Tom’s Barn: Sexy place/love nest…?

… With Valentine’s day fast approaching, and with both Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns having frequently been identified as romantic cottages for two I suppose we shouldn’t have been surprised to find Tom’s Barn selected by Kate Quill of the Times for her list of 18 “Love Nests to Rent” in an article headed “Sexy Places”. (Unfortunately we can’t give you a link to the actual article as we don’t have a subscription to online Times but if you do have it is on Page 4 Sexy Places in the Travel section on Saturday Feb 12th 2011.)

But surprised we were; in fact the first we knew of it was when someone rang to book a week, explaining she had just read about us in the Times. So that’s twice this year already – first in Country Homes and Interiors, with Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns highlighted as one of their four recommended Romantic Getaways and now the Times with their love nests in Sexy Places…

Of course we’re always delighted to have our two cottages recognised and recommended by the press; we just always feel the need to reassure everyone that we love all our guests whatever their ages, and as far as we can tell all our guests –  no matter how old or young – love our barns. They are a highly attractive destination for couples of any age.

We never ask people’s ages, but we get a wonderful spread from early twenties to mid to late 80’s, from 21st birthday treats to Golden Wedding celebrations and masses of couples in between. You’re obviously fond of each other and want some happy time together so let’s not be shy – let’s shout abroad about how romantic and sexy Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns are for everybody!

Parwich and beyond…some local news

Those of you who have stayed in Douglas’s Barn may remember the beautiful painting by Lewis Noble above the fire place, one of our (rather too many) artistic/cultural extravagances which we don’t regret for one minute.

Lewis is exhibiting in London at the moment, at the Hart Gallery in London.   We were pleased to see the exhibition highlighted in the current 12th Feb issue of The Week Arts page (p27) Where to Buy…

It is an emotional rather photographic impression of the Parwich landscape, with the wonderful blue/grey/green colours so typical of the Derbyshire Dales and Staffordshire Moorlands and which we have tried to recreate downstairs in Douglas’s Barn. We love it and many of our guests remark on it, as they do the equally lovely but very different water colours by Joan Wood, another local Derbyshire artist – and the delightful Ruby Hickmott cartoon in the loo. (Must ask John to try to capture these all on photograph…)

Before you suspect that we are in commission I must reassure you that a) unfortunately we are not, and b) Lewis has no idea we are writing this.

Finally on a very different note altogether, many of you will have met Sue, who helps us in the garden – in fact without her help the garden would quickly revert to the jungle of docks, nettles and brambles that it used to be (after we removed all the breeze blocks, asbestos and tractor relics from what had been a farmer’s neglected dumping ground).

Anyway, you might be amused to see these shots by John on Parwich.org, the village website, of Sue and Mike trying valiantly – and they did succeed – to transport hundreds of willow canes in last week’s gusting wind. There are several shots of Orchard Farm in the background.

Tom’s Barn Dog Parade

We have had our ‘annual’ (last one was in June 2010) inspection today. It is always a tense moment. There is quite a lot of work beforehand making sure the paperwork is up to date and that one has done everything one was meant to do after the previous inspection.

There is also that underlying nagging worry that a domestic disaster might occur immediately beforehand, like an overflowed bath or a particularly hairy dog but the only disaster of any sort was my ‘fake Bakewell’ which wasn’t quite up to the usual standard but was thankfully still reasonably edible.

The inspector herself was warm, friendly and extremely helpful so in fact the whole inspection passed very constructively and well. The final result we will not know for a day or two and of course we will announce the result…

Meanwhile, on a totally different note, we often agree, all of us here behind the Orchard Farm scenes, how lucky we are with our guests who are always so friendly, pleasant and appreciative – we couldn’t hope for nicer.

But tagging along with these lovely guests are some pretty super dogs. Darren and Tracey who left this morning have just sent a ‘thank you for having us’ email (thank you for coming!) enclosing this gorgeous photo of their Sid lying on the Tom’s Barn doormat. We can’t quite make out the expression – what is going through Sid’s mind?

And while we’re on the dog track, so to speak, here is another beauty, still very young; she has yet to pay her first visit here with Sam and Gary who normally come with their cat but she no doubt will when she has successfully ‘left the nursery’. Meanwhile, here she is with a cuddly toy considerably bigger than she is!

Both photos will look better if you click to enlarge them.

Reserve List for Last Minute Availability

Both Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns are fully booked now until August (Douglas’s Barn) and September (Tom’s Barn). But when people have booked well  ahead, cancellations are always on the cards so we are starting a ‘last minute reserve list’ for  those who may have been too late to get the date they wanted earlier.

We get the strong feeling that in spite of – indeed probably because of – the current economic uncertainly more and more people are desperately keen to seize a few precious days away, as far removed as possible from the daily grind, the continual daily stresses and strains, the noise and the rush.

After all, what price can one put on peace and serenity? And to find it is easily available, not far from home yet feeling a million miles away… We’re talking about nothing more mystical than the chance to enjoy some peace and quiet and fresh air and comfort – walking in the beautiful Peak District, delicious meals in lovely pubs, coming back to a warm and welcoming ‘home from home’ (but without your real home’s responsibilities).

Planning ahead is part of the magic – so often people say when they have rung up to book ‘”I feel better already, just thinking of it.” But sometimes, a last minute spur of the moment unplanned trip could be just as exciting. Personally I am full of admiration for anyone who can so organise their lives as to be able to drop everything and go at relatively short notice but we are know that there are many who are.

So, if you would like to be on ‘Cancellation standby’ please let us know. We’ll ask Jeremy our lovely webman to hep us devise a suitable form but in the meantime, we have already started a list. We will always advertise sudden gaps and availability on our website but we appreciate that not everyone is permanently glued to our site so a quick email or text (preferably) or phone call wouldn’t come amiss.

It will be a question of first come, first served – your place on the list won’t mean you are in a better or worse position because the emails would go out at the same time. And we won’t keep your name on the list for ever, unless of course you ask us to!

Some Random Local Recommendations

We have some guests’ recommendations, and John and I have been doing a little sampling of local eateries, too.

Firstly, a joint one. Sam and Gary, who were here on their sixth visit very recently (they first came for their honeymoon, several years ago now) arranged for our next door neighbour, Val Kirkham, of TopNosh Catering to bring them a meal. Sam was warm in her praises, and wrote in the Visitors’ Book and in an email after they returned home, how much they had enjoyed it.

Val has done several parties for us, but we’d never had a private meal brought to the house, so we – never to be outdone – promptly decided to have a lazy night in with a friend from a nearby village and asked Val to bring us a casserole, new potatoes and salad. It was comforting, nourishing and delicious, and lasted us for another meal as well! So, there is one recommendation…

Guests in Douglas’s Barn last week went to the Druid; this pub has had slightly mixed reviews lately but keeps getting the Michelin ‘Bib Gourmand’ award. Anyway, these guests said they had an excellent meal, although they felt the menu was limited – no bad thing we reckon (as long as you like what’s there!). When a restaurant has dozens and dozen of choices on the menu, you know they can’t possibly be doing more than re-heating something probably mass-prepared many months previously.

Our great favourite (we like the Gate at Brassington too) The George at Alstonefield goes from strength to strength. We were lucky to get a table (already reserved for later) for a bowl of soup there on Saturday and only because we were very early and weren’t going to linger.

And finally, I don’t think we’ve mentioned this before, but we recently had a really lovely long and delicious Thai meal at the Basement Thai Restaurant in Ashbourne. It is tiny, more or less underground, and John and I didn’t even know it existed until we were taken there by friends a couple of weeks ago. They don’t appear to have a website, but the telephone no. is 01335 300 305. You can order a take away but not a home delivery even if you live in Ashbourne. The address is Middle Cale, St John’s Street, Ashbourne DE6 1GP

Tom’s Barn News Catch-up

The days have hurtled by in a flurry of trying to sort out our email crisis and getting our tax returns done by the end of the month. Thanks to a lot of help from Aaron at Dove Computers in Ashbourne, and Jeremy Brough our website wizard, the email situation is more or less restored; in the end 401 emails poured through the system at once so it is taking some time sorting through them all and hoping not too many are seriously urgent.

And as for meeting that menacing tax return deadline of Jan 31, yes, we have, just…. but at some cost to a relaxing state of mind, and to the total exclusion of more interesting things like keeping the blog up to date.

Before you feel too sorry for us, there have been some light interludes and quite a lot of fun squeezed in beside the headaches. We were lucky enough to get tickets to Matilda in Stratford, having a light supper beforehand in the River restaurant high up in the new  RST building which was very atmospheric (and convenient).

Matilda was a joy! At least a third of the cast are young children, but so skilled and so well trained – they sang and danced and spoke like pros three times their age. Miss Trunchbull the ghastly headteacher  (not a child!) was wonderfully dreadful, too, but it would be hard to pick out any one individual. The show ends in Stratford at the end of he month, but no doubt will be going to London or on tour, so if you get a chance – book early!

The first snowdrops of the year at Orchard Farm

Both photos were taken today, Wednesday January 19th – the first full moon of the year, and much more significantly, the first snowdrops of the year at Orchard Farm.

Aren’t these snowdrops lovely?  And would you say they were flowering? Certainly almost, and it is a very heartening sight to see all these clusters of snowdrops by our front door competing to show their beautiful faces and send their promise that spring will come eventually.

John took this photo this morning, and on the way back from Derby by the light of the full moon (at 5.30pm!) we stopped the car for him to take another photo, of the moon over Carsington Water. That too looked very beautiful.

We had paid a quick visit to Derby to buy various things for the barns (champagne flutes for both barns and new kitchen chair cushions for Tom’s Barn amongst other rather bulky items). Rather more excitingly, we also met up with some friends to see The King’s Speech in the very super-plush new cinema in the Derby Westfield Centre. We don’t often go to the cinema apart from Parwich’s own in the new village hall, but this was a real treat. We thought the film quite excellent.

All the while I am resisting mentioning the tax (still not done) and the email crisis (still not resolved) but both things are receiving attention.

The sun shone, but not such a good day for some

The snowdrops are ALMOST out. One could call it out, but they aren’t quite in full bloom.That’s the good news.

Now for the rest. Not such a good day today. I got up at 5.30 to finish as I fondly hoped our tax accounts for the end of the year (deadline end of Jan but they have to go to our lovely accountant, Yvonne, first; every year I think I will get them all done for her by May at the latest and every year we reach January and do them in a stressful flurry…).

Full of remorse, recriminations and some optimistic hopes (see above) I switched on the computer to check emails and get going. No emails, no calendar, no contacts, no address book, just a gushing welcome to me as a new much valued Entourage member (the Mac equivalent of Outlook) with a warm invitation to watch a video to see how to get started and make the most of Entourage. Not what one wants to see as a seasoned user, and at 5.30 in the morning.

And yes, I have set up an ongoing backup system now (talk about stable doors and bolting horses). But please, if you have sent an email and get no response, please try again, or better still ring, on 01335 390 519.

Somehow, somehow, I had done something last night (what, I do not know) to erase absolutely everything off Entourage. As one can’t normally even delete one email without being asked if that it really what one wants to do, how can anyone unknowingly, without any warning, delete absolutely everything without a single warning that this is what is gong to happen? And what did I do?

I couldn’t even email our computer support team at Dove Computers in Ashbourne, so had to wait until 9 this morning to speak to Aaron. Needless to say, Aaron  is as perplexed as we are, but has been able to re establish our email account, and emails (some emails) from the last few days came flooding through. He also managed to restore old contacts etc (I had not backed up recently;  I always will from now on. Let this be a warning.

So far, things are half better but very very far from good. Very fortunately our online booking system and all emails coming from there are unaffected, coming through a completely different route; I can send emails but only receive a few. On my Blackberry I am getting most which is a great relief, but typing longish responses is not so easy on a mobile phone…

So here I am, feeling better than this morning (a jolly evening with my book club did a lot to restore equanimity) but far from confident. Aaron meanwhile is hoping to get some help from Microsoft about our problem so I trust, no doubt after a few  more lengthy remote sessions, things may look up a little. I may never restore all the old emails; I only kept important ones but they were neatly filed – and were important –  so my total efficiency in the immediate future is going to take some extra effort!

Marmalade

It’s that time of year again, although I must admit since our bright idea of popping a jar into the barns for our guests we have found ourselves making batches every couple of months throughout the year.

Failing Seville oranges we’ve used grapefruit, limes and lemon which does make a delicious marmalade.

However, there is nothing to beat marmalade made with fresh Seville oranges, and even better – organic ones from Spain via Riverford. We have been hard at it, and will be making several more batches to keep up with the barns supply plus our own and the family’s consumption.

It’s amazing how quickly a pot can go down. It all tastes so fresh and almost bitter – it’s better to forget how many kilos of sugar go into each making.

Last Minute Availability

LAST MINUTE AVAILABILITY Mon 17 to Fri 21 JAN!!

Can you drop everything and come tomorrow for a last minute 4-night midweek treat for £245 (was £315)? We don’t often reduce prices so this is a one-off opportunity!

We don’t often have last minute availability but we have this week – Mon 17 to Fri 21 Jan  – that is, four nights starting tomorrow, in Douglas’s Barn…!

Jason our decorator has been doing  some routine touching up in both  this week  but will be finished by tomorrow lunch time;  the fridge that temporarily but very definitely gave up the ghost on Christmas Eve is due finally to be repaired tomorrow morning sand it suddenly looks as if the midweek slot will easily be available and we can advertise it with confidence..

How anyone could possibly turn their life around quickly enough to come away at such short notice would beat John and me, but we know that some people just are that efficient and speedy at taking up sudden chances and acting on them. It will be interesting to see if anyone can be tempted – and find it possible (a different thing altogether)  – to take up this opportunity. In fact, if anyone is that organised, we’ll be happy to leave them a bottle of superior fizz as well, as a prize for being impressively efficient.

if nobody has responded by late tonight we’ll take the date off availability -we need to know by breakfasr time tomorrow so we can get everything shipshape in time. (If we weren’t in the middle of rather feverishly doing our tax returns and making mammoth amounts of marmalade, we’d be very tempted to move in to Douglas’s barn ourselves.)