Bed and Breakfast

A new venture for us we have had our first bed and breakfast guests. A lovely family who were caught in heavy traffic for hours getting here. They were thankful to fall into the swimming pool. Then they chilled out in the garden and picked cherries in the orchard,ew beating the birds to it. Next morning some marauding crows were helping themselves. I cannot blame them they are very good this year. We are really pleased with how the complete redecoration of the bathroom and bedrooms has gone. Worth the very much family effort with one sister in law finding wallpaper and another giving very helpful ideas for improving and upgrading. All our experience B&B sitting and running charter boats is coming into play. So we hope that our guests will enjoy Gatcombe as much as we Meanwhile we have had several parties around the house mostly in glorious weather and the roses this year have responded to the cold winter by being fantastic. Helped along by several tonnes of FYM spread by the long suffering husband in not very nice weather early in the spring. He suffers from bad circulation in his hands very painful when its cold. A good reason to work abroad in the winter. But its summer now and where better to be than here. Barbeque last weekend in hot sunny weather and the Welsh pony bathed for two hours, plaited and polished went off in fine fettle to the Bath and West Show to do his bit with Tom in the Riding for the Disabled display. He gleamed white for two days but now that it has rained he is back to the red brown colour that is the soil here.

The Banksia rose which thought blooming in January a good idea last year then never a flower has outdone intself this year. Fantastic sort of frothy champagne rose scent as you wander down the green walk.

April Fool weather

Spring may be a reality at last.

Yellow clementines and purple crocii and white snowdrops have given way to golden daffodils and blue grape hyacynths. The garden is at last looking greener and the lawns have been cut twice despite having snow yesterday and hail so thick this afternoon that I could not see through it. Some of the flowers now look a bit bedraggled but the colurs are great to see. Its very cold in my 'office' here. No heating at this end of the house and not worth lighting a fire. Wear lots of clothes is the answer.

The good news is that we ae going to try B&B in thewing at the back of the house with possible short term holiday lets a week at a time. It will be interesting to see what sort of take up we get. We do have under cover parking so a bit of security and when it ever warms up the pool will be open.. It seems extraordinary at the moment to think of swimming but even in last years rather miserable summer the pool was warm enough to swim until October.

We have gone from loads of snow to the harbingers of spring in the last month. The bank under the old sycamore tree is looking splendid. David fed and watered the lawn in the autumn and we have a fantastic show of bulbs which, after the drabness left by the melted snow is a great uplifter. They seem to prefer to be under the trees. Perhaps the bulbs dry out in the summer. The squirrels spread them round the garden and they come out in other unlikely places as well. They had been thin on the ground but must have been semi dormant as recently they have tried to climb the bird feeder, to no avail and it is quite comical to see them sliding down the slippery post looking a but bemused.

We are midway through sorting out the garden. We don't like to remove anything that the birds might like and David has made a birdfeeder which has been up since Christmas we have been rewarded by 2 pairs of nuthatches and at one time 8 varying tits - coal, great, long tailed, blue all on the feeder at once with sparrows underneath and being seen off by the blackbird and robins. They love the nuts and have seed and fruit as well. One of our tennants - Kevin and Sam are very knowledgeable and have seen a huge assortment of different birds around this winter. They keep us posted on what we are seeing and what they have seen around the grounds which makes it all more interesting. Green woodpeckers nesting in one of the sycamore - one to watch.

The archeologicals have been working away all winter fidning many building under the site and it would be very interesting to have a dig and ascertain just what age buildings are where. Apparently English Heritage are not keen as they want to leave it for future generations why seems very odd as it can always be covered up and it would be fascinating to find out exactly what Gatcombe once was.

We have had several bookings already for the summer which seemed quite a long way off but now seems to be rushing towards us and as usual the garden is getting frantic. We are also doing fencing as I have been mad enough to buy a horse. Rather unintentionally but he is just what I like so 'rescued' him from a dealer up North who had rather too many eating their heads off just after the snow and hadn't been able to sell any for a couple of months. David and I had a couple of nights away, decided to look at a horse in Yorkshire for a local child/project for me. The first was near Hornsea. Never been there before and it was a beautiful winter day beside the sea. Just too much project it was a bit frightened of its owner and anxious about back and head. I'm sure someone will have the time for her. We stayed in a couple of good pubs. One near Holmes Chapel, The Dog (sadly changed from the Gay Dog (for obvious reasons) which is a much more fun name, where Georgie was allowed in the blue carpet areas and soon made herself at home by the fire. Also at the Dun Cow at Colton near Stafford which is being run by a very nice young couple not as yet in the good pub guide we thought it should be as we were very well looked after and the beer and food were good too! Then on to Manchester where I went to see a coloured sportshorse and bought a thoroughbred. He passed the vet with flying colours and a week later a friend and I got up at 4.30am and went and fetched him. Never in a trailer before he was anxious but hopeful (as were we). We were very delighted to have stationary traffic always in the opposite direction and made it back in less than 9 hours. He as yet hasn't a permanent name his only marking a heart shaped star on his face so still thinking.