All in Order .

Just to let you know that when we feel the time is right to open our doors to welcome guests through our doors we are already ready .We understand the rules and regulations. We understand the precautions we need to take to make your stay as safe as we possibly can.

We are not opening for the time being as we feel that as lockdown eases that the virus will rear its ugly head again. With my dad been 97 and Jack and I the wrong side of 60  we feel for us it is not the right time. 

We do miss having guests here and I love to cook, so I miss the breakfasts ..the smell of cooking bacon. I miss cracking the eggs with their deep yellow yolks. I miss the smell of toast.  I miss your ohs and ahs when I set your plate down in from of you and I miss your cleared plates when you have finished. I miss the satisfaction I get form giving you pleasure of unexpected treats, of sharing our knowledge of the area. 

 

 

Team building, Summer and Family

Talk about the Adventures of the Enid Blyton 5 .. We have our very own 5 ,when the children come . We are lucky to have the beck that runs down through our woods near the house and water has always been a fascination to children over the years . They don't seem to feel the cold , icy cold water. So today as the temperature peaked into the 30s there was no better place to be. We have waterfalls and they jump down into them fearless, but they want the water deeper .Only one way then is to dam the water up. They worked like little beavers as I sat on a moss covered stone watching them all do their bit . At one stage they started to make a mudslide but I could see accidents about to happen so the idea of that had to be aborted as they had took off their wellingtons and filled them up and pass them along for one to the other to make it quicker and easier for them.
They ended up taking their dirty clothes and washing them in the water like the people do at the side of the River Nile. Then putting them back on again. Emmy had just got some new Joules wellies which had a ruler marking on the back of them  which can in very useful. So off the wellies used to come off to see how deep the water was.
I said they were like water nymphs. But then maybe they were just wood fairies. So after happily playing for over 2 hours  with no fall outs ,they had fairy buns  and a change of clothes and went home smiling .
Mission accomplished.

Sunday Update ,getting ready to come out of Lockdown in North YORKSHIRE

Can't believe it is 10 days since I wrote a blog. After writing one every day throughout lockdown I felt it was time to open out a little more. For you to go out and about as you felt fit and for me to focus on how we can think to reopen and what we need to do to make you feel safe and happy in your holiday surroundings.

So this is what I have come up with ..

I have bought enough hand sanitiser, disinfectants ,wipes and the like to sink a ship. Well maybe not a ship but it certainly weighed my car down at the back end. 

I already use a steam cleaner in bathrooms and will continue to do so and use it in the bedroom were possible .

Our laundry is professionally cleaned offsite in any case and the laundry services has had over 100 years experience and we have every confidence in them.

Booking will be for 3 days or longer as we intend to not have straight turn around .So there will be 3 days before you come into a room no one will have been before you and for the two days after you leave to safeguard me as well .

Any booking in 2019  we will take no deposits. Leaving you free to cancel ...but please let us now if you are not going to be coming to stay.

Our rooms have their own front doors so that if you prefer you do not have to have any contact with others you don't need to have. 

We are still thinking about breakfasts which we know are an important feature of why you come to stay with us. As we get more guidelines from the government we can put things in place.

Unless you are part of the same party, guests will sit at separate tables and if prefered seperate rooms. Or if the weather is nice maybe you would even like to enjoy it outside as we have done so many times over the last few months.

We are opening up more and more garden,field and forest space for you to enjoy. So if you just need to get away and not venture far but just come for a change of scenery and air we are hoping you will be pleased at what we can offer you.

We would like you to ring us 

to discuss your needs, your preferences and your worries too on 01347 868526.

In the meantime I will leave you with a few photos of life with us. I am still keeping my hand in cooking breakfast as Jack doesn't say no

Early birthday present ....Kitten love

My birthday isn't until the 23rd June. I was supposedly born on the most romantic day of the year, but as I was told about 25 years ago which I hadn't known till then, it was a full moon. The Summer solstice and the night of a thunderstorm  ...so  if you find me a bit weird  I will put it down to that.

When I was small my Dad used to ice my birthday cake. My mum wasn't the best cook in the world in fact she was not very good at all .My Dad could plough a field and bake a cake and my Mum certainly left the icing to him . I have had ponies on cakes, sweet peas, even a goldfish. We often use the same cards from year to year. I remember when I was 7, I got a card and I liked it so much  it had a horse on rather than a pony .It was a bay horse with black man and tail eating in a field full of buttercups.  I had it until I was at least 12 I just got an extra x[kiss] on it every year.  That is what saddens me about life today it is so materialistic . One year I got a goldfish ,one, not a whole tankful but it swan round in a glass bowl. In fact as June is a busy month on the farm and hay making is more important ,the year I got my goldfish, on the actual day I got a carrot in the shape of a fish and a stick. I think it was the wooden end of an old washing up mop as my Dad hadn't had time to go to Malton to get a fish for me. So I had to stir the water round very quickly to make it look as if the piece of carrot fish was swimming . Children don't throw wobblies in those days ,it was a day when the rest of the family sang happy birthday to you  as you blew out the "preloved" candles on the cake. You had to be quick as the candles had to be used by others on their birthdays too ....and you were grateful. People say Covid will have an effect on people make them realise what small acts of kindness are and how the world will change and people will be appreciative  . I really wish this was true but I can't see it.

Duchess our cat is 15 years old now as April past. She was born the day Camilla and Charles got married .We had the Duke too , Marmaduke, but unfortunately he died . And I know she may last another year or two, the cat I mean not Camilla, but a time will come when she is no longer here. I have being saying for a while I was wanting another cat.

So I was delighted on Friday when my Dad rang me to say he had got my birthday present. He had gone down after tea to shut his greenhouse up and there on the path was a kitten. it had appeared from nowhere. Farm kittens are usually wild and sizzle, unless you get them early. If the mother cat sees you looking she is crafty and will move them. But this one was so quiet and let my Dad pick it up .How he managed to get it up to the house and into a box I don't know, as he walks with two walking
sticks but he had.  We reckon it is about 3 weeks old as I knew one of the cat had some about 3 weeks ago and as much as I had tried to follow her to find out where they were she kept giving me the slip. And so now you can see  my early birthday present. The verdict is out on a name so maybe you can help . My Dad thought Felix, but I am sure it is a girl, but he said they always had a Felix . I had a Belinda when I was young and loved it until a cow laid on and killed it. Then I thought of Rose and Daisy... and I can't really just call it cat with no name

Be careful what you wish for

I would have loved to go to Whitby or Filey or anywhere along that stretch of coastline over the last few days as the weather I hear from my friend who lives there has been glorious. Far too many people about and really I never go to the seaside on Bank Holidays as I think it is the very worst time to go . The world and his wife seem to descend on the shore and most leave their brains at home. And especially this year when we are in /out /nearly in/nearly out of lockdown there was no way I was sitting in a traffic jam for hours to risk getting Covid.

So we have spent sunny days and balmy evenings in the garden.

In the post yesterday arrived my Simple Things magazine which is the first of three I have bought on subscription I have been deliberating whether I should bother and finally after 2 +years I decided to bite the bullet and order it .
So there I was laid in bed last night reading or rather flicking through the pages as I was too tired to set on to read much and they was a recipe for ... and crab... Ah crab, I thought, oh I wish I could get hold of a couple of crabs.

When I was a child I was allergic to them and got an itchy rash if I ever ate them and had to be taken to the doctors, who duly gave me a course of turquoise  tablets and I had a few days off school . So even though I got this very unpleasant rash I took any opportunity to eat crabs, so I could have time off school . Now you realise how much I hated school .If anyone who didn't know I wasn't supposed to eat crabs and I was offered them in a sandwich I munched them down quite happily knowing I would have a few days off school .

I grow out of my allergy as well as growing out of school. Both Jack and myself love a good crab sandwich. I mix the cooked meat with a blob of mustard which seems to enhance the flavour. My Dad is partial to crabmeat too, so there is one for him .

People talk about their prayers been answered ,well today my thoughts had been answered and Mark's friend who used to be a trawlerman off Whitby  arrived with a  bag and handed it to me at arms length .
They had arrived as fresh as anything trying to crawl out of the bag at 5pm this evening and now they are cooked and in the fridge ready for our crab sandwiches tomorrow.

When Jack was a bit younger he was determined to tempt fate and eat the dead men . He survived and I really not sure if they would do you much harm but I am not going to try them as even the feel of them put me off .But boys will be boys however old they are.