Fennel and Thyme

I have been sitting in the fennel and thyme bed in the sun, doing a bit of weeding. The perfume is amazing and quite heady so a great enjoyment and one of the reasons that one stays here. D is as usual, mending a wall but they are looking so much better that he is quite pleased with the results. The roses have been so good that they are an inspiration. The pink rose on the outside of the garden wall has survived both the ministrations of the stone masons who had to repair a very difficult piece of circular wall and the frozen winter with cement covering so it must be pretty hardy. To my surprise the inside rose which has been a stump since November has suddenly re-awoken and is sprouting.

I am taking cuttings of various herbs so that there may be some to sell at the open day on 17th July when the house tour will start at 2pm. People need to telephone 01275 393141 if they would like to join a tour (£10 including all you can drink of tea and some home made cake either made by me or Mrs Foster who is 91 and still going strong. From time to time she rings me up and asks if we would eat a cake if she makes one....a silly question really. I bought her a new Kenwood a month ago as the previous one's motor burnt out with all the use it had).

The rose Kiftsgate has excelled itself this year. After several years of attempting to get it to 'tumble' over the garden wall into the lane it now has and the perfume for anyone walking down there is terrific.



As for the dogs in these warm days who said that terriers are not water dogs!

Pubs and BnB

We have now had the BnB running for a year and been visited by for the most part extremely delightful guests from all over the world. We have met them from the station, found them tearful on the M5 when they could not find Bristol! Ferried them about to weddings and funerals. The worst an Englishman with his own BnB business who booked in both with us and someone else at the same time and felt that it was acceptable first to forget to cancel one of his bookings then to change after insisting that he was coming with his whole family and we lost £500 of other business as a result. I'm glad to say that he seems to be a rarity. We like to feel that our guests are guests and not charge deposits. It is for the most part a business based on trust and except for this chap and one other lady we have not been let down. Not too bad I expect.

One couple has been here 8 times and are almost like family. Last night's couple wrote in our visitor's book that we had exceeded all expectations which was extremely kind of them. We have had some very kind comments.

On Tuesday our guest joined us as we tried out the George at Backwell Farleigh which has just re-opened after a change of hands and refurb. Looks great and has a young keen team. Our timing wasn't good as the rest of the locality had chosen the same night to try them out and it was heaving! (Rather like Rick Stein's Pub in St Merryn last week as we took our annual 3 day holiday..no room at the inn) They were charming and we settled down for a drink and chose from the menu. Then told a 20 min wait with crisps on the house. 40 mins later they took our order to return 5 mins later with no homemade chicken kiev left - a pity sounded delicious. Seafood platter chosen by some as a replacement. When that arrived , no mussels so a bit more on the house. We eventually ate about 10pm so, so much for an early night but it was very jolly, a good thing that there were 5 of us, and the food when it came was excellent. The staff rather horrified at their success and lack of everything, but handled us well. We will certainly have another go and wish them well.

Visitors and roses

We have had a busy week with two visits already. When you take visitors around your home there is a certain amount of scurrying about hiding the detritus of life before they come. That pile of newspapers, odd socks etc that seem to be on every table or hot pipe. The criteria is that the house can be used normally when visitors go home. This is why we are only open to guided groups. Life requires some planning!

We are therefore going to have an 'Open House' day on 17th July. We will take groups round the house at about 2pm but people must be booked in with us (01275 393141) so that we do not have too big a group to fit in the rooms (in the 13th and 14th century they were rather smaller and lower than in the 17th). The tour of the house is followed by tea and cake which I often make with roses and other garden fruit. The berb garden - re-designed 4 years ago is also a great place to wander and we can share the scents and flavours of the herbs that we have here. Some more unusual. The Romans have influenced the garden and signs of them can be seen both in and outside the house.

The garden was open under the National Gardens scheme several years ago and featured in a national paper...We had 1200 visitors and had a real problem finding cups, tea, milk etc to look after everyone.Thank goodness now for the farm shop next door which as such an asset to the valley. A lot of our guests go to lunch there before coming on to us in the afternoon.

I cannot believe that it is June and I've not written anything here since March. The Council elections have been and gone, won by two rather ancient blues as expected. We independents gave them a run for their money Tony Butcher getting almost to the post which was a very good effort. Having looked around the counting house new blood might have been a good idea but that's for another day.

The sun has at last come out without wind and we have had a fair amount of rain. The garden has perked up no end and the hay fields look like waving fields of grass rather than a trimmed lawn. A relief.

I have been taking my young horse eventing which has been a shock as I didn't expect to do that again. He is such fun and no pressure. These small courses of unaffiliated one day events are such a good idea. Good income for the organisers and a great introduction to young riders and horses without the expense of affiliation until you know that you can compete at the level.

Visitor numbers are down this year. I'm not sure if it was the expense for the group that came from Swindon this week or perhaps having a 3 hour stop over in Clevedon which while a decent enough town does not have a great deal to offer the day tripper and they got rather bored. They did however love the rose and vanilla cake that I made (the roses are fantastic this year). I've been making rose jam the perfume is a knock out a little really sends the senses reeling whipped into cream on strawberries....terrific. We are now picking elderflower for the liqueur. It did rather well at the flower show last year and is a great party starter included in a cocktail.

The dogs are enjoying squirrel tv and are glued to it from the moment that they get up. I'm not sure why they don't give it a second thought until we come down as it is light and the window is in their 'bedroom' but they don't. They have both had birthdays Pip is 1 and Georgie 11.

My youngest brother and family came for the weekend so lots of swimming and cricket while their eldest spent her time with the small grey pony who had been made very white for his trip to the RDA regional competitions where our group had a great day out and came home with a few prizes which was very exciting for all. One of them has qualified for the championships which was roundly applauded and I have just sent in the entry. There will be great support and we hope for a good result there as well. Everyone is very competitive, in a good way, as the playing field is very level and everyone likes to see effort rewarded. Parents had made lunch and coffee which was very welcome with an early start (5am) to get the ponies ready. I forgot their passports so one sainted father made a detour to get them (wonderful man). We all arrived in good order and were undaunted by an unfortunate accident occurring outside our trailer right at the start of the day. Harvey was almost good but managed to be distracted by needing a pee through a whole dressage test (which made him rather slow) and most of the handy pony until he could stand it no longer and proceeded to do the longest know to horse while standing by the gate as his rider opened it and had a fit of the giggles. Fun for all.