Peak Park Perfect

When Simon Tyler of Highlight Media produced our main video a month or so ago, we really wanted to give everyone a flavour of both our barns and their setting, so everyone could have an idea of what they ere coming to in the widest sense.

We ended up having to jettison an awful lot of what we now call ‘footage’ but even so we ended up with a six minute video, which is long by modern standards.

This seemed such a waste, so we came up with the idea of using some of the scenes we had had to cut in the interests of brevity and viewers’ boredom threshold in a second shorter video which would concentrate solely on the barns and their immediate surroundings. It is short and snappy to an extreme.

It is very new, not yet up on our website, but you can take a look by clicking on this Peak Park Perfect link or by going to the Tom’s Barn YouTube channel.

Let us know what you think but don’t embarrass me by commenting on my voice or my delivery. It’s already perpetual cringe for me…

Pottering on the Broads – Report

Safely back from four wonderfully relaxing days on the Norfolk Broads with our very good and very old (as in long standing rather than ancient) friends, Erica and Colin.

We arrived on Monday afternoon to be warned to seek shelter as soon as we took over our cruiser ‘Glittering Light’ from the Herbert Woods boatyard at Potter Heigham. We were advised to stop for the night in a sheltered spot as far out of the (Force 7/8) winds as possible. This we eventually managed to do, but the trouble was everybody else had been given the same advice so it took some time to find a suitable resting place.

Having survived remarkably peacefully the gale force winds on Monday night, Tuesday dawned so still that sailing was out of the question. Thereafter we experienced every type of weather apart from hail and snow – pouring rain, drizzle and seriously warm sunshine when the Factor 50 came into its own.

We had a sail on Barton Broad, but mostly were simply pottering about on the water, stopping occasionally to walk or  explore, and enjoying the flights of geese over the water, herons and kingfishers (but no otters). Everything is wonderfully peaceful and quiet, particularly when any speed over 4MPH is over the top.

We had the odd drink in a pub and enjoyed some excellent food cooked in the fairly restricting galley where we longed for some of the Tom’s and Douglas’s Barn kitchen utensils; we did not even have a wooden spoon, but we coped successfully in a fairly Heath Robinsonish, making-do way.

Some raucous games of Oh Hell! were played, and many reminiscences shared. So nothing too dramatic and the whole a very happy experience for us all.

Boating on the Broads and Art Exhibitions in Poland

We are becoming rather excitingly nomadic for the next fortnight or so but fortunately the barns are remaining exactly as they always are and everything at Orchard Farm will carry on as normal under the capable hands of 0ur faithful team of supporters – Janet, Debbie and Carol, joined now from time to time by Mary who as well as cleaning like a dream is a whizz at tough jobs in the garden than no one else dares tackle.

Everything here remains reassuringly the same with two exceptions. Unless I can master how to send posts from the Norfolk Broads – and then – even trickier – Poland, the Tomsbarnblog will remain perhaps blissfully silent for a fortnight or so with maybe a brief news update at the weekend. Secondly, we will be able to take bookings as usual but not process card payments until we return – I don’t expect that will worry too many people either.

We will still – signals in Norfolk and Poland permitting –  be in email and mobile phone contact.   So, if you are waiting impatiently to pay, or to read the latest exciting post in the blog, ‘Please ‘bear with us’ as those dreadful recorded telephonic messages repeat interminably.

Please bear with us.

Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns New Video

Our new video has at last been released on the unsuspecting public!

Apart from self-conscious squirming on my behalf every time my voice starts we are very pleased with it and hope that you will all like it and find it helpful.

Simon Tyler of Highlight Media, helped by his son, Mike,  has worked extremely hard to show guests coming to our barns for the first time what they can hope to expect,  with a glimpse  or two inside the barns and a little taster of what there is to see and do outside.

There is so much else we could have shown – in fact more was cut than ever made it to the final edition – but short of showing a week-long video (and even that wouldn’t be long enough) one has to make do with a few minutes…

We do harbour a secret hope that we may be able to produce a few more short fairly informative but hopefully reasonably entertaining videos in the near future. We have yet to purchase the camcorder let alone how to do it so it won’t be happening immediately.

Meanwhile, do have a look, for nostalgia or information or both…

Is this how to get Six Stars?

Dudley, who stayed in Tom’s Barn  a couple of weeks ago, posted a charming and very discreet photo on TripAdvisor of his wife in the Tom’s Barn bath.  It was  spotted very quickly by a regular guest  in Douglas’s Barn who obviously felt he had been shortchanged.

He writes

“We see from an entry on Trip Advisor that John is photographing lady guests in the bath in Tom’s Barn. Do we miss out on such pleasures staying in Douglas Barn?”

For John’s reply see the post, but meanwhile, we have now been emailed this glamorous photo from someone who can only be Kylie Minogue’s publicity agent getting in on the act.

Let us in!

Weeks go by with frightening rapidity but no great drama (thank goodness) and then out of the blue something happens just to keep us all on our toes. Fortunately our guests seem remarkably cheerful and resilient which is more than we sometimes feel when something totally unforeseen goes wrong, when the last thing we want is a problem to spoil their time here.

Today’s bolt (forgive the pun) was the Douglas’s Barn lock. To be fair, being wise after the event, we had had some warnings that all was not well with it as some of our guests may remember, but a good dose of WD40 had always seemed to do the trick so we put the awkward behaviour of the lock down to damp weather…

However, things were not so simple. Our poor guests arrived home this evening after a day out, laden with shopping, no doubt just longing for a good bath and a pleasant, relaxing and uneventful evening. That was not immediately to be.  As they struggled unsuccessfully with the lock the next door guests proved most helpful and sympathetic, John and I sympathetic but marginally less helpful; screwdrivers were brandished, wire coathangers and helpful suggestions, to no avail. The only comforting thought was that any burglar would have his work cut out should he ever try to break in. It was not easy.

Shaun our builder proved the knight in shining armour. He very nobly abandoned mowing his lawn on a Sunday evening to come to our rescue, which he did, but it took 3/4 of an hour. At one stage I was wondering whether he’d have to take the whole door off, but fortunately this did not prove necessary. All is now temporarily well – with the door still lockable  and Shaun will return to replace the locks on both barn front doors on Tuesday.

And so ends another peaceful day in the country.

BBC Antiques Roadshow at Chatsworth

It’s rather short notice, but we have only just discovered that the Antiques Roadshow is coming , to Chatsworth this Thursday. Entrance to the Roadshow itself is free, but I imagine you will have to pay the usual entrance to Chatsworth – or at least the parking.

Even without that priceless possession you have rescued from the woodshed it should be a great experience.

Parwich Post Wakes Week

Wakes Week 2010 was a great success by all accounts. The weather was wonderful throughout and the atmosphere  so relaxed and friendly as everyone enjoyed strolled about  in the warmth – no worries about brollies or wishing one had brought another layer.

Every year there is a huge range of events throughout the week, starting with the Oddfellows procession: the fancy dress carnival, the very popular Hill Race – which attracts many from outside running clubs to the adults section, while in the children’s section  very many local children took part, some as young as five  or six, children’s sports, treasure hunt, Strong Man of Parwich contest with all the contestants seriously strong, heaving barrels loaded with gravel and tractor tyres and so on.

A new event this year was a Nostalgia Night in the new Memorial Hall, where there were photographs from past Wakes Weeks, and a historic video made from old cine films dating as far back at the early 1950s. There were howls of delight and occasionally amused embarrassment as many people present recognised themselves or members of their families taking part in Wakes Week over fifty years ago. That sense of continuity and really belonging somewhere is priceless and increasingly rare these days.

Orchard Farm garden in June

What a beautiful spell of warm summery weather, and  the gardens have loved every minute of it!

John has been busy – when he has not been working in the garden – photographing all the flowers while they are at their best so when the garden is looking bleak and forlorn later in the year we can all remind ourselves how it once was!

We are slowly gathering a selection of photos into an album in the Gallery called Garden Flowers. Do have a look.

Gorgeous gardens in sunny Parwich

Parwich  Open Gardens by all accounts was a great success. The day had dawned for us with a slight sense of dismay when our lawnmower packed up half way through John’s final trimming, but we didn’t let that weigh us down too much as short of getting down with the proverbial nail scissors there wasn’t much we could do.

Anyway, the sun was shining, the air balmy, the gardens all looked superb, even Orchard Farm’s  stubbornly daisy-studded lawn.  Garden lovers streamed in from near and far, to enjoy, admire and compare notes. For its first big public occasion the new Memorial Hall looked wonderful – for a far better description  do have a look at the link to the  Parwich website – with scores of people sitting inside and out enjoying their cream teas and admiring the children’s displays.

And finally, here’s another link,  for photos of some of the open gardens , including one of the Tom’s Barn garden. Funnily enough, there’s not one of our lawn