Carefree Catering for the Carfree

Whether you have walked here or come in the sleekest of limousines, you won’t want to have to pay a visit to the shops the minute you arrive, if indeed at all.

It is perfectly easy and part of the excitement building up for your holiday to organise everything that you can possibly think of beforehand, so your stay here is blissfully relaxed and luxurious. You can also plan some instant catering solutions quite apart from making full use of the local pub-within-walking-distance solutions.

You know that we provide you with a pint (no longer in a bottle!) of milk, some butter, bread and six freshly laid local eggs and things like oil, dried herbs etc but we don’t go as far as ingredients for your meals!

Ideally you’ll order what you need in advance and arrange to have everything delivered the morning of your arrival, so we can check and put away everything for you. If you would like to go completely organic, Riverford is a great favourite of ours, and we have a weekly delivery here, on Fridays (only). It is best to choose what you want and ring them beforehand on 01780 789700, explaining that you are staying here (they are well used to it!).Waitrose also has lots of great food, quite a lot but by no means solely, organic. They will deliver here, to DE6 1QB, any day.

Both barns have a fridge-freezer so another top tip we are now suggesting is to order pre-frozen meals from one of two companies we know of, Cook and Life, Fork and Spoon. We have tried Cook many times and swear by them – they are efficient, their meals are delicious and they arrive in packaging so well insulated everything is still totally frozen solid. Life, Fork and Spoon we have not tried yet, but will. Please let us know what you think.

Even with a well-stocked kitchen, you may well still feel like being catered for. Without moving out of the village you can ask our neighbour, Val Kirkham to cook a meal for you (ring her on 01335 390548 to discuss menus and prices), order a curry from Paul and Evie Burlinson (ring 01335 390488).

We have a pub in the village, the Sycamore, which serves pub meals, and there is also a British Legion, on the road going towards Alsop which welcomes guests warmly and which also does food sometimes. Within lovely walking distance for lunch is the Old Gate at Brassington and the Coach House at Tissington.

The pub also has a little shop well-stocked with all the basics so buying anything you may suddenly find you want can be part of a trip to the pub itself, or the purpose of a pleasant little expedition in the village

This post can be seen in addition to all the information we had already gathered so at the same time have a look here at the Forward Planning for Effortless Catering in the More Info Section of our website.

If You Can Make the Olympics!

A new dimension to the Tom’s Barn blog… Well, you didn’t expect to get a sports report, but on the other hand, you weren’t perhaps counting on the Olympics.

To our regret when everyone was applying for tickets to the Olympics we didn’t really bother. Probably all the misery-guts who were predicting disasters left right and centre didn’t help but had we known the excitement and pleasure the games are giving everyone now we certainly would have been less apathetic. However, thanks to our friends Deborah and Martin who invited us to join them at Old Trafford for the football Brazil/South Korea semi-final, we can say we have attended an Olympic event!

Everything was wonderfully well-organised. We had terrific seats, and were also fairly near a big television screen. The football itself was unimpressive. I have watched enough football including many prep school matches to know how exciting a fast-moving and tactical game can be and this was not. Goodness knows how Brazil even managed three goals: both sides seemed to spend most of the time patting the ball back and forth between themselves generally moving toward their own goal rather than the opposition’s.

Far more interesting was the crowd – nearly 70,000. Good-natured, well-behaved and all enjoying the occasion even if not the football. There was chanting, drumming, Mexican waves and plenty of amusing costumes. The only jarring note was being aware of the fact that Team GB was beaten by South Korea, who last night looked as if they couldn’t beat a soul. So, to repeat myself, a great occasion, unimpressive football. Did the papers say the same I wonder?

If You Can’t Make The Olympics

We’ve had a wonderful royal birthday, we’ve had the Silver Jubilee and now we have the 2012 Olympics. What a year for the British! And people who have never shown the slightest interest in sport of any sort now turn out to be secret rowers or divers who in spite of amazing natural aptitude never quite made it but are wafting lyrically and knowledgably about the various events and hint at all the what might have beens, if only….

In spite of all the dire warnings about ghastly traffic and crowd problems our ‘children’ in London say that so far the city itself seems incredibly quiet (and at least two of the people who might have swelled the crowds are staying here, in hiding, in Tom’s Barn, so maybe that explains it).

Meanwhile, for those that are fired by the current enthusiasm, we can’t exactly offer you Olympic venues here in Parwich and locally. However, in spite of this, there is plenty of scope for physical activity apart from the obvious walking and cycling. In the village itself there are two excellent tennis courts, with floodlights if you want to play at night, which can be hired for a small hourly sum. You’d need to ring Karen Wigley on 01335 390 253 to book. At the weekend they may be quite busy but there’d probably be some spare slots and lots during the week.

And talking of tennis, to digress for a moment, I have had a reminder on my online calendar for weeks to let me know that today, 1st August is the day one can order an entry form for the Public Ballot for Wimbledon next year. I have sent off for ours already and am hoping that 2013 will prove lucky for us. We have got tickets a number of times, but not recently. It is always a wonderful day out, and even if you get an early date, who knows, you may well be watching the eventual winner.

And back to our future guests, for those who may be wanting to do something more physical slightly further afield, there is a good if relatively small leisure centre in Ashbourne and you will find information on the website about all the local sport facilities – from squash and tennis courts to swimming pools and bowling greens!

At Carsington, which is about five or six miles from here one can hire bikes (ordinary and electric), go canoing, sailing, windsurfing or simply walking round the lake where there are hides for birdwatching. The Sailing Club website is here and the Carsington Water Sports centre .

Carsington is good for all ages, because those that don’t fancy being too active can potter by the water or have something to eat or drink in the restaurant overlooking the water. There are little shops there including a very good RSPB one, and an educational centre which our young grandson thinks is wonderful – it goes into childishly pleasing detail about the history and content of sewers and there is a collection of things like mobile phones and false teeth that have been flushed down local loos!

At Tissington you can go pony trekking and if you want something more demanding, try the Haddon House riding stables at Over Haddon for hacking and tuition.

If you’d like to consider fishing (an activity of a different sort). If you’ve never fished but fancy learning, how about trying a day’s fly-fishing tuition? (This is second hand information, from non-fishers so do your own research before committing!).

There’s golf, too of course – see here for a list of golf courses in the area and finally – how about an ‘extreme sport’? You could always consider hang gliding or parachuting although don’t say we recommend it.

Sea Views from the Kitchen Windows

Please forgive the unforgivable silence. We have just returned from a ten-day trip away; I had fondly promised myself that every day I would find the opportunity to relax briefly in a leisurely fashion in front of my iPad and write stimulating posts from our various destinations.
A hectic schedule laid on by the two separate friends we stayed with in Ireland, coupled with a very poor (and expensive) Internet connection completely put paid to that idea. However, very worryingly my sister is seriously ill in Durban, South Africa, so it may well be that I have to fly out there for a few days; if so, silences may persist for while longer. This time John will be here, always when we are away Janet moves in to hold the fort, which she does so well, looking after the guests so well one almost suspects they get a better deal when we are not around.

While we were away we missed all sorts of excitements like the Olympic Torch which came through Ashbourne last Friday June 29th, the Parwich Open Gardens and Parwich Wakes. Our trip was not short of delights, fortunately. We first of all went to a very nostalgic and enjoyable reunion dinner of Bramcote School Scarborough Old Bramcotians, pupils and staff to mark the end of the Bramcote school of the past and the birth of the new ‘Bramcote Junior School’ of the future as it merges with Scarborough College.

After a shortish night in a brilliant B&Bwe set off for ireland, crossing from Liverpool to Dublin on the overnight ferry. We then drove straight to Portsalon, in Donegal where we spent three very happy days with some very good friends that go back a long way. We then drive down the west coast to Durrus, near Bantry Bay, to stay with yet more good friends. The sea was very much a feature, especially Donegal’s golden (glowingly golden) beaches.

The sea was a feature, much talk and laughter and reminiscing featured strongly too, as did some wonderful meals with particularly lovely fresh fish (back to the sea again…). And yes, it rained there too, almost all of the time though we did see some watery sun from time to time.

Keep Calm and Carry on Eating Cake

In spite of the fact we get very few people actually commenting on the blog friends, guests and often complete strangers will email us, or tell me on Facebook or at parties how much they actually enjoy reading our blog. They do say they enjoy John’s photos too which doesn’t surprise me. I really enjoy writing the posts, just wish I had more time to indulge my weakness! It feels just like keeping in touch with friends, and is a wonderful pastime and stress reliever.

Some nice soul emailed this today: I regularly keep up to date with your blogs; they are a joy to read and much more cheerful than the news, national or international.

Potentially much more cheerful than the news or indeed our blogs, tonight I have a newish recipe which i have tried out twice now and which has received the thumbs up from guests, family and friends. It is a variation on the permanent favourite Fake Bakewell. Perhaps we ought to call it a Cherry Fakewell?

I asked John to take a photo, but he wasn’t quite quick enough before most of the last batch had disappeared, hence the rather sparse display on the plate.

Tom’s & Douglas’s Barns
Cherry Special Bakewell Tart

If you think of the basic recipe as being for every egg 4 oz of ground rice/ground almonds, sugar and butter you can make the size you want. I always make this in a large Aga baking tray so it is the basic recipe times four. For normal family use one would probably do half, i.e. 2 eggs etc.

Recipe:
1lb good (Stork) soft margarine (or butter if you’re feeling expansive)
I lb sugar
*1/2lb ground rice
*1/2lb ground almonds
4 eggs, lightly beaten
Almond extract
Flaked almonds
Fresh stoned cherries, or one tin of cherries, well drained
Short crust pastry (either a bought block or made with 1lb flour)
About half jar jam (sharpish like raspberry, blackcurrant or homemade plum) For the Cherry Bakewell I used cherry jam and some raspberry, as the latter seems a bit softer and possibly moister.

Method:
Roll out the pastry and line the tin you are using. Spread the jam over, and cherries if using. Ideally put the tin (layered with cherries and jam) into the fridge but I can’t say I always – or actually ever – do!

Melt the butter/marge and sugar in a saucepan on a lowish heat, stirring occasionally to ensure the sugar completely dissolves into the melted butter. Add the ground rice/almonds and leaving it on the heat, stir for a minute or two until it is all well mixed and smooth. Take off the heat, and when it is a bit cooler, stir in the beaten eggs and a generous teaspoon and a bit (to size and taste) of almond extract.

Pour the mixture onto the pastry. Sprinkle generously with flaked almonds and pop it into the oven. In the Aga (2-door) I put it on the bottom grid of the top oven with the cold plain sheet over, for about 25-30 minutes+ until it is firm, looks golden and the almonds nicely coloured.

*It is perfectly delicious – and I rather think better – made with just ground rice and no ground almonds at all, but I often do half and half. I’ve never (yet) done it with all ground almonds.

It’s the Diamond Jubilee!

I should have added the recession as well, but did not want to let that cloud the atmosphere; however, in fact it almost helps us appreciate all the more what we do have to celebrate.

As I post this we are watching the pageant on the river, on the television. What a wonderful sight, and what a fantastic experience for those actually there. The sense of excitement, rejoicing and – dare I say it? – patriotism is a welcome contrast to all the public gloom and doom which daily surrounds us and about which, as individuals, there is little overall that we can do to improve the bigger picture.

Sneaking a little personal confession in here, don’t tell anyone but I remember the coronation, all of 60 years ago!!! I know as a child then, in 1953, if I had heard that someone had even been alive 60 years previously I would have been horror struck at how incredibly ancient they must be, and wonder that anyone so old could still be alive. But 60 years later I don’t actually feel any older inside although perhaps the looks have aged a bit…

As a (very!) young girl at boarding school in Bulawayo (now Zimbabwe, then Southern Rhodesia) we were filled with the excitement of the coronation itself but also the wonder of such a young woman having to take on such a demanding role, for life.The acknowledgement that it was a major event was further reinforced by an amazing wonder: the nuns at our school (not known for their indulgent attitude to their pupils) provided us each with a bottle of CocaCola at lunch time! We had no television to marvel at, I presume we all listened to the service on the school wireless; to us youngsters, the coke represented the significance of it all.

I do remember a great sense of loyalty and excitement, and protectiveness even – she was such a young woman, she’d been in Africa, our continent, when she had heard of the death of her father the previous year; I remember a lot of excited talk, in the country so many thousand of miles away from Britain, about the ushering in of a new Elizabethan era.

Looking back it has been in many ways a troubled era but the queen has weathered it with us and I think we all in this country owe the queen such a lot for what we normally all take for granted: like a parent she is always there, doing her best tirelessly and forever, with no cheerful prospect of retiring to egg her on – just her own sense of duty and commitment. Can you imagine if instead of her we had a president, fighting to get elected, then looking always to be re-elected, worrying about the polls and trying to please the current ‘Murdochs’ and other media and financial influencers? It would not be the same.

Anyway, enough of the ‘politics’ (not that for me it seems like that). Having not quite followed the wise advice of my father-in-law to his son upon going to university to avoid public statements about religion, politics or women we now move firmly onto the firmer ground of Parwich. Parwich is doing the weekend with its usual village style. The best thing I can do is give you this link to the Parwich Blog rather than churn out all the dates and times.

Derbyshire Open Arts weekend

Until Monday night when we have the lighting of the flares on Parwich Hill the weekend is a fairly normal one except that it is also the Derbyshire Open Arts weekend.

There will be artists opening their studios all over Derbyshire but this year we only have two open here; however, there will be lots of pictures to look at and we can most sincerely recommend going to both if you are anywhere near Parwich. For more information about opening hours and addresses see this link to our village blog – the fount of all information!

There are some other local artists who will also have a few pictures hanging in Gill’s studio.

While I have been at the computer, writing, John has actually been out and visited both studios and returned with – no, not a painting this time – the two photos here, just to give you a taster.

Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns

Well, we’ve moaned and groaned the last few weeks, about all this rain during an official doubt, the cold and whatever else we saw fit to dredge up, but this is the moment we have all be waiting for… Wonderful warm May sunshine. The flowers in the garden have sprung up and bloomed, the weeds have flourished twice as fast, and I already have seen some bolted rhubarb. It has been hot and John took out his camera this afternoon to take the quickest of quick videos panning across the barns, just for the fun of it, to remind us how lovely it’s been. Unfortunately we may have to add this tomorrow as YouTube and we are having a little case of crossed wires and misunderstandings.

Here is our first iris, and Boots asleep under the clematis on her own little nest. No chance of rest for the great tits, who have worked tirelessly to feed their young; constant, on demand feeding is what their chicks obviously believe in. Then we went for a stroll down to the village pond, to see whether the swallows were congregating there but even they seemed soporific. Poppy and her calf (whose name I forget, except it begins with P- Pansy, Petal, Petunia…?) were contentedly munching on the lush grass. We did see a duck, flying speedily across the scene, but that was about it

Back Home in Derbyshire

It is lovely to go away but really lovely to get back. After ten very full and happy days for us in Cornwall and briefly Devon we were greeted by a lawn of lush hay and everything looking rather over-luxuriant (including ourselves i might add, after ten days of excess food). Thanks to Janet’s attentions our guests were unaffected by our absence and the only worry we met was a rather wobbly Boots the cat.

Janet had alerted us that she seemed a bit unsteady on her pins. A fight? An injury? Had she perhaps had a knock with a car? Or perhaps it is just old age (it hits us all). Anyway, she isn’t off her food but spends a lots of time licking her right paw.

We took her to the vet this afternoon who said that might be a case of referred pain; she (the vet) could not find anything wrong anywhere so gave Boots a couple of injections (antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory) and all we can do is hope for the best. We do not know how old Boots is, but doing some careful sums reckon she must be at least 16. Seeing she still runs up the apple tree and chases her own tail she is no doing badly.

Anyway, a week ago I promised that the next day you would hear of more of our Cornish outings, so back to our trip. I can see some of you thinking once again, ‘What is this blog? A travel site, book site, cookery site? Most definitely probably not a holiday cottage site.” However, it is all loosely connected with our two holiday cottages are so much part of our life and one of these days there’ll be pure Tom’s and Douglas’s Barn news. Anyway, the next day it POURED, and the best day.

It was grey, foggy, very windy and extremely wet sp we spent two days very happily reading, chatting, even trying to get back into knitting (squares for AIDs orphans in Africa) in our holiday cottage, only to emerge to buy essential provisions and to have a truly delicious meal at a restaurant in Porthleven called Kota, that our daughter Ruthie had recommended. She had been there, and it is run by the sister of one of her friends, and the friend’s husband. It is superb, and I reckon we had the best food we have had for a very long time: every mouthful was an explosion of wonderful tastes. The wine wasn’t bad, either.

We returned home via the Eden Project after our Cornish week, spending the weekend with my brother John, near Totnes. More fun and nostalgia and general self-indulgence, with a trip to Ringmore where our parents are both buried within sight of the sea and their own house and then back via the Start Bay Fish & Chip shop at Tor Cross on Slapton Sands.

Before I close you must admire Percy, who landed unbidden in my brother’s garden a number of years ago and has ever since strutted around like the lord of the manor, gazing at himself in all the windows and displaying his feathers to anyone in the slightest interested. The thing is, he really is very beautiful, so you just have to admire him, which he expects as his due.

Tom’s Barn Abroad

Don’t get us wrong. We just love the Peak District, and thoroughly appreciate being in such a beautiful part of the world which is so easily accessed from all corners of Britain. We wouldn’t swop it for the world but John and I both have long and happy family connections with the west country – mainly Devon but (ssh, don’t whisper it abroad in Devon) we love Cornwall too. When daughter Ruthie told us that the choir she sings with were planning a tour in Cornwall over the Bank Holiday weekend we needed no second bidding.

Much as we hate leaving home (we always feel bad not being here when our guests are) the groupie/Cornwall instincts took over. We immediately booked a holiday cottage and are happy to pass on a good tip. if ever any of you are looking for a romantic cottage for two of course please look at Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns. However, if you are heading to Cornwall we aren’t anyway near so can’t help. I am sure there are hundreds of lovely cottages there but we would have no hesitation recommending you look at another Premier Cottage property,  Little White Alice

Little White Alice is very new, very ecologically ‘green’ and very attractive. There are seven cottages I think, a natural pool and a wood-fired hot tub, so very different from us but – swings and roundabouts and all that – we are both super but very different and in very different parts of the world so neither of us need have any fears from the other and we are very happy to recommend Simon and Rosie’s cottages whole heartedly.

I didn’t set off the write a blurb for Little White Alice but it sort of took over. Tomorrow I will let you know what we have been doing on our time off – more puffs for Cornwall and things Cornish! And a big puff for the Addison Singers. They are the greatest!

(Just listened to the weather forecast for tomorrow – not good- so plans for a trip to St Michael’s Mount may be jettisoned…)