Barns background
The Blue Tits have left home
Orchard Farm Nesting Box to LetWe don’t know whether we have occasion to be rejoicing or commiserating, I do hope the former. There has been no sign of parent blue tits or offspring for two days. Does anyone know, do the young ones literally just fly the nest, followed by the parents? Or is this [...]
Plans for our new video
Well, the die is cast, the decision has been made and Simon the video man will be here on Thursday and Friday next week, with his son Mike. We had been planning to wait until we had heard a definitely optimistic weather forecast but the longish range ones all seem a bit vague about the [...]
A magpie and a hot air balloon over Orchard Farm
No news as yet on the baby blue tit front but there is a lot of flying in and out of the parents; the dove that the crow attacked is still about but if she has chosen anther nest it is certainly better hidden than the one in the haybarn. All the other birds are [...]
Self-Catering Accommodation at Orchard Farm for Blue Tits
Just outside our kitchen window, nailed to a tree, is a nesting box given to us two or three years ago by Debbie – ‘American Deb’ who many of you may have met or at least corresponded with in the past, when she has taken over the reigns while we went away. For several years [...]
Bean crunching: occupancy stats for our barns
The weather has turned lovely again, which is wonderful. It makes it particularly sad that I should have actually chosen to be indoors at the moment, out of the sun and sitting at the computer rather than tackling the weeds or any other outdoor chore that would have justified my staying outside. And actually, the [...]
Tom’s Barn – is our ‘dog friendly holiday cottage’ really dog friendly?
We have always welcomed (well-behaved) dogs in Tom’s Barn, and are more than happy to do so. From time to time we have also had other pets, such as cats and parrots but by and large it is mainly dogs. With one or two notable exceptions our dog guests are usually beautifully behaved but even [...]
An unforgetable experience
We love dogs, and dog owners, and really love to welcome them to Tom’s Barn. For ten years we have had the privilege of welcoming model dog owners, with well-behaved and well-controlled dogs. We could never understand why many other holiday cottage owners shuddered at the thought of accepting dogs. We now know why. We [...]
Mary's Meals
All this talk and thought of food… We have just made a minuscule Gift Aid Donation of £10.11 to Mary’s Meals. To our dismay, but also delight, we discover that £10.11 will feed one child a nourishing meal at school for over a year and a half… We had pledged to donate any commission we [...]
As we approach 2010…
We have two quite exciting technological developments to tell you about. The first is that we now have been able to seriously boost the strength of our wireless internet connection. For a long time we have offered wireless internet access in both barns; at first only a minority of guests seemed to use it but [...]
The History of Orchard Farm
Orchard Farm is one of the older buildings in a village full of old buildings, with parts of it dating back probably to the 1600s, if not earlier. Since then it has been developed and ‘improved’ over the centuries; the stonework bears tantalising evidence of a fascinating mixture of building styles. The oldest part of [...]
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