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.

21st Century Web Technology Advances for Orchard Farm

Hardly a day passes without our realising afresh how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful spot; but we are fortunate too in many less obvious ways. There is a lot of support available locally for SMEs – small to medium businesses – and the tourism industry too, in the form of training and business advice, and even sometimes, funding.

John and I put in a funding application recently, having successfully undertaken three day-long eBusiness IT workshops, to upgrade our computer systems  and improve our web activities. To our delight we heard today that we have been successful, and thanks to the East Midlands Development Agency and the EU we will receive 50% of the cost of revamping ourselves  IT-wise. What excitement!

This means we can ask Jeremy Brough, our web man, to upgrade our website so that it will be much easier for us to manage ourselves and to that end we are each ditching our ancient PCs (I use a laptop at present) in favour of an Apple iMac each! John for his photographic work and me for all the office work and managing the Tom’s Barn and Douglas’s Barn website, and – all being well – eventually editing short videos we hope to make with our new camcorder also on the shopping list.

We are also arranging some Social Marketing training so that we can smarten up our at present very minimal use of  social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube.  Whatever one thinks of them it certainly seems to be the way forward these days – so watch this space as they say…!

Tom Chambers to star in White Christmas

Just a quickie to give you a link to a news item on the Parwich Blog today about Parwich’s own Tom Chambers who will be appearing in White Christmas, at the end of the year.

We may all be biased but we think he is very good indeed and in time will go far! Meanwhile, no doubt there will be coach loads of trips to the theatre to support him.

Talking of which several friends and we went to Stratford on Saturday to see the RSC current production of Antony and Cleopatra. We often go, and love the Courtyard Theatre where one is so close the the stage and all the action wherever one is sitting. Normally we are riveted by the whole performance but – although as always we enjoyed the outing – we were very underwhelmed by this modern dress production.

The compelling love affair between Antony and Cleopatra was very unconvincing  –  it wasn’t obvious  what they saw in each other at all,  so the whole point of the play  was rather lost.

Bean crunching: occupancy stats for our barns

The weather has turned lovely again, which is wonderful. It makes it particularly sad that I should have actually chosen to be indoors at the moment, out of the sun and sitting at the computer rather than tackling the weeds or any other outdoor chore that would have justified my staying outside. And actually, the need to weed is far more urgent than the stats I’ve produced but I  have been quite happily occupied for an hour or two looking at various facts and figures, including amongst others our barns occupancy stats.

Occupancy for our barns has always been well over 90%. Last financial year (2009-2010) Tom’s Barn’s was 95%, having adjusted for the 10 days withdrawn for decorating in February, with all year  one weekend and one midweek unaccountably unbooked (can’t blame a cancellation or anything like that!). Douglas’s Barn occupancy was 99%, with – apart from the 5 days withdrawn for re-decorating – only one weekend, in  December, not booked .

As far as visits go, Tom’s Barn had 59  during the year, Douglas’s Barn 60. Both had 35 one-week or longer bookings and 24/25 short breaks respectively. That’s a lot of changeovers! There’s a lot to be said for being such as small unit, how owners cope when they have a large complex doesn’t bear thinking of…

Finally, another figure which we find surprising: only 18% of our guests last year had been before (22% Tom’s Barn, 15% Douglas’s). I think that must be a blip: last year the overall figure was 24% and we do have such a lot of guests coming back and back;  I am sure the figure will be higher again next year and certainly, looking at our wall planner/advance bookings chart can almost guarantee it.

We love having old friends return, and they seem to like the feeling of coming ‘home’ to somewhere familiar. That isn’t to say of course that we don’t also really love welcoming new faces here and it is gratifying that so many of you do keep finding us one way or the other, through the internet or through friends and family – so, do keep  coming!

The Wildest Dream

We have just returned from a brief overnight trip to London to attend a rather special event – the ‘IMAX preview’ of this amazing film which is not due for release until 6th August. The film – which was ’26 years in the thinking and five in the making’ was directed by Anthony Geffen, our daughter Ruthie’s boss at Atlantic Productions; Atlantic Productions was working with Altitude Films with the active involvement also of National Geographic.

We are still full of our experience. The IMAX cinema at the Science Museum was an adventure in itself, with a screen the size of I forget how many double decker buses. We were warned beforehand to shut our eyes if we started to feel seasick…

The film essentially is about climbing Everest, with two men, Conrad Anker and a young British climber, Leo Houlding – trying in 2007 to reach the top the way they felt George Mallory would have gone had he/if he reached the top in 1924. There is the the human drama as, against the backdrop of the overwhelming splendour of the mountain, as men struggle against overwhelmong odds – the extreme cold, altitude sickness and exhaustion, but spurred on always by their ‘wildest dream’ of reaching the summit.

But these are ordinary men, too, with families and wives they love and who love them, and for whom they yearn while on Everest. To add poignancy to the love element, the voice of Mallory’s wife, Ruth, was provided by Natasha Richardson shortly before her death after a skiing accident, and the narrator of the film is Liam Neeson, her widower. (Ralph Fiennes provides the voice of George Mallory.)

I hope I have relayed the facts reasonably accurately (I’ll have to ask Ruthie to check it over). Anyway, the film – and the reception afterwards – was a wonderful experience for both John and me; then, in no time it is back to work/normal life for everybody! And we always feel, however much we have enjoyed ourselves away, it is always lovely to come home. And it was particularly lovely this time, to be welcomed in for a cup of tea by our guests in Douglas’s Barn.

Facebook

These days the possibilities for publicity both good and – but we hope not – bad, are enormous. Our son Nick helped us set up a Facebook site Tom’s Barn Facebook about a year ago and to be honest, we rather forgot about it after that only to discover to our surprise that we now have eight or nine fans.

Rather confusingly, Tom’s Barn and Douglas’s Barn appear twice on Facebook! Our daughter, Ruth has started a group on her site called Holiday Cottages in the Peak District and this now has 20 members. Perhaps somebody who knows more about these things will tell us how we can amalgamate the two but if you care to have a look do click on Tom’s Barn Holiday Cottages in the Peak District Group and perhaps become a member of that group as well!

So – all you Facebook fans and addicts – please think about swelling our band of friends if you’d care to or simply leaving a comment!