Our blog

July 2008
Summers here, the gardens great, guests are happy - what more could we wish for?

We have recently been involved in a scheme funded by our Regional Development Agency, and run by the Best Practice Forum. In which
we were allocated a business mentor. Our mentor is Beverley Payne, who is a real high flyer with a track record of directorships in the luxury hotel sector.

One of the issues discussed with Bev, was work life balance. The problem we were having was that because we were so busy, our family could not come and stay unless we were given plenty of notice. The solution agreed was to create some outside accommodation. The easiest option was to buy a small caravan and site it at the far end of
the garden - in its own terrace away from the house - the top end of the vegetable plot for guests who have visited us.

The plot is now all screened off, landscaped with climbers, growing up the trellis. And last week we received our first visitors - our daughter
and our sixteen month old grandson - Benji.

The other day I was checking stock levels and was horrified to see that on the box of Scott’s porridge oats the word porridge was spelt porage. Horrified because we had just had printed some very nice breakfast menus. Was this a word I had miss-pronounced as porridge all my life? Quickly onto the internet to discover that porage is the Scottish spelling and porridge is the English spelling - was I pleased we are in England.

Last week one of our guests had porridge everyday for breakfast
- without salt. I had produced a little bit too much, so put the surplus
into a small bowl with some maple syrup and served it al fresco to my grandson. - he had never had it before, and he loved it. Next day he had
it with banana and my daughter had sliced fresh peach in hers. That
set me thinking about what a great summer breakfast porridge is. It’s so quick to cook - take a coffee mug - fill with a third oats and 2/3 rds milk (optional to add a pinch of salt). Transfer to a Pyrex bowl and microwave for 3 minutes - stirring occasionally. Serve with syrup, honey, sugar, Lindisfarne Mead, Drambuie and/or a single fruit such as apricot, peach, plum, strawberries, blueberries - the combinations are endless.

Thanks Bev for improving our work life balance - and allowing us to discover a great summer breakfast.

P.S. Benji now has porage at home in Cheltenham - with maple syrup
as a treat!

June 2008
The garden is doing well. I think June is its best month - the large
red poppies and peony roses and the striking purple of the aquilegia...Click here to read the full blog posting

May 2008
Just returned from 10 days in Lanzarote. Our pre season break to catch some sun and relax prior to what promises to be a busy summer season... Click here to read the full blog posting