Life at Carr House in Summer

We are now well into Summer and life here goes on with fruit picking in the garden, cutting lawns and looking after some Labrador puppies which we born last Sunday. More and more guests are enjoying the benefits, we can now offer with part self catering in rooms . With a fridge,microwave and toaster available you can make snacks and small meals if you do not wish to venture out in the evenings. Even just chill out around here in the woods and fields,by a stream.You dont even have to go that far, enjoy sitting in the garden listening to the birds,reading a book Enjoying that bottle of wine you treated yourself to. We are happy to help should you wish for a food delivery to arrive in time so you can make your own supper,snacks and small meals. There is a barbecue too for those more adventurous souls if you choose. A cooked breakfast, all comes in with the price so no need to worry about that. The Star in Harome has reopened its doors after that terrible fire and once again serving delicious meals . Michelin starred with a very reasonable market menu 3 course meal for £30 which I had for my birthday and very good it was too ,as well as their a la carte menu. Across the field from us is Wass Farm and you can buy delicious charcuterie. . Jack is busy with his dogs and Minty who a lot of you have meet or seen on facebook is his shadow. There is a saying if only the dog could talk … She makes friends with anyone who will give her the time of day and enjoys all the attention. We are busy working and in the early stages of bringing a walled garden on the farm back to its former glory.There were poplars tree which were hollow in the middle so had to come down which was a shame but necessary. Surprisingly they are putting up green shoots from the bottom again. By our Christmas newsletter hopefully will be able to tell you more exciting things and who we are working with and what we can offer in 2024. Wass Grange and its walled garden overlooks Byland Abbey. You can tread the route that the monks walked many centuries before. Grange is the word for a granary and this historically is an outlaying farm belonging to a monastery or feudal Lord. A large country house and when I googled a bit more the motto of the Grange Movement-USA- from the 1800s was “We have always welcomed and invited people of all races,creeds,religions and nationalities ". My grandmother did this in the 1920s and 30s and here we are 100 years on doing the same. We have a good relationship with Castle Howard as we continue to work together with local businesses. For guests staying with us we are able to offer a reduction in entrance costs. To get you in the Christmas spirit they will be open from mid November with their spectacular Christmas event. Also as we would really love you to experience a gastronomical experience at Andrew Pern’s The Star at Harome, we offer complimentary travel to get you there - Arrangements can be made with a local taxi firm for your return journey.

Castle Howard 2019 Christmas

Christmas comes but once a year and Castle Howard certainly dont miss the opportunity to deck their halls, rooms and corridors  with all the jolliments of Christmas. This year it is themed on A Venetian Masquerade.
I was very lucky yet again to be invited to the preview evening and here is a little what it is all about . Nicholas Howard looked very dapper in his Christmas outfit .Santa Claus must have been hitting the sherry bottle as he sang ,jingled and rapped and was on the very best form.
I felt very honoured to speak to Charlotte Lloyd Webber in the Long Gallery before he was called away for question time in the Chapel and met Bretta Gerecke in the ladies loos - well one does doesn't one.  The costumes were truly amazing .I didn't manage to track down Adrain Lillie as I might have tried to rope him into helping with the costumes for the up and coming World Jam festival -Alice in Wonderland characters
The festive tribute runs from 16th November until 5 the Jan 2020 you really must make time to go .

Countryfile Live at Castle Howard

Countryfile Live was held at Castle Howard last week for 4 days. With Thursday looking like the best day I made an early start and as Castle Howard is only 15 minutes from us I was parked up by 6.30am and on to the show field. With wellingtons and my jacket on I was prepared if the weather worsened but it turned out to be a really nice day. There was lots of news about people having to queue up for 3 hours to get in off the A64 but as we dont live in that direction and really if the people had made an early start I am sure there would have been no problem. Our guests went the next 2 days and had no problems at all and thoroughly enjoyed their day out.  I took Jacks 4 x 4 just incase I got stuck but it was effortless and when I did come out about 1.45pm again I had had enough by then and to beat the queues I was straight out.

There was lots of delighted people as the presenters of the show were about all day and having their photos taken with the crowd. I had a quick word with Matt Baker as he had stayed  and Ellie was filmed with us a few years ago when making a programme about sheep and dyeing the yarns.

With getting there early, there was free bacon sandwiches for the first 500 people and shared mine with the girls on the Welcome to Yorkshire stand as they were in for a long day. Thanks to Brian Turner the chef in charge .
 There was so much tastes of gin on offer I could have done with a chauffeur but was only tempt with some marsh mallow Moonshine . The cake from the Wold Cookery School was amazing and you can see it on my Instagram page as I did a little video of it. And I tried every lemon curd going.

My grandchildren went on Sunday  and had a whale of a time been "weather girls" and goodness knows what else . There was plenty of things for them to interact on. Knowing what they are like I imagine they entered it with gusto as they have been on the radio and on film before so are not shy and especially Martha would be asking the presenter all sorts of questions - she is the middle one . She had her birthday 2 weeks ago she was 8 and Emmy was 6 last week .Rubi is 10 in September so they are good company now and time flies how they are getting so grown up. They were pleased to hear that Countryfile Live  is coming back in 2020 .

And lastly thanks to the Daily Mail who had a code in the paper which enabled ourselves and many others to get in for free.

because we love Castle Howard so much.....

We are very excited as Castle Howard opens its doors again today for the 2016 season.

Last year we were featured in the Guardians top 12 places to stay for wild flower gardens,orchards and meadows.
 This year we are basing our offers on gardens too.  We are offering guests who come to stay with us for 2 nights entrance tickets to the house and gardens a saving of £7.50pp a ticket. This will mean you pay only £10 instead of £17.50pp. Any guests staying for 4 nights weekday stays or more will receive complimentary tickets as a thank you for choosing to come to stay with us and for returning guests for their loyalty.

I went along yesterday and everyone is hard at work getting ready for the 2016 opening. There were people walking in the grounds but today ,Saturday now the house is open.  The daffodils are flowering to order as carpets of yellow glow around the estate.

I also spied something with my little eye at Castle Howard yesterday beginning with O. I wonder if you can find him too

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Gala Dinner at Castle Howard

After the VisitBritain conference on Friday we were invited to a Gala dinner. This was at our grandest of grand stately homes in the county, Castle Howard. Only 10 miles from us. I have visited the house on many an occasion and really like going when it is dressed for Christmas. This time we were very honoured to go to this Gala Dinner. Simon Howard was always a generous host to the tourism sector over the years. There was a canape reception followed by walking tour through state rooms to reach the Long Hall. Jack was as much impressed by the chateaubriand as he was with the beautiful paintings and portraits that adorn the walls. You can imagine how thrilled the foreign buyers were seeing such a house in all its glory. I loved the flowers that had been arrange by Kim Queen and were very British as one would expect in red,white and blue. Rachael Underwood had been working until very late to create a super evening -see the red ,white and blue colours lit up the Castle. Along corridors in each window candles in hurriance glasses lit the way. Peter Dodd gave an opening speech. As each course of food ended we welcomed another set of buyers to the table.So throughout the evening dined with Polish,Chinese,French and Belguim. The evening was ended by a display by ribbon actresses. My evening was complete when I handed around my calendars as guests boarded buses for their departure. A Danish journalist said he was very touched that a small business like myself had thought to do this and thought it very enterprising of me. And that it was good to see both large and small businesses working side by side to create this Yorkshire brand. Gary Verity might have been missing on this occasion as he was busy lambing.I am sure he would have been pleased with how Yorkshire pulled out the stops to make this a truly memorable night for people from across the globe. Gary we presume was teaching Mrs Verity to pull out the lambs.

Visit Britain

On Friday I had an away day .First it was to the Visit Britain conference at Yorks racecourse where we heard the statistics from Visit Britain -trends and visitors. Here we were treated to a lovely lunch overlooking the York racecourse where I met up with Katrina Gray from the Wold Cottage and other representives from around Yorkshires businesses . The welcome was made by Sally Blacombe the CEO for Visit Britain. Following Sally's very interesting and up beat speech David Edwards the Head of Research and forecasting spoke of Globals trends,inbound UK trends along with a summary of markey conditions. I loved listening to Holger Lenz -hello Love- who is a very witty speaker who clearly love England .He is the manager for Central and Southern Europe for Visit Britain . I spoke to him after his presentation as he was then rushing back to Germany and when I handed him my card I was very touched that he had heard of me -little old me from Ampleforth.One of his collegues had stayed here last year and spoke highly of me . We then listened to Robin Johnson who for the last 3 years has been Director China for Visit Britain -he too was rushng off as he had to look after Prince William the following day in China. After this was a tea break -delicious cakes by the way -before listening to speakers Jimmy Greene,Nick Hall. Our own Welcome toYorkshire Marketing and Sales Director Peter Dodd. A discussion was then led by Michelle Brown of Visit York . Lastly it was lovely to meet Jo Leslie and see Helen Smith and Craig Nattress who do so much to bring tourists to the area locally . Lots of name dropping here but as you can read it was a very interesting day in the office.

Gardener's Delight

I admire the statley gardens of Castle Howard and Scampston. The Walled Garden in Helmsley with an orchid house and probably my favourite is Hovingham Hall .Wolds Way Lavender has now returned to free entry for 2014 and is home to the only wood burning distillery in the country producing liquid gold.We are lucky to have all these in our area Ryedale. Not too far from here is Harrogate where you can wander around Harlow Carr, The RHS, The Spring Flower fair is held in Harrogate in April.There was a good presence of displays at Thirsk the other week .I took a few photos to tempt you to create your own Garden of Eden.

Last Night at the Proms

Saturday night . The weather was great as was the food and company. In fact we have not enjoyed ourselves as much for a long time.We were kindly invited to the Last Night of the Proms by Tom and Rachael.The setting was perfect and we will talk about it for a very long time. Lots of flag waving,clapping.cheering and even tears as the Spitfire took to the skies giving a nostalgic display. Some had even got dressed up in officers uniform. Molls at the side of them as they wobbled over the lawns of Castle Howard in their high heels and seamed stockings. We ate Butcher Geoff Thornton's best rare beef and tucked into a table groaning with goodies. Talk about drinking you under the table -the bottles were tucked under the table in big plastic buckets filled with ice. The finale was a grand firework display.

Rachael was so organised and had obviously gone to a lot of trouble to create a wonderful evening for us all.