Enjoying the Fun of Facebook

Half the time I really don’t quite know what I’m doing and certainly not what Facebook is doing when I post a photo and it flies off and then back without so much as a by-your-leave John’s recent dragonfly picture which in fact I shall pin up here where I know it won’t fly away) rather appropriately kept flitting off and back onto the page!)

So rather wisely, I arranged for some one-to-one coaching on the art of Facebook – you may remember my mentioning the fact. This I had very recently, from an excellent teacher, Martin Broadhurst, from Status Social, who incidentally, I am more than happy to recommend to anyone who needs professional help to enjoy making the best use of ‘Social Media’ at the right level for one’s own purpose.

Our purpose for our Tom’s Barn and Douglas’s Barn Facebook page first and foremost is a fairly innocuous one – to create a fun, informative, easily accessible meeting place for friends, guests and possible future guests to ‘meet’ and see what is happening, keep up with the news, enjoy John’s photos (mine are pretty workaday but useful sometimes!) and make the odd contribution themselves. We love our web site, and try to keep that up to date and lively; and i really enjoy our blog. To a large extent we have the same aims for that, but inevitably the website and blog is much larger and more cumbersome and people seem strangely unprepared to add comments to blog posts (although the number of times I get emails or remarks in person from people commenting on them are too many to be counted, frustratingly!).

Anyway, back to business…. For business purposes, I learn that one needs even in Facebook to spread the word, although in our case we are not looking for immediate bookings as we are pretty well booked up. And in order to spread the word we need to generate more ‘Likes’. At this point I have said to Martin on more than one occasion, that we are quite content with people liking us only/if they really do but this is being rather precious and very short sighted (my words, Martin is far too polite to put it like that).

How does one get more Likes? Goodness knows without paying for them!! (Which I am told can be done but needless to say we wouldn’t consider that.) Martin has suggested that I post a general statement that we are hoping for more Likes (a bit like begging one’s school friends to be your best friend which is so long ago I can’t remember if I ever did). It will be equally mortifying as for any rejected child to have no takers but we’re adult and won’t the it too personally.

A real case of not practising what we preach.- have you noticed that there is no invitation at the end of a blog post to ‘Like it on Facebook’? I have now sent on SOS to Jeremy-our-wonderful-webman so all being well that will be rectified soon.

Tom’s Barn: Plumber’s Playground

Some of you may have puzzled but others were quicker to identify on our Facebook page a strange and rather bad (not John’s) photo of what could have been Humpy Dumpty, with a sticker on it saying “Hope this does the trick, Kate and Andrew”. It did arouse quite a lot of interest before one of our Tom’s Barn guests guessed what it might be and I was able to explain that Kate and Andrew, who – having experienced, as many have before them, the slithery nature of a series of Tom’s Barn loo seats – had most thoughtfully sent us from Devon a model they hope may prove to be more satisfactory. Many of you will understand why we were so grateful and also have reason to be grateful; meanwhile were we pleased at the thought that we might at last be going to solve this perennial problem and were waiting anxiously for the chance on Friday to attach it.

We thought we were ticking off a plumbing worry. But you never know what’s round the corner, and there was a far bigger anxiety looming. Twenty four hours of drying out pillows and washing, drying (and ironing yet to come) of previously beautifully laundered bedding later, I can tell you about it. And I still haven’t finished the washing.

What on earth happened, you may wonder? Normally on a Friday we get up bright and early, I make the ‘cake of the day’ for our guests, John fetches the logs for Tom’s Barn and empties the bins, I finish off any ironing that’s needed for the changeover and by 10am when our guests leave we are ready to face another changeover and all that might involve. At 8am yesterday morning the phone rang and Bill in Tom’s Barn broke the news that they had discovered there been a serious leak overnight, from the water tank. The water had drizzled steadily but silently, quietly soaking into four complete sets of beautifully laundered bedlinen and four sets of spare towels, and some pillows, and the new carpet below.

Our guests had only discovered when they had gone to the airing cupboard as they packed. They had done all the right things like instantly turning off the water and kindly removing many of the soaking sheets to the bathroom. Thank you Bill and Barbara – it was hardly the relaxed ending to a great stay! After they left, Roger our plumber, arrived pretty soon after to discover it was merely one tiny perished washer which had been the cause of this flood. He was able to replace it very quickly, and also to fit the seat so that was a bonus, to have it fitted professionally.

Dealing with all the soaking bedding is an ongoing story. Eight loads of washing, drying and potential ironing later we still have more previously immaculately laundered sets of bedding to rewash and iron. I wish we had taken a photo between us but it wouldn’t have been a very encouraging one. However, although O might be having a good moan, we are well aware it could have been much worse. Nothing was stained and thanks to the water being well absorbed by everything in the airing cupboard – and, admittedly, the carpet – the water didn’t come through kitchen ceiling; the damage could have been much worse.

As Bill and Barbara said their farewell, Barbara asked if at moments like this we felt it was all worth it, and we were able to say, quite genuinely, that yes, it was! And if that isn’t tempting fate, what is…?

1843 Where is Douglas’s Barn?

Like many of you, we have long wondered at the quirky shape and angles of Douglas’s Barn, and also admired the unusual way our house, Douglas’s Barn and Tom’s Barn are angled gently round what was once the farmyard and what we should perhaps try now to call the ‘courtyard’ to give it a more elegant ring.

Last night we went to a village event in the Memorial Hall, and were most intrigued to see a copy of the 1843 Tithe map of Parwich. There is more information about it, and the first Census of 1841, in the Parwich Local History Society newsletter No. 3. Funnily enough, in this newsletter there is also a photo of the section of the map that shows Orchard Farm…

There it is, in the middle of the photo, section 208. You’ll notice two possibly confusing changes. Firstly, the plot is bigger because in the 1960s or perhaps 1970s the then owner of Orchard Farm sold two plots of land where the bungalows next door now stand. Of course also there is no Dutch Haybarn, rusty and ancient looking now, but not that ancient!

Then, there is Orchard Farm house on the map, with Tom’s Barn to the side, quite separate. Between them is an empty space. We always guessed that it might have been a fairly adhoc addition by some farmer owner who needed more shelter for his cows, but we didn’t know for sure. Now we have proof, but we still don’t know when. It is intriguing: when was Douglas’s Barn built?

So, whatever happens, Douglas’s Barn is post 1843 so we can’t call it an 18th century cowshed any more, although no doubt we can its older brother. From all the Censuses since 1841 and our title deeds we have plenty of facts about the people, but not about the buildings. Maybe one day we’ll discover more.

Living it up in London

Hanging my head in shame at the long silence. We’ve been busy but that is no excuse as my headmistress would have said, ‘It is just a case of being organised”. Organised I obviously am not, but we have been happily busy and I am sticking to that as an excuse.explanation.

We went down to London last week, John on the Wednesday as he had a rather nostalgic and fun cricket club reunion dinner at Lords to attend. I joined him on Friday evening, when as far as I was concerned the family/friends/fun began. On the Friday evening we went to see for the second time – last time in Scarborough – Alan Ayckbourn’s latest play, Neighbourhood Watch, in which Frances Grey, a Douglas’s Barn guest, was unrecognisable playing – most convincingly – the part of Amy , the seductress wife of the hapless Gareth. Then on Saturday afternoon seven of us trooped off to the Aldwych to see Tom Chambers (again) in Top Hat. Having toured the provinces for six months this is their London premiere. The theatre was packed and the audience wonderfully appreciative – as far as one could see the production was faultless.

My only problem was the person on my left sang her way through every piece, quite loud and more than quite out of tune. Pointed looks from several of us did nothing to dim her enthusiasm so we just had to try to not let it bother us too much.

The dancing is terrific, so slick, and all the dancers manage to look as if they were really enjoying it; Tom was saying they really do when the audience is responsive. How they all but Tom in particular, manage to sing and dance non stop without ever faltering is most impressive. When we saw Tom at the stage door afterwards he looked as fresh as if he had just woken up from a thoroughly refreshing nap! And he had to go through it all again that evening.

Drinks at a friend’s house afterwards and an Indian meal for us all, then brunch with another friend the next door and we felt thoroughly relaxed. Then reality struck and the bubble was burst. A text from Janet let us know that the power had gone off in Parwich. Having just had a 15-hour cut only a few weeks ago, we assumed this one couldn’t possibly rival that, but…it did. We got back at 7ish to find Parwich plunged in darkness and the house pretty cold. Our Tom’s Barn guests were pretty cheery because of course they had the log burner and they had arranged to have dinner at a pub, but the Douglas’s Barn guests were very glad to huddle up with us in our house, all in our anoraks, and valiantly consume pizza and red wine to combat the cold. In fact so jolly it was that when the lights came on at about 10ish everything looked so bright and garish we promptly turned them off again and reverted thankfully to candlelight.
These days we are all so dependent on electricity, it is very salutary every so often to have to cope without emails, (digital) phones not to mention lighting and heating. computers, kettles and toasters. But not for ever.

‘The Magnificent Charity Walk’

Their description, not mine (and the sheep don’t seem that impressed) although it does feel rather good to have completed a ‘magnificent walk’; we’ll gloss quickly over the fact it was only 7 miles long. Let’s face it, the 67 year old man who did 21 miles in just over five hours, jogging down all the hills, and the hills were steeply steep, is more impressive.

The Friends of the Peak District had organised a great charity walking event last Sunday to raise funds for their work supporting the Peak District, with apparently over 200 adults and children taking part. There were various possibilities other than the 21 mile walk. Daughter Ruthie was up from London and she and I opted to do the seven miles one, John preferring to potter about with his camera and (too heavy for long distance walking) lens hoping to get some good bird shots, which he didn’t.

The images convey some of the beauty, they don’t convey so well the ‘up, up, up’ height one climbs.

Ruth and I were however quite delighted with our choice. We arrived late but that didn’t seem to matter. The scenery was truly magnificent, and so was the weather and we both felt it would be a walk many of our guests would probably love too so I will write it up and put it in the WALKS file in the barns. It is worth saying, the walk would not be pleasant if the weather was very wet or windy.

I should have an OS Map in front of me as I write, but I haven’t so will have to rely on my very unscientific description. The walk we did started from Thornbridge Hall, but could just as conveniently be started from the Hassop Station Bookshop on the Hassop roundabout just north of Bakewell, or for a slightly shorter version beginning/ending near a very popular eatery, the Monsal Head Hotel. Both these options would mean one could very conveniently park nearby.

Part of the walk is on the Monsal Trail before – after going through one of the tunnels and crossing a viaduct – one veers off left to start on a large loop ‘off-piste’ up (and up and up) to Brushfield and High Dale, and then down again to meet the River Wye and the Trail before a final steep climb to the Monsal Head Hotel. They must do a roaring trade with hungry, thirsty wakers celebrating the end of their hike.

Ruthie and I had to resist this particular lure, and that of the Packhorse at Little Longstone which did look very inviting, to meet up with John and various friends and colleagues who had also been walking but had all been back some time (we did start rather late…). Even the relaxed looking 67 year old who’d run 21 miles in 5 hours was back, almost limbering up for the next run…

The Scarlet Letter: A Good Read?

In our house we have more paintings and pictures than wall space. We have nothing valuable in money terms but all valuable in what each picture means to us; I could say the same about books. I put some of my favourite books on the bookshelves in the barns for our guests to enjoy and many of them tell us how much they do. We have bookshelves in every room in the house, with books lined two deep and in untidy piles everywhere. And they keep coming in as we buy them, get given them and the Parwich Five book club that four friends and I have belonged to for over 20 years means there has been at least one more new book every month which makes over 240 in all.

There are many joys about our book club. It is small so we all get a voice in; we all read voraciously and we all come at the books from a different angle. One of us is American, I was born and brought up (and educated) in central Africa, two of us had very strict convent type eductions, the youngest is the same age as the oldest’s daughter. We have very lively – fun and interesting – discussions and agree to disagree without hurt or reproach although funnily enough on the whole we seem to be in general agreement; the best discussions are when we don’t!

Usually, we all find that even if a book doesn’t appeal at first, after a certain number of pages (there’s meant to be a magical number) often to one’s surprise one begins to enjoy it and sometime by the end one is completely won over. Our latest read, chosen by American Deb in response to our request for an American classic, was the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. To our shame the rest of us had not read it and knew little about the background whereas to Debbie it was a familiar, well-loved classic, taught in every school and part of everyone’s background. Just as she had struggled with Trollope so well-known and familiar to us, so we all struggled with Hawthorne, and only partly because The Scarlet Letter was a deceptively tiny book with print as minute as a Bible’s so not relaxing to read at the end of a long day.

However, after our discussion and Debbie’s surprised reaction that we had not enjoyed it at all, at least two of us have decided we ought to read it again, trying to get beyond the ponderous style and very depressing 17C Puritanism and think more about the (equally depressing) underlying themes of guilt, remorse and redemption. On a more positive note, Hester Prynne, the heroine, is a very strong and courageous woman, and her daughter Pearl an almost alarmingly free ‘free spirit’ presumably because they had been set apart from society so did not have to obey its conventions. Pearl having been born out of wedlock her mother Hester narrowly escaped being executed for the social crime but instead had to live as an outcast, with a scarlet letter A pinned to her chest to mark her out as an adultress.

Our next book will be a complete change: ‘Call the Midwife’ by Jennifer Worth, which has recently been serialised very successfully on telly.

Blue Tits on the Move

Four photos from John who is still working hard on mastering his new camera, new lens and most significantly,  trying to capture little birds in fast flight.

Not easy.

Relaxing at Orchard Farm: What Not to Do

This will be very speedy, unadorned by photos of birds, in flight or otherwise: it is a merely a short and happy post just to say hello again. I feel as if I have been under a stone for the past fortnight and now I have emerged. This will probably turn out to be one of those blog posts which serve no better purpose than to make me feel better when I have written it.

What not to do if you want to relax here, or indeed anywhere, is embark on a massive marmalade making exercise half way through January just as you realise there is several months of catching up to do before being anywhere near meeting the dreaded January 31 panic deadline for tax returns. Neither Seville Oranges nor her Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs or whatever they call themselves now will wait.

Bleary eyed and dreary has it been but we are almost there! And suddenly life has begun to feel positively cheerful again. There is still another four loads of marmalade to go but that is no hardship, especially when compared with spreadsheets of figures that start to make even less sense than they once did. We have such a good recipe I have started using now, with less sugar than conventionally so the end result is just how we like it and we hope our guests all do too, pleasantly sharp and very orange-y. It probably helps having very fresh, organic (Riverford) oranges too.

There is a sting in the tail; wait for it… Returning from Pilates this evening, chatting with a friend as we strolled home in the dark and starlit night (any sign – we thought there might be a hint – of the northern lights?) everything seemed delightfully calm. The newly restored sense of peace and equanimity received an unexpected blow. A telephone message from a Visit Britain Quality in Tourism inspector let us know she was hoping to arrange an inspection of both barns, tomorrow!!!

We managed to suggest that Wednesday would suit everyone better. The barns are spotless already and there’s nothing to worry about there apart from the fact the previous inspector said we ought to supply small tumblers as well as regular ones and as that didn’t seem a big priority we had put that chore to the very back of our minds; the lamp shade over Tom’s Barn kitchen table has cracked so we need to replace that, smartish.

Slightly more worryingly, there’s a lot of paper work that needs to be tackled too – policies and inventories and a summary of any new purchases and improvements made since the last inspection so it looks like tomorrow will be another busy day. We’ll get there – and it is always better to work under pressure…

How not to relax!

Some Fantastic Guests’ Photos

Fantastic guests or fantastic photos? Both, actually! Unfortunately I haven’t yet mastered how to put more than a few photos on at once so here is a very small selection coming with a big thank you to Arwel and Zoe. We do love sharing our guests’ photos so please never feel shy about emailing them; we put them all in the ‘Your Photos‘ section of the Tom’s Barn Gallery (see green link above). As you will see, I haven’t mastered how to organise this very well, but the photos are still there to be seen and enjoyed, if not the design of the gallery admired.

There are several more including a wonderful sunrise pic, which is quite my favourite but you’ll have to wait a bit for that.

How Friendly is Dog-Friendly Tom’s Barn?

We love dogs, and their owners, and we welcome dogs to Tom’s Barn, warmly and almost unconditionally. However, we do always stipulate ‘well-behaved’ and we do politely suggest that they don’t go upstairs or onto the furniture (unless it is adequately protected by dust sheets and old curtains which we do provide).

So, what is this all leading up to? And, no, we haven’t had a bad experience, not for a long time… What is worrying us is that on Wednesday we are having a carpet laid! Carpet, up the stairs and in the Tom’s Barn bedroom and no… we didn’t really want to do this having always tried as hard as we can to keep our two barns as charmingly ‘barnlike’ as we can rather than what in the circumstances would feel to us to be overdressed and inappropriate.

So what has brought on the astonishing change of mind you may wonder? Well, it’s status seeking, no less, or perhaps, status retaining. As you know, both our barns are annually inspected and given 5 Stars with a coveted Gold Award. In Tom’s Barn this is quite an achievement, accepting dogs as we do (although by no means all our loyal and lovely Tom’s Barn guests have dogs) and we are determined not to risk losing it, nor do we ever want to threaten the pleasure of any guest coming without a dog. At our last QiT (Quality in Tourism) inspection we were warned in no uncertain terms that to retain our Five Star status we had to do something about the wooden surface of both the stairs (bad, thanks to occasional sharp and slithering dogs’ claws) and the bedroom floor (mostly just general wear and tear and countless moppings but also what can only be the odd doggie claw mark).

We consulted Jason our decorator, David our joiner and various other experts who know about these things, hoping against hope that someone would have an attractive and workable solution. Very very reluctantly we have come to see that short of serious structural and extremely expensive reflooring which anyway would be impossible to achieve with little likelihood of a long enough gap in our wall-to-wall bookings which we can’t disrupt the only reasonable solution is what we hope will be attractive and hard-wearing carpet.

So three burly carpet layers from Nutts Carpets of Clay Cross are coming on Wednesday to lay the carpet. I say burly, but of course they may all be wiry and slim but what we do know is that they will be strong and they will be skilled because they will have to lay the carpet with the enormously heavy bed in situ; they also have the central pillar to work around. It won’t be a simple job. Guests are coming on Friday and everything has got to be spick and span and spotless so the pressure is on for the poor carpet layers and for us.

And once the carpet is down for all sorts of obvious reasons we will not want dogs up the stairs or in the bedroom, please. I know most people wouldn’t dream of letting their dog upstairs, here or at home but we do understand that for some dogs it is difficult: there is no door you can firmly shut and if they can hear and see you upstairs they may find it hard to understand that they aren’t welcome. Fortunately we now have a permanent stair gate and we do ask your cooperation not just for our peace of mind but for all our guests as well, those with dogs and those without.

John this evening took a few before shots of the carpetless wooden surfaces; all being well tomorrow we shall have some after pictures which we will all be happy with!