Romantic cottages for two in the Peak District
Romantic cottages for two in the Peak District
Like pretty well the whole of the country, we have been having some very unpleasant blustery, grey and wet days. We have escaped the terrible wind which we can hear roaring over Parwich Hill which deflects it all nicely away from the village so the trees in Parwich are untouched.
I had to go to Bakewell for a meeting this morning and had an interesting drive along country roads which hadn’t been so protected, through deep and lengthy puddles, and skirting very delicately at one stage around a large tree which had fallen across the road.
In spite of everything the sun did manage to get out this afternoon, and outside in a flash was John with his new camera at the ready (the bad weather has been a serious frustration for him, photographically, but it has been good in that he has been able spend some time poring over the manual and a couple of really good books he has been given which are very helpful but which to those whose camera is on their mobile phone, could be in another language. (This new camera is not a toy…!)
So when the sun came out, and the birds flocked to the seeds and nuts, John managed to catch some lovely action photos of bird in flight
What a year 2012 promises to be! From the depths of financial despair and gloom we soar to Jubilee and Olympics hysteria… Meanwhile most of us just plod on as best we can; whilst horribly aware of rising costs for all and job insecurity for many and although the timing is unfortunate it is great that we have some exciting distractions ahead and certainly Visit Britain and VisitPeak District are very upbeat about the possibilities that this year will bring for tourism and the economy.
Life has to go on and like many of you we will just continue to do the best we can and to do our best to ensure that all our guests have as good a holiday as possible. Unfortunately we cannot control the weather, but neither can anyone so that’s a relief… And to continue the financial theme for one more minute, our 2012 prices have now kicked in and I am about to put them up on our website. They have been on the online booking system for some time. The prices have all gone up a rough 5% which actually is somewhat less than our costs have increased.
Bank Holidays this year include the Jubilee celebration tacked onto the Spring Bank Holiday (June 4th and 5th). That week has already been booked in both Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns as have two of the Olympics weeks by folk anxious to escape from London for the spell!
Chatsworth House reopens on March 9th but there are talks and things going on before then which clicking on the link will reveal; the Horse Trials are 11th to 13th May and the Country Fair is 31st August to 2nd September. Haddon Hall I suspect may open at Easter (April 6th to 9th) but so far I have failed to discover the exact date. The Buxton Festival is 7th to 25th July. And of course throughout the summer we have the famous Derbyshire well-dressings, with the local Tissington celebration from the 17th to 23rd May being a special highlight.
This just skims the top of the barrel – check this page of the Visit peak District website to see just some of the events there are, not to mention the permanent activities and sights which are here all year round – the walks, cycling, sailing etc at Carsington, hang gliding,climbing and so on…!
And finally one has to eat and who could be better placed than we are round here for good unspoilt pubs serving great food
Our ceanothus is blooming merrily above the snowdrops
Wobbly Wednesday? Wistful Wednesday? John said today, Wednesday December 28th, had been dubbed something alliterative but he couldn’t remember quite what. Woeful Wednesday? Certainly not Wonderful Wednesday… so we think we’ll plump for Wobbly Wednesday. (In fact John now tells me it was none of these guesses, but ‘Whisk-Away’ Wednesday.)
We knew from past experience that for all the same reasons, early in January is always extremely busy and all the travel writers and newspapers cash in on the fever of booking mania which no doubt they themselves have stirred up in the first place. What we don’t remember ourselves is any panic actions before New Year.
Snowdrops flowering on Christmas Day 2011
A Christmas Day rose at Orchard Farm
Meanwhile, have a very happy run up to the New Year. For those of us who have only just about got used to writing 2011 it is hard to believe we are now nearly in 2012. We sincerely hope we all have a good and peaceful and happy year. Meanwhile, to end on a cheering note, how can anyone feel too woeful, weak or wobbly when we have roses, ceanothus and snowdrops flowering together and the weather is mild and the days are already beginning to lengthen; but if planning to whisk yourselves away by booking one of our two barns for a relaxing holiday next year helps you face the future, so much the better!
Happy Christmas to everyone!
We had great hopes of sending Christmas greetings to everyone personally but practicalities – namely shortage of time and skill- prevailed and now all we can do is wish everyone most sincerely a very happy Christmas holiday and a happy, fulfilled and healthy year to come.
We will certainly continue as best we ever can to make sure that our two holiday cottages remain the happy, peaceful haven you have come to expect and for those of you already planning your holiday here next year, we look forward very much to seeing you /seeing you again.
Do have a look at this lovely Peak District official video, with a most haunting melody… The message is – ‘Come to the Peak District, no matter how!’ and we could add the rider, having got to the Peak District, why not come here, why not get to Tom’s or Douglas’s Barns if you can!
Get here if you can and we’d love to see you…!
That was somewhat cheap jumping onto the bandwagon sort of comment but there was an element of seriousness. We are so small and can only have two couples at the most at a time. For every booking we turn away sometimes dozens of people ringing up and emailing on the off-chance the date has suddenly become available and of course we’ll never know how many just check the online availability hopefully, and see for themselves that the dates they want are already taken. Others may assume – wrongly – that the availability is not updated or we may have at random marked off dates to look busier than we are. We never ever would do the latter, and the SuperControl availability is pretty well 100% up to date. The only time it wouldn’t be would be if someone had contacted us to book while we were out and not within reach of computers and online booking systems.
One wants to make people happy and it can be very difficult disappointing someone who has set their hearts on a special date. Once it was quite amusing: unwilling to accept my assurance that both barns were booked on a certain date, the voice on the phone lost patience. “Well,” she said shortly, ” if you can’t help me please hand me over to someone who can!”. Of course I couldn’t do either but she wasn’t convinced.
Anyway, our message is, do watch this video. Do come to the Peak District – there’s nowhere lovelier. And If you are thinking about coming here, to either Tom’s or Douglas’s Barns and you know when, do get in touch (and if it’s before the end of 2011 so much the better for you as you will be benefiting from the old prices). If you are not immediately sure of being able to get time off work we can happily reserve a date for a day or two while you get the go-ahead from work. And if you are worried about booking dates far in advance, that we do understand. However, there really should be no need to worry. We have altered dates and accepted cancellation on lots of occasions and been able to rebook the dates almost immediately. As we all know it is the last minute cancellations which cause the problem when the fees are still due and we cannot re-let the dates however hard we try; the only way to be sure to avoid any risk of that possibility is to take out holiday cancellation insurance. We think that some banks offer that with your account so it would be worth checking that out too as a free alternative – it’s silly to pay if you don’t need to.
Meanwhile, to repeat, get here if you can and we’d love to see you!
Both barns are ready for Christmas! Unfortunately that is more than can be said for the owners who as usual are weeks behind with the cards and the presents.
Glossing over that I’d like to start by just reminding anyone that Christmas is taking by surprise that 2012 follows shortly after and that is when the 2012 prices kick in (at the first chord of Auld Lang Syne!). We always get an enormous number of bookings in early January, when the post-festivities reality and depression hits in and everyone needs something lovely over the horizon to look forward to, to cheer them up. We’d rather our ‘old faithfuls’ like all of you a) got in first with the dates you might want, and b) that you benefit by the returning guests’ double bonus – 2011 prices and 5% off so you end up paying less than you might have paid this year for the same holiday. Hope too many accountants aren’t reading this…
Onto possibly more mundane but possibly more pressing subjects, like the weather. Will it (really) snow for Christmas? We had light snow this morning but nothing to stop the traffic so to speak. So far, for this winter unlike the last two, the weather has been wintery but OK, although people travelling tomorrow need to keep an eye on the situation, or so we gather. It feels very still and calm tonight I must say and we’re all pretty cosy and snug indoors; it was dark before 4pm this evening but of course very very soon the days start to lengthen which is a lovely thought.
Finally, John has already received his Christmas and birthday (November 27th) presents for this year from the entire immediate family and is busy now trying to get to grips with a new camera and lens. 
He has got such good results from his now old one (which he will of course still use as well) apparently against all odds given the limitation of the equipment, especially significant when he was taking for example, swallows swooping over the water. We all did a lot of research into what might be best for John’s needs within our budget, including our nephew Tim Cragg who knows a thing or two about cameras but of course ultimately it had to be John’s personal choice.
In making this final and very big decision we were just so lucky to have the great fortune to have two charming and very talented photographers staying next door in Douglas’s Barn! They very generously shared a few hours with us over a bottle of wine, showing John their cameras and various lenses and by the end John felt confident to come to a final decision.
However, the photos here are from the old camera. Hopefully soon you will be noticing even sharper, better pictures, and when next summer comes some fast flying swallows and other fast moving creatures
Blogger’s Block is not the problem but lack of time/too much to do has been, hence the long gap for which I am genuine sorry. I do enjoy doing the blog and hate to neglect it for too long. The main theme for this long awaited (!) post is to alert anybody who might be interested that we have a week’s gap in Tom’s Barn, from today. This is almost unheard of and is only because some unfortunate person cancelled at the very last moment, but more about that (sermon to follow later…).
The week, which had been booked since early January, runs from today Monday 12th to Monday 19th. Obviously it is now too late for anyone to take the full week Tom’s Barn is all ready and waiting, sparkling clean and Christmassy. The tree is up and decorated and all it needs is someone to walk in and enjoy it. The weekend Friday 16 to Monday 19 is a clear possibility and we have reduced the price to a rock bottom £275; however, if anyone wanted to take it for an abbreviated week – say Tuesday or Wednesday to Monday 19th all we’d ask is £315, the normal price for a weekend at this time of year.
We’d rather have Tom’s Barn loved in and loved than standing there empty and forlorn.
Now for the sermon, and I am painfully aware that – like many sermons, it will be preaching to the converted. However, I have just got to get it off my chest, so bear with me. The subject of my sermon today is last-minute cancellations and our cancellation policy. A year or two ago, after a series of last minute cancellations for genuine and heart rending reasons which being soft-hearted (or some might say, foolish) we repaid the full fee. However, we eventually realised that it is all very well being soft-hearted, but we re trying to run a business, not a charity, and we couldn’t go on for ever personally subsidising cancelled bookings which were no fault – or responsibility financial or otherwise – of our own.
Since then we have made it very clear in our Terms and Conditions and Booking Cancellation Policy which everybody has to read and agree to before booking online, and which we spell by out letter to those who have booked by telephone, that once a guest has booked and we have confirmed, a contract exists between us both – we to provide the holiday accommodation and you to pay for it “even if at the last moment you find it necessary to cancel”.
We go on to explain that cancellations or changes of dates with good notice we can nearly always cope with, having – with luck – the time to be able to re-let the vacated dates; it is the last minute cancellations that we cannot re-let that constitute the possible problem…This could be embarrassing to all concerned, hence our concern to make it clear that the fee would still be due and give people a chance to insure if they’re not prepared to take that risk. And we provide the Pavey holiday cancellation insurance leaflet in case that might help. Pavey do a special one for Premier Cottages guests which is who we send that info but we personally are not involved in the process at all. There is a very small commission paid to us at the end of the year, rather embarrassingly, but this we re glad to donate in total each year to ‘Mary’s Meals’ – a small charity that we support, which runs school feeding projects in third world communities where poverty and hunger prevent children from gaining an education.
Larger holiday cottage, possibly like hotels where people can simply walk in off the street, probably have so much flexibility that they are never completely full and don’t expect to be. We are nearly always full, and expect to be. We turn away literally scores of people all the time for our barns; we dread to think how many were disappointed not to be able to book the week I am bleating about. But the man in question, who booked Tom’s Barn nearly a year ago, and now does not want it is finding it hard to see why he should remain responsible for the rent. He genuinely had no perception that just as he didn’t want to be out of pocket, neither do we. He has cancelled, not we. So we are all experiencing the acute embarrassment that I actually warned him about in my original letter confirming his booking, when I spelt out our policy and advised cancellation insurance.
We have tried hard to re-let the spell (see the first paragraph about lack of time!). I have spent literally hours, so far to no avail, not surprisingly at this time of year. We feel genuinely sorry for the would-be-guest and his reason for cancelling, and would love to be able to repay him at least a large proportion of what he owes if someone were to pick up his dates. But otherwise we are sticking to our guns.
We have some exciting possibilities for somebody, somewhere. This somebody is either so organised that Christmas preparations are all complete and they’re bored waiting or probably far more likely, possibly someone who finds they have left things too late and wants to hide away peacefully and restfully for a few days. And as we already know, some have to work over Christmas so choose to enjoy their private celebrations early.
Take your pick!
Picture it. You’ve had so many demands on your time and your attention, you’ve coped with crowded shops, terrifying office parties, constant noise and tension. You drive from this into the peace and quiet of Parwich and the comfort and warmth and calm of your barn. You start feeling better the minute you walk through that door. What better Christmas present could anyone have?
I started writing this on the East Midland train down to St Pancras on Monday but we were rattling along at such a speed, and lurching to and fro so violently that my attempts to strike the right letters on the fairly minute keyboard of my phone left me quickly feeling rather seasick and out of sorts. Now I am home again, sitting very calmly and still at my desk, and all is well but I decided to keep the title in order that my mobile efforts weren’t totally in vain.
My trip to London was, as always, great fun: a mixture of family pleasure and enjoying the sights and sounds, and occasionally the big London shops if we need anything for the barns – and Marylebone High Street, or Chiswick – if I want some quieter slightly more individual shops. This time I felt the real country bumpkin or awestruck child; the Oxford Street lights did absolutely nothing for me (are they no longer the big attraction they used to be?) but the Christmas lights and excitement in Selfridges were wonderful and the festive atmosphere on Monday night in Westfield (the one near the BBC in White City) was very infectious. Ruthie was busy rehearsing for a concert while Nick and I had the time to enjoy a light-but-spicy Vietnamese snack as we watched families skating happily below us, illuminated by the sparkling white Christmas lights.
It’s lovely being away but always lovely to get back. Before I went away I promised some more of Arwel and Zoe’s photos. Here is just one, my favourite. I know nothing about these things but I suspect Arwel has done something special to achieve – or perhaps accentuate – the rather magical effect of the sun shining through the early morning mist. However, on my way to an early (8.30am) meeting in Bakewell this morning there was a brief moment (near the Minninglow car park for those that know the area) when I caught a glimpse of the sun breaking through the mist on the horizon, achieving much the same effect. Unfortunately I was running late for the meeting so had to stall my instinct to stop the car and try to catch the (fleeting) moment. I got to the meeting with one minute to spare so it was just as well I didn’t linger.
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.
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