Romantic cottages for two in the Peak District
Romantic cottages for two in the Peak District
For a couple of hours on Monday we almost felt like celebrities, with a photographer here from the Daily Telegraph snapping away at John and me and Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns from every angle. Sadly, we didn’t look quite look the celebrity picture but it was fun while it lasted and Gabriel the photographer was charming.
This followed an interview over the telephone by Claudine Beaumont, a journalist from the Daily Telegraph. I had been understandably surprised and apprehensive when the editor of the Weekend section emailed to ask if I would be agreeable, but Claudine made it all very easy and unfrightening – in fact she was so easy to talk to it was positively enjoyable.
After all this excitement, we heard nothing. Would an article appear at all? Would we and our barns be mentioned? We really didn’t know what to expect when the paper arrived this morning. Eventually we spotted something.
In today’s Weekend Section at the very end of an article by Claudine Beaumont on page 3 entitled ‘Cashing in on the Digital Age’ you might just spot, if you look hard, a column and a half about how John and I use web technology for running Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns (our self-catering holiday cottage accommodation and note, not guest house in case you were wondering!). Not a photograph to be seen, which is probably understandable and quite a relief but also in a way quite strange after all the photographic activity!
Anyway, do have a look; it makes me seem much wiser and more knowledgable than I am or feel! We will put up the link to the article when the Saturday paper goes online.
Well, we’ve had a very relaxing couple of days forgetting all our responsibiities and doing happy holiday things with our friends Lorna and James. On Tuesday we walked over the hills to Tissington to catch the second last day of this year’s well dressings. The displays were up to their usual high standard, and had survived the six days of hot dry weather remarkably well. Back home for a well-earned cup of tea, stopping off at the White Peak butchery for some of their wonderful Tissington Bangers for our guests.
The next day off we set (by car) for Dovedale, and had a lovely walk up to Alstonefield, following the river (Dove) all the way until we got to Milldale. The river water looked clean and fresh and very welcoming although we resisted any – quite strong – childish temptation to paddle. River-wise it was beautiful, but we didn’t spot any interesting wildlife or birds: our sum tally was bluebells,wild garlic, butterflies and ducks (and various tree blossoms we didn’t recognise)!
A warm welcome and lovely lunch at the George and then we stocked up with some delicious goodies in their Farm Shop behind the pub (I wonder if everyone realises it is there?). And now Lorna and James have gone home and normal life resumes, not that it ever seems just normal. There is usually something interesting happening.
Another busy few days for us here since our inspection, including a flying visit to Dorset to help some very good friends celebrate a special birthday. Colouring everything has been all the drama of the election and subsequent speculation and tension surrounding the political future as it unfolded.
It has been like living in a soap without an author; nobody, not even those taking part knowing what the outcome would be. John and I found ourselves compelled almost without a break to watch or listen to the news! However, unlike in most soaps – one couldn’t help feeling impressed by the dignity and restraint of the main players and the moving sight of Gordon Brown and his little family leaving Downing Street. Now one just hopes that Cameron and Clegg and their team will be allowed to get on with their hugely unpleasant job without the media beginning immediately to undermine them.
To quote from the Visit Britain website, “This award reflects a very high level of quality. Properties achieving the Gold Award have exceptional levels of quality, comfort and cleanliness in bedrooms and bathrooms, and outstanding levels of customer care.”
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we have had some good news tonight: both barns easily retain their Five Star status, both now achieving a Gold Award.
We are really delighted. But don’t think for one moment that we will sit back and rest on those laurels. We are only too aware that standards increase and guests’ expectations change and we always try to keep one step ahead. This is one reason we so appreciate comments and suggestions from all our guests.
Well! What a day!
Changeover day with a Visit Britain inspection thrown in for good measure… we have never had that before. In the past, the inspection has taken place mid-week which is rather inconvenient for our guests but generally easier because, when all is said and done, our first priority on a Friday is to have everything ready, sparkling fresh and welcoming for our guests and not to have them arrive while we are showing the inspector around, as happened today. Fortunately, both lots had been before.
We had a very pleasant and extremely thorough inspector (thank goodness for our wonderful Janet and Carol!) who seemed pretty happy with things generally but less impressed with the state of the Tom’s Barn stairs which she felt showed unhappy evidence of the odd sharp-clawed dog scrabbling up them.
We have already arranged with David, our wonderful joiner, who is going to build a wooden gate at the foot of the stairs and do what he can to iron out the worst of the gouges. The other thing we have to do, which we had already planned anyway, is to replace the easy chair and footstool in Tom’s Barn, which although actually spotlessly clean, no longer looks so.
Douglas’s Barn appeared to pass muster without comment (hope I’m not deluded). What we were hoping for, after all our refurbishments in Tom’s Barn, was for Tom’s Barn to go up that one vital point (from 91% overall to 92% ) to join Douglas’s Barn in the exclusive Gold Star ‘club’. Last year we were told the only thing between us and a Gold Star was the cooker, and that has been replaced with one that is very definitely not old fashioned…
So all we can do now is sit and wait (and start looking for that new chair).
Shockingly, over a week has passed since we last updated, and a lot has happened. As far as our barns are concerned the most significant is that we are to be inspected on Friday next (5th May). As well as the actual inspection, which is usually pretty rigorous, one has to be sure to have all the paperwork from inventories policies and procedures – Fire, Risk Assessment, Access etc etc.
More cheerfully, the St. George’s Day parade and service last weekend (followed by the church fete on the village green) was a splendid and moving village occasion and made one feel very proud and privileged to be part of the Parwich community.
We had staying with us our friends Morag and Joe from Cumbria, who were most impressed with everything, envious of all the community involvement and who thoroughly enjoyed the day. Similarly our friends Mary and Piers, who stayed with us this weekend, very much entered into the spirit of things, loving the May Day concert in the church (will the organ ever sound the same again?!) and the very impressive Skills Day on Monday. What a wealth of talent (sometimes unsuspected) lies in the village…
Personally I passed a significant milestone, managing over the weekend a walk to Tissington on Sunday and to Brassington on Monday, my first real ventures on rough ground since breaking my ankle on the snows of the Alps at Christmas! Quite a personal triumph although it does mean I have no excuses left!
So much – and mainly good – has happened since our last update, but we’ll start with the bad, and it was bad.
We welcomed our guests on Friday evening, the Friday of May Bank Holiday weekend, both couples having had protracted and exhausting drives here. As John and I settled down for a relaxing evening ourselves we agreed, as we so often do, how lucky we were that we always have such really nice people as guests. Little did we know how lucky it was going to prove.
At 3.30 am on the Saturday morning the telephone rang…a frightening sound at that time of night. With a real sense of panic – could it be our daughter Sara in Australia or grandson Tom? I answered the phone. A frightened voice said, “There’s water everywhere and we don’t know what to do…”.
“Where?” I asked. “Who are you?” With sinking heart (but at least nobody had died) we discovered it was our poor guests in Douglas’s Barn who had been wakened by the sound of water (almost) gushing from the boiler.
We spent the next two hours mopping up but of course had to turn the water off (not before someone had the presence of mind to fill the bath!). So there our poor guests were, at the start of the Bank Holiday weekend with no water and no heating.
John tried to ring the boiler manufacturer’s helpline – nobody in the office until 8am… Thereafter for the next two days, our repeated phone calls to the “Home of heating and hot water comfort” achieved nothing but vague assurances they’d do their best to send someone, sometime.
Help eventually arrived at lunch time on Monday. Meanwhile, our poor guests, having bravely elected to rough it out in spite of offers of alternative accommodation from friends and colleagues, had survived on borrowed baths and bottled water. They deserve a medal; they have our very real gratitude for their understanding, their recognition that it was just one of those (ghastly) things, and not anybody’s fault, although as the owners one does feel horribly responsible even if completely helpless.
It is quite frightening how these disasters seem inevitably to strike on the eve pf prolonged business holidays.
How frustrating!
Having spent most of Friday afternoon trying to get to grips with the brand new and frighteningly modern electric cooker we were all set to announce this latest excitement (and of course answer a dozen or so emails) when our server went down…
All is restored now, and there are now dozens of dozens of emails waiting so do forgive us if your reply is not yet forthcoming and we appear to be asleep – we aren’t!
In the last year or so we have made a lot of biggish purchases – the biggest in every sense of the word being the Vi-Spring bed/mattresses in both barns. The two burly delivery men really struggled up the spiral stair case with the custom made extra-wide extra-long Vi-Spring mattress for Douglas’s Barn, which they assured us, rather bitterly, weighed 18 stone.
Tom’s Barn has benefited the most, being the older of our two holiday cottages (it has been going now for nearly ten years). We have recently replaced a lot of equipment and furniture there including the bed, most notably the sofa, fridge, washing machine, flat screen bedroom telly… We have also just bought a brand new Pepe outside table and chairs for the Tom’s Barn garden although we have not yet had the weather to tempt anyone to relax for long outside.
Not yet arrived but ordered from John Lewis is a replacement all singing and all-dancing cooker. The old cooker (replaced in 2006) was still very good, but the Visit Britain inspector last year reckoned it let down the rest of the kitchen; therefore – in spite of all last year’s change and improvements – our score remained at resolutely at 90%, so we felt we didn’t have much option if we are to stand any chance of getting a Gold Award, as has Douglas’s Barn.
We have also introduced some new things in both barns, like the Sony Netbook, slow cookers and kitchen equipment (eco kettles, frying pans etc) and at the beginning of the year had both barns redecorated from top to toe.
The next two projects are to replace or recover the easy chair in Tom’s Barn (only four years old but somewhat faded and discoloured) and the boiler in Douglas’s Barn. After that we hope to sit back for a while, but somehow life tends not to work like that.
All being well, you should now be able to book your holiday for 2011 online. There has been some pressure on us to do this as so much of this year had already gone by the end of February.
However, as always we accept all bookings for the forthcoming year at the current year’s prices so until midnight on Dec 31st 2010 the increase can be avoided completely by booking ahead.
We have pondered and agonised; finally we have taken a deep breath and decided on the prices for next year – a scary proposition because who knows what global financial/economic crises may be lurking in the wings.
With only the skimpiest of business backgrounds (if one wanted to make a killing teaching was never the career to choose…) we always feel anxious putting prices up but there is no getting round it, one’s costs increase all the time. We are also going to increase the cost for dogs to £25; much as we love well-behaved dogs and their owners there is no denying they do create a lot of extra work.
Finally, we are always delighted to take bookings on the phone so please continue to book this way if you prefer the human contact. However, we do know that lots of busy people far prefer to do it quickly and efficiently, online. At last this is now possible for 2011 too.
We may be nearly full this year, but 2011 is wide open with only a couple of bookings to date (four to be exact).
At the moment the silly problem is that until we have entered prices, no one can book online. The obvious answer is to decide on prices but how does one anticipate what will be the cost of oil, electricity, insurance, business tax, not to mention all the bits and bobs we always put in to the barns to make our guests’ lives easier…?
So we have come to the conclusion we will try to make an intelligent estimate, aiming higher rather than too low – one can always reduce a price but it is not good practice to increase a price once it has been advertised.
During 2010 any price increase for 2011 is all irrelevant anyway, because anyone booking this year uses this year’s prices
When you book online we will automatically discount the advertised price when we process the payment.
At least it will mean if you want to plan ahead you now can book next year to your heart’s content. However, it will be more important than ever that you seriously consider taking out holiday cancellation insurance.
Rest assured that if your plans change and you need to change your dates some time beforehand we can usually arrange that, with time in hand. It will just incur a nominal £10 ‘botheration’ admin charge. If we have to advertise the dates at a discounted rate, we will pass on what we receive, less the £10.
It is the last minute cancellations or need to change dates that happen too late for us to re-sell the dates that would leave you still having to pay for the holiday although unable to take it. From our point of view, we would almost certainly have let the dates given enough time. It is only fair that it is you and not we who bear the responsibility for the cost of the cancelled holiday. Holiday cancellation insurance does seem the answer!
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