Walking, sightseeing and going to a cafe are ....

· The Top activities for visitors of the North York Moors area. If this appeals to you going on a gentle walk, sightseeing / pottering and going to a café / tea room - Come and stay with us. Not to mention Dark Skies venues of which we are lucky to live in the very midst of one .We do see the most amazing skies full of stars and wonderful formations. We have seen falling stars and as youngsters always wanted to pick one up and put it in our pockets as the song goes - but havent achieved this yet. A record from the 40-50s Perry Como sang and is still remembered today. We can direct you the the foodie places we think are the best.... We can tell you the best places to go to eat, pick up a sandwich or slice of cake to eat on your day out. There is plenty of tea/coffee and milk here. Just bring you own flask and we will fill it for you . You can walk from the doorstep and leave your car while you tak a stroll to Byland Abbey 20 minutes away And if we have some homemade soup on the go we are happy to share some to go in a flask too . One of our favourite easy,flat stroll round a picture perfect village is only 10 minute drive away. Where there are thatched cottages, a duck pond and old mill. Pass cottages with names like Primrose Cottage, Mill Cottage and Orchard House A pretty village church with its lofty steeple but even better the day you do this there is no need to think of a picnic. The Star At Harome does the most amazing food ,having just been awarded 3 rosettes by the AA. Even though the foie gras is what Jack would be drawn too topped with black pudding, a very reasonably priced Market Menu 3 courses for £30. Did you know there is a child's menu too - A child's menu at a Michelin starred inn that was news to me . Add a loaf of bread and rest assured you dont need anything else but maybe a slice of cake later in the day but if you look in "your tin" when you get make to your room there will be some sweet treats for you in there. If you have already "done" your Holidays for this year .Why not plan ahead from 2024 . Gift vouchers can be bought from us for you to give for family and friends who like to get away and have a treat. If you pop into the Star Andrew Pern has brought a second book out which also will make a great gift or a keepsake for your stay in the area. It is named "Loose Birds and Game" contains 65 recipes divided into 13 chapters, large-format fold-out pages introducing each topic. There is everything here from dishes that you’ll cook to win round the in-laws, to rustic pies that you’ll want to keep for yourself. Game has never been more affordable.

Saturday night baking .. Sad cake

It used to be when we had guests staying we gave them cakes and they had settled down to eat it and have a cup of tea ..it was always a ''little bit of something' to keep them going 'until they went out later
 So now we are closed for the time being I have a bit more time to try different cake recipes. I have made courgette cake in the past when we had a glut of courgettes. It never seemed to look the same as the photo showed taking on a mucky green colour and been "sad". ..sad as in heavy is not sad cake, which was a staple when I was young and I still love now. In fact that is what I will make next .. Sad cake and treacle which is actually the cut off pieces of pastry kneaded together and then rolled out again . Ideally it isn't too thick and you get more pieces which means more butter and treacle on it . If it is too thick it a bit on the dry side and not a treat. . When you roll the pastry out it needs to be marked all over with a fork so it doesn't have a chance to rise otherwise it may have been called happy cake and not sad cake. I bet there is not a lot of children that have never had sad cake. When I say treacle I dont mean molasses black treacle I mean Golden syrup but when I was a child only posh people called it golden syrup.

Golden Syrup is made by Lyles and when the tins had been emptied my Dad used to make holes in the side of the tin and string was attached so when we, as children, stood on the tin we could hold on to the strings and used them as stilts .  As I grew up on a farm, string was replaced by billy band which you will know as baler twine,  just like in this photo

A quick walk around the garden...

Not a long blog tonight as it has been a busy day and so just a few photos to keep you going that everything is happy and growing in the garden.  And of course we couldn't finish without a slice of cake well maybe a slice of two.
The rain was welcome and can water the garden far better than I do. I think once a child always one as I try to make rainbows between myself and the sun raising the house pipe high .Sometimes too high resulting in getting a soaking . Or putting my finger over the end of the pipe to make it squirt just that bit further. My dads hosepipe is set up far better than our as his hose never seems to blow off at the tap end whereas when I pull the reel round our garden it is so annoying and time wasting when it pulls off at source and then I try to get it put on again, only for it to pull off. Bluebells are not the only ones who can turn the air blue . I use warm water to water my plants in the summer house and I am worried about my lemon tree I think I must have pruned it back too much last year. It is still sulking as there are no lemon flowers on it. The last harvest I had was of about 20 lemons . I ever put it in a nice new glazed pot last year. Now I have put it back in its old pot and lifted it back on to the top of the fridge as I wonder if its roots like to get a bit of warmth from the sun instead of sitting on the floor. I put a layer of crushed up egg shells on top of the soil as google says lemons like the calcium and also reverted to Princes Charles way of talking to it .I am tempted to giving it a good cursing . Jacks mother would have told it to  "shake your feathers "and it wouldn't have dared of dying or even thinking of dying.

And the strawberries are now in flowers  and a friend heard the cuckoo up on the lane above our house over the weekend.

Day 1 .. Coronavirus... How to cope

Here at Carr House Farm, we have decided to close our doors last Monday to guests as we look at how we think can get over the Coronavirus best. Everyone will have their own ideas, but I have to think my dad who lives 2 fields away is 97 and I had pneumonia 5 times in one year a few years ago when we had a big farm fire so my lungs are not as good as an Olympic athlete .

I am trying to do the best for everyone and I am not the best nurse so how would guest be if they took ill here and I had to look after them for a few weeks.

So I have decided to write my blog on how we are coping here in the heart of North Yorkshire. I think the unknown is probably more frightening than what it is to cope with the situation itself.  I hope the blogs I am going to write over the coming weeks will show no one is that by themselves and hope that I might add a bit of positivity into the equation.

I feel if we all pull together in whatever we can, we will get through it. It will bring the British Bulldog spirit we all need to take on.

Share, help and care.

What do I do when I don't know what else to do ... I bake ....  and then bake some more . I need to be kept busy. I do have a good store cupboard probably this comes with my age when as a child people only shopped once a week and even less when you lived on a farm in the depth of winter. I have know years ago, 6 weeks would go by before we could get out to the shops. It would not be thought anything out of the ordinary.

I have to  admit I got a few extra bags of plain flour. Life wouldn't be worth living if my Yorkshire man didn't get his Yorkshire puddings


We had the buns for  tea, the plain cake is for my Dad, he likes it with jam and a sprinkle of sugar whereas we will tuck into the chocolate cake.

Bake a cake trust me it makes you feel a lot better. Even if you don't eat cake you can always give it to someone else.