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.

A place to picnic by Samantha Wragg

We are very lucky to be added to a blog written by Samantha Wragg who goes under the name of @cocobutter

• 
  
• I just wanted to let you know that I've included Little Holbeck in my picnic spots blog post - https://cocobutterblog.co.uk/the-best-places-for-a-picnic-in-the-uk/ - and I'll be promoting this across my social media channels tomorrow to celebrate International Picnic Day. 

  
  The best places for a picnic in the UK

  BY SAMANTHA WRAGG · JUNE 17, 2020
  
  With International Picnic Day coming up on the 18th June, let’s hope that the weather plays ball so we can enjoy some al fresco dining! There’s just something so magical about eating outside – little sandwiches and sausage rolls accompanied by a glass of fizz while relaxing on a picnic blanket, bliss!

  
  
• We have some great local shops were you can buy items for your picnic or just let us KNOW and we can sort it for you 

T.he best places for a picnic in the UK“This picnic spot is free for guests to use when they stay here with us at Carr House Farm, Ampleforth North Yorkshire. It’s situated at the side of Little Holbeck which is set on the southern edge of the North York Moors National Park and in the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is part of our “back garden”. If you are quiet you will probably see deer taking their lunch and there are woodpeckers who nest here every year.”“This picnic spot is free for guests to use when they stay here with us at Carr House Farm, Ampleforth North Yorkshire. It’s situated at the side of Little Holbeck which is set on the southern edge of the North York Moors National Park and in the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is part of our “back garden”. If you are quiet you will probably see deer taking their lunch and there are woodpeckers who nest here every year.”

BY SAMANTHA WRAGG · JUNE 17, 2020

With International Picnic Day coming up on the 18th June, let’s hope that the weather plays ball so we can enjoy some al fresco dining! There’s just something so magical about eating outside – little sandwiches and sausage rolls accompanied by a glass of fizz while relaxing on a picnic blanket, bliss!

With a little help from some of my favourite hotels and tourist boards, I’ve put together a list of the best places to have a picnic in the UK. So pack up your (erm) pack up and pencil in the date to enjoy a munch at these perfect picnic spots. Don’t forget to observe social distancing and follow government guidelines at all times during your day out.

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

Not my last post but as Lockdown is easing

 All the way through lockdown I have been writing a post every night .
I felt I owned it to everyone to read them and enjoyed them to keep going. Some of my day are very much the same, eat, sleep and work or maybe sleep ...I love to sleep, so contact me up to 12.30 past midnight I am rarely in bed by then but when I don't have guests in I  sleep in . I sometimes don't even feel the urgency at 7.30am when someone rings to pick up the phone . It would be Jack's mate who wants some advice about his sheep or Jacks cousin Stuart who I am sure rings up at some unearthly hour to wind me up.  I plan to have a code if my Dad wants me. So the secret is out ,when I have been invited to do webinars and zoom meetings early doors you know why I dont accept the offer. Susan Briggs' zoom meetings I really look forward to.  I try to make them all as she has worked so hard during the lockdown to keep us all going I try not to miss those. So even if she did them at 6am I would crawl out of bed to listen in.

As you probably know I do a lot on social media and always trying to help other businesses and also during lockdown other than the telephone it has been a great way to keep in touch with people.

I set out with great intentions at the beginning of all this lockdown to get certain jobs done. One thing I really want to do is to finish a book I have been writing for some time, so this is why I am going to write random blogs probably once or twice a week. Forgive me, but by the time I write a blog, double check the spelling and still get words wrong. Find photos from my jumbled up photo library, it is nearing 12 midnight when I get these posts up ..often taking me around an hour.

Again we have had rain today, which as well as refreshing things has made the weeds wake up too so I really must spend some time before our little jungle becomes an even bigger one. It was 10.30 pm when I came indoors from the garden this evening  and it is twilight I love these Summer nights. There is some bonus to living in the Northern Hemisphere .

I will leave you this evening with some photos of what Nicholas has got going on at the farm. He runs Wass Grange Hatchery and here are some of today chicks that have hatched out . So I will retreat to my "hatchery" and bring you news again before too long.

Stay safe, dear people. Stay strong and remember we only one chance to get it right. So try to stay at home  and look after yourselves. Dont take any notice of other people if they want to venture out and be silly bs that is their choice. I would like to think we will all still be here tucking into our Christmas dinners and moaning about the sprouts.

If you know of anyone who wants any eggs hatching or chicks Wass Grange Hatchery has a facebook page and all contact details are on there.



 

Did you do a rain dance

We were getting desperate for rain. Not only in the gardens as you can always carry buckets of water for these but in the fields. We have  some stony land on hillsides which when there is constant heat and sun they just burn off and there is no grass for the animals to eat.  The crops are not grow , the grain will not fill out on the stalks if there is no rain and we will have droughts . So as much as I have enjoyed the sun and the warmth we  were ready for a steady steam of rain.
So batty as I am I thought I must follow in the footsteps of the native American Indians and do a rain dance. And as my dancing feet  are not like they used to be when we used to 'rock around the clock" and Jennifer and I used to make regular trips to the Grand in Scarborough on a Friday night and show those townies what country girls were made of.  When we could balance on 6 inch heels and dance the night away.  Have 3 hours sleep and be up bright and breezy to start work ....those were the days...
Instead I did a gentle jig around the circular garden in front of the house..That is maybe why we got steady rainfall instead of a deluge.  A deluge after all this time of being dry would not have done any good.It would not have sunk in and probably caused more bother than what it was worth. The roses would have been battered to death and the peony would have lost their petals overnight.

So as the day went on the sunshine came back and we were reward with the most amazing fresh and flowery scents of the garden. Sorry I cant send you the smell but can share a few of the flowers with you. The sheep and the cattle are happy too as their pastures are refreshed and lets hope it rains gently for the next 2 weeks and nature will bring back the green grass, otherwise I will have to get my dancing shoes out again.

if you like trees and water and peace

What do you have when you step out of your back door.

When you live in a place like we do I suppose we take it for granted and some people would spend a lot more time up here than we do . I like to be near water and near trees and sometimes away from the telephone too . Here is a short video to show you just some of the things what you are missing.

When Jack is near the trees he usually has a chainsaw in this hand.

Getting the wood in for winter and as you will see there are a lot of fallen branches to keep us busy. When guests come to stay with us they often get in their cars and go off for the days. To visit stately homes and castles ,walled gardens and even plant centres. They come for all sorts of reasons. But what better place to go some take a book to read,others an easel and some just nod off in the peace and quiet. So as we hope to be coming out of lockdown before too long we are starting to think that people may just want to have a bit of space to themselves ,to feel safe and not to join the multitudes but to come and stay with us and simple enjoy our "back garden" They need to bring their cameras too as you never know what opportunity is there for you to catch , a deer with young ,the woodpecker , the fragile life that live in the woods, fungi and microorganism ...here today gone tomorrow.

Blowin' In The Wind -Bob Dylan with Lyrics

Bob Dylan originally sang a two-verse version of this song during its first public performance at Gerde's Folk City on the 16th of April 1962. I was only 6 years old when this record came out . It is an old favourite  of mine, so when I laid in the sunshine yesterday under the trees as the wind blew the leaves ...listen you can hear them ... and the words came back to me . And the little birds are singing too 

https://youtu.be/G58XWF6B3AA   for the song 


 and then what brought my thoughts to the record .  The Answer is Blowing in the Wind..

So you can see how when we have all this on our back doorstep why there is no need to stray too far, even though lockdown isnt as it was .We would rather be safe than sorry. 

 ps I haven't started tree hugging yet but Jack is a bit worried I am talking to my tomato plants ..but I just do that to wind him up .  And I must say for one who doesn't like cats by the time I got up this morning he had taken it out into the garden and put it in one of the wire penthouses we have if we have to have a dog in for any reason and there they were both side by side both enjoying the sunshine .