two London-based young, came up for the weekend which sadly is something Sara in Australia can never do. Two other friends were here on Friday night with plenty of reminiscence and happy chat. On the Saturday Ruthie and I walked in to Ashbourne along the Tissington Trail (John dropped us off at Alsop Station (no trains for many a long year although when my father was young they used to come up by train from Lichfield). We walked briskly and reached Ashbourne in 2 hours 1 minute (according to the map it is 7 1/4 miles) which we were pleased about but were we glad to sit down in Bramhall’s cafe in Ashbourne and enjoy a cup of tea and a flapjack afterwards!

We can well recommend Bramhall’s, across the road from the Ashbourne Market Place. You can have breakfasts, lunches and teas here. The service was efficient and very friendly, our tea was hot and plentiful and the flapjacks deliciously ‘homemade’. Which leads me seamlessly on to the Macmillan Lunch that Fischer’s Baslow Hall laid on last Tuesday. Fischer’s is the only Michelin Starred restaurant in Derbyshire, and eating here is a wonderful experience whatever the occasion – whether dinner, their 2013 Lunches or a charity event like this. We all were treated to sparkling wine and nibbles when we arrived, then a three course meal with more wine and coffee; needless to say, the food was all quite delicious!

Someone from Macmillan described the sort of work that is done locally, and Nicky, someone who had benefitted by Macmillan care herself spoke very movingly about the lifeline they had provided her. Fischer’s handed over the entire proceeds of the lunch – over £1600 – to the Macmillan representative who was of course delighted. All of us attending felt we could not have found a pleasanter or more luxurious way to feel good by helping a charity.

For a so far photographless post, the last entry may seem rather surprising. There is a big photographic exhibition in Derby – a ‘festival of photography and related media’ for the next month and amongst many things on offer I spotted a 4-week (2 hours each week) course ‘Blogging for Photographers”. Well, heaven knows, I am no photographer but I do write a blog and I do have a husband whose photographic skills I hope more than make up for my lack! John was quite happy to suggest it would be extravagant for us both to attend, so I shall be cooperating with him in absentia as it were.

We have had one session so far, which was setting up a blog so I spent a fairly relaxed 2 hours. I suspect it will be a different story on Tuesday when I go for the second session. Meanwhile, horrors, we have homework! We have to write a 200 word blog post and send it in beforehand which means I have little time and should not be sitting here writing this.

Bound for the boiler scrap heap

Now, exactly a week later and with a new boiler installed, serenity has been restored after what has been a fraught week affecting many more than the hapless owners. These words may sound glib but the reality was several troubled nights and continuing anxiety until everything was sorted out.

Our first worry and indeed our first priority in all such drama is our guests, who have paid good money and come in good faith, needing and expecting nothing but the best. Our immediate concern was for the lovely couple who had just driven up from London with a young baby, for their first holiday away together since their baby was born. They hadn’t been here more than two or three hours when black smoke started issuing forth from the boiler…

Quick choices had to be made. We offered to pay for our guests to be ‘rehoused’ in a choice of cottages belonging to friends and colleagues who rallied around with offers of help but our couple very gamely opted to stay on in a central heating-less cottage with no hot water. We borrowed two portable electric heaters and gave them the sole use of our spare bathroom, and of course other than bathing and showering every other facility in Douglas’s Barn was still available to them. When they came to say goodbye on Monday morning we were very touched when they generously thanked us very warmly for a really lovely holiday!

Their situation was one any holiday cottage owner dreads; another dread is having to put guests off as we had to do to another very understanding and generous-mided couple who had been looking forward to a midweek break here in Douglas’s Barn. We were most fortunate that Steve Ogan of Blakelow Farm, a nearby friend and fellow-Premier Cottages member, was able to offer them his two-person cottages which happened to be empty and which most fortuitously happened to be the same price as our guests had paid us. We were very happy that our would-be guests popped in to see us on their way home and were not surprised to hear that Steve had looked after them very well and they had been most comfortable. They’d had personal reasons for choosing Douglas’s Barn, but like our firt couple, big-hearted enough to accept the change of plan forced on them in very good part.

It is the machinery which let us down; it is the people who come up trumps all round. We were blessed with two sets of guests who understood the predicament we were in, could have made it awkward but absolutely went out of their way to cooperate. We are also extremely lucky to have a most excellent self-employed boiler engineer, Phi Jennings, for whom nothing is too much trouble (unlike the local Worcester Bosch engineers who seemed to need three working days to respond to an urgent call-out).

Phil came out at 8.30 pm on the Friday night that the boiler died, hoping – as we all thought – simply to fix it (again). Like vets, I imagine boiler engineers often find themselves dealing with far more than simply practical mechanical problems. Phil managed to reassure everyone that there was no danger in spite of the lingering smell of hot oil, that he’d move heaven and earth to order and install a new boiler within the week. And he, and Andy his no 2, did what they promised.

So now, a week later, a new boiler is installed. Phil and Andy assure us it will be more powerful and more economical than its disgraced predecessor. What we fervently hope is that it is also going to be more reliable! We heard a worrying instance on Facebook of faulty Chinese circuit boards causing combi boiler problems: that is all we need! At least we know that if there are any teething problems Phil will be out in a flash to sort them. How lucky we are, living in a rural area like this and able to count on really loyal ‘human’ tradesmen.

‘Phew!’

I turned to John as we thankfully sat down yesterday evening after a typically busy Friday, ‘I do love that moment when one can at last sit down and relax, knowing that both lots of guests have arrived and are happily settled in…’ when there was an apologetic knock at the door.
‘I am so sorry for disturbing you, but there seems to be black smoke coming out of the boiler in Douglas’s Barn!’

And that was the end of the evening and the end of all relaxing. Phil Jennings our truly amazing ‘boiler man’ drove out at 8.30pm to fix, as he and we thought, the boiler, only to pronounce that the damage was fatal: the only solution a complete new system. Have you noticed how this sort of pronouncement only arises on a Friday evening? The only surprise being this isn’t a Bank Holiday weekend…

May we be forgiven for being so pleased about our QiT Inspection report! We are happy enough to share the good news, so we can’t be coy about sharing the bad although as some kind soul has just reminded us, it wasn’t anybody’s fault, it wasn’t anything anyone’s done wrong (except perhaps the makers of the not-old boiler – obviously a ‘Friday afternoon’ model which has given a lot of expensive trouble over its shortish life). Be that as it may, we do feel bad about it all. It is embarrassing and upsetting to let people down and one can’t help feeling that in the ideal cottage world with ideal owners this would never happen.

The guests in Douglas’s Barn, who had only just settled in after driving up from London for the weekend, have been brilliant and are now happily ‘camping’ in their central-heatlingless holiday-cottage-in-midwinter which, thanks to the electric ‘burning pebbles and two borrowed heaters (and its own super-efficient insulation), is we gather keeping plenty warm enough; apart from no hot water everything else is still working. We have lent them the use of our spare bathroom in the house which is literally next door so it’s not ideal for them but they’re accepting the situation apparently cheerfully.

These guests were all part of the unfolding drama so we were spared breaking any unexpected news to them. Breaking the news quite out of the blue to guests eagerly waiting to arrive on Monday was very difficult, although again they were very understanding about the rather unwelcome and unexpected turn of events. To cut a long story – and one pretty well sleepless night – short, everything is now beginning to fall into place, more or less… Phil the joiner man has managed to order a replacement boiler (on a Saturday!) which will arrive on Tuesday. Meanwhile, he will take out the offending boiler on Monday, replace it with the new model on Tuesday and he faithfully assures us that everything will be up and running and ready for the new guests on Friday, even allowing us plenty of time to get everything back in sparkling order before 3pm …

So we may live to tell the tale after all. We’ve had dramas before, many related to this same boiler; we’ve also had several minor floods, and more than one very prolonged power cut – one lasting two days. We have had so much snow that our guests couldn’t leave and we had to re-schedule the incoming guests offering them a free alternative date instead.

At the time they have all seemed a drama of sorts, even if only a minor one; some like the power cuts have ended up being really rather fun – our joint dinner party by candlelight during one recent power cut was rated the highlight of their holiday by both couples! We have not had anything on the scale of the current situation, which apart from the human element is going to be financially significant too. But at least there wasn’t a flood or a fire, no one has been hurt and no real damage has been done to body or soul other than to what my nuns at school would call our ‘false pride’.