Monday Email and Weather Update

10.30am Disregard all below: we are back in email contact with a mass of delayed emails thronging in. How we do rely on technology these days, and how vulnerable when it breaks down.

What us more it has stopped snowing and the sun is shining. (The snow we love, it’s just a worry on changeover day.)

8.30am After all the excitements of the past few days, reality bites. We are out of email contact and the sun is not shining!

Firstly, we have an email crisis: our system has been down since just after 4pm yesterday, Sunday 28/11/2010.

Last night Demon was ‘working on the problem’ and this morning they still are. The Help Desk assured John a few minutes ago that they are near to success. How near is near? we wonder with some anxiety.

Please still use the telephone 01335 390 519 or my mobile which I will try to leave on a windowsill most likely to receive a signal, 07813 68 68 99. OR try emailing johnfullersessions745@googlemail.com

Now for a weather update: A few minutes ago snow was falling but it didn’t last long so we think/hope it was a flurry rather than the beginning of another proper snowfall. Today’s guests should be fine, and don’t forget, if you don’t fancy the last slope we will come down and help you cart up your belongings and ensure you are safely and happily installed in your barn.

Orchard Farm update

You might imagine from the long silence that John and I had embarked on another little series of holiday jaunts, possibly to sunnier climes, but no such luck. We have been firmly and happily rooted here, but very busily so.

Two more village funerals, one of which was for poor Janet’s father, who has not been well for some time but will be very much missed by his family who had all given him much time, care and devotion doing all they could to keep him at home. His dread, like many people of his ilk, my father Douglas included, was that he should have to end his days in hospital. I’m happy to say that neither of our fathers did.

As well as such sad occasions we have as always had much pleasure and enjoyment running our two  holiday cottages. (It seems funny calling our two lovely and rather special barn conversions ‘cottages’, but there you go, as they say…) One of the reasons we enjoy it so much is because we are fortunate enough always to have such lovely, appreciative guests. And at the moment, with short breaks the order of the day, we are seeing twice as many as we do during the summer.

The other thing which is occupying much time and no little concentration as well, is the run up to the DRCS Comic Revue, the first performance of which is this very Saturday. The synchronised mopping routine I and our little team of four have got down to a T; the thing that I am having most heartache over is voice projection in the skit John and I do together.

The second performance of our Comic Revue is in a very large hall in Ashover with I think no sound amplification. John’s words come all from behind a newspaper, he having established a complete inability (unwillingness) to learn any words. He has the extra advantage of a strong voice that carries well so he has little to worry him whereas I am struggling under a double set of disadvantages…but will no doubt survive. The whole thing is a lot of fun, anyway.

Champagne & Chocolate for lucky Douglas’s Barn guests

Way back last January the local Peak District Premier Cottages owners (there are eighteen of us, all with Five and top-level Four Star Holiday cottages) arranged an email campaign to about 6,000 of our joint contacts reminding everyone of the joys of visiting our cottages in the spring.  A prize of chocolates and champagne was offered to the first people to book a holiday in any one of our cottages (over 50 between us all).

And we are delighted to say that the first people to book were Michael and Julie, who booked a weekend here in Douglas’s Barn; rather than opting for a spring break, they decided to come here in the late autumn and are staying here now! We didn’t tell them of their prize – so having purchased a box of Belgian chocolates and laid some very nice champagne on ice in Douglas’s Barn we awaited their arrival with some excitement.

Of course they were fairly amazed, and very delighted. They admitted that they, like probably most of us, usually mistrusted tempting promises of prizes such as this, so they were delighted to discover that when Premier promises things they do happen!

TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence for Tom’s & Douglas’s Barns

Through the post the other day came this most impressive certificate from TripAdvisor, accompanied by a letter congratulating us on achieving “one of the most powerful recommendations – the endorsement of other guests“.

John has photocopied the certificate (we were only sent one) and we have proudly put one in each of our two holiday cottages. We are really delighted to have received such nice reviews and are very grateful to those guests who have submitted them. Mostly we have no idea who you are, so please accept our genuinely humble thanks.

However delighted we are, we are well aware that one can never sit back on any laurels that might come one’s way. We do genuinely want to provide the ‘best holiday ever’ to quote a certain recent video and are always trying to think of what next we can do to make your holiday even more satisfying/relaxing/memorable etc. On the whole, unless we are responding to a specific suggestion our philosophy is rather self-indulgent – we are always trying to think of what we ourselves would love to find in the holiday cottage of our dreams (haven’t found it yet…).

Fortunately so far we all seem to be on more or less the same sort of wave-length. Please tell us if/when we start to lose it.

Autumn at Orchard Farm

All around us the leaves are just beginning to turn and everywhere is looking very beautiful.

John took this photo this morning and I couldn’t resist sharing it here although it does look better on the big screen and even better in real life!

We’ve picked the last of our damsons, are doing our best to cope with the apples and have a massive harvest of grossly overgrown courgettes.

Orchard Farm Updates

This will be a rather bitty little piece, with odds and ends of news tying up ends.

Firstly, the DRCS Shopping Fair mentioned a couple of weeks ago was a great success, raising an amazing £5,000 for the Derwent Rural Counselling Service that we, the Friends of DRCS, support. It was hard work, but great fun and there is many a household locally where the Christmas shopping has been at least started very painlessly; as many more households it must be said where the inhabitants are suddenly sporting some rather fetching new garments.

And now to the DRCS Comic Revue, to be held on Saturday 13th November at the Medway in Bakewell and then again on Friday 26th November at the Ashover  Parish Hall. It should be excellent although it must be said John’s and my sketch is in slight doubt unless I get get my moves and words finer tuned! Even the rehearsals are great fun which must be a good sign.

And finally, we have just returned from the Premier Cottages AGM which proved to be an excellent two day stint (with a very pleasant candlelit dinner on the Sunday night. It is a great opportunity to meet up with local colleagues who have all become friends and holiday cottage owners from all over the British Isles. Lots of exciting ideas emerged during the meetings and we all came away feeling very enthused. Let’s hope Cameron’s cuts don’t prevent everyone from going away for a few special days of rest and relaxation in the Peak District (there’s not much sign yet!).

Bloomsbury meets Krakow

It is nearly a month now since we returned from our amazing introduction to Poland, and Krakow in particular, where we went to attend the opening of the exhibition British Bohemia: The Bloomsbury Circle of Virginia Woolf in the International Cultural Centre, arranged by our friend Tony Bradshaw of the Bloomsbury Workshop.

Tony ia specialist in the work of the Bloomsbury Group and has many friends and contacts in that world, so there were over 80 works of art and books, many in private ownership and not normally available to the general public, from Canada ant d the USA as well as Britain. Everything was beautifully exhibited, with the rooms at Charleston, the home and country meeting place for many members of the Bloomsbury carefully created so that for those that knew the house, it was extremely powerful.

We felt very privileged to be part of the gathering, being one of the few total hangers on!  We met up with a number of old friends from university days, members of Vanessa Bell’s family, librarians and owners of original works of art…

The opening and reception took up half of our three days; on the other two and a half days we packed in a great deal; we managed to explore just some of the delights of the ancient city of Krakow, we went to Auschwitz which was very sobering – we felt everyone should go there, to see what man is capable of doing to man and how a repeat must be prevented at all costs… We also went on a highly informative and entertaining ‘communist tour’ to Nova Huta, the communist showpiece town built round the famous steelworks where Lech Walesaa the great trades union and social rights activist lived and worked worked. We developed just some awareness of the changes and pressures and hardships that the Polish people have experienced over the centuries.

We stayed in a charming hotel called the Grodek (so good we actually did a rave TripAdvisor review!) and came away determined to return as soon as possible (and to take only hand luggage if we ever fly Ryanair again).

The Wildest Dream is now here!

Just to let you know that The Wildest Dream is now showing in a number of cinemas (and is actually coming to Derby next week). Some of you may remember that we went to the premier in March, in London – I don’t quite know what the delay has been but we certainly will go again.

We are certainly biased, because our daughter Ruth works for Atlantic Productions and has been heavily involved in the background although not actually filming I must admit, nor going up Everest; even so – in spite of the bias – I think it a memorable film, interesting in many ways and on different levels and would urge anyone to see it who has the chance.

Let us know what you think if you do go.

Celebrate New Year in Douglas’s Barn

What a treat for someone!

Do you fancy a memorable week in Douglas’s Barn at the end of the year, seeing out 2010 and welcoming 2011?

We have just learned this evening that the week is unexpectedly available again, having been booked for months by the same couple as came last year and had so wanted to repeat their happy time.

Unfortunately they suddenly find themselves unable to come here after all and we – having turned away goodness knows how many enquiries – are suddenly faced with a prime blank week on offer. What a chance for someone!

Our New Year week this year goes from Wed 29 December until Wed 5 January. The price, all found, is £555; we don’t on principle put the price up from our normal High Season rate for Christmas, New Year or indeed any of our Bank Holidays.

We would normally advertise the fact on our website too, but my laptop has been in a prolonged internet sulk since the Apple Macs arrived and refuses to connect in spite of all inducements. At present the laptop is the only computer from which we can edit the main website, as against the blog which is in WordPress so the only thing  we can do is to tell the world via our blog…

That will all change the minute Jeremy our webman returns home from Spain (next week) and moves the whole website over to WordPress, but, meanwhile, we are left powerless and unable to write a single word on the website.

It will be intriguing to see how long we wait before the week is snaffled up. It is a bit late but there is always likely to be someone who hasn’t found that perfect place yet and Douglas’s Barn might just turn out to be what they were waiting for. Let’s hope so.

Andrew Robinson’s funeral in Parwich

Today was a sad day in Parwich, when over 300 family members, friends, colleagues and neighbours crowded into the church to say farewell to Andrew Robinson, a much loved and respected member of the village who died recently after a short but serious illness.

He had been a successful prep school headmaster, a very talented sportsman, a lay reader in the church here and a committed family man who will be much missed.

Once again in its short life the new village hall was filled to capacity after the funeral when everyone at the service was invited by Andrew’s widow, Rachel, and their family to a delicious tea.

For any of our guests who may have met him or perhaps been to church when he was taking a service, and who would like more information no doubt there will be soon be a much longer piece on the Parwich Blog