Harvest Time

How nice to just go into the garden and pick your own veg !!Everything is cropping great this year. 24 jars of plum jam just made.

GOING.........

The large barn in front of The Stable cottage is coming down. Once it has completely gone The Stable will  have great views across the fields. 

A garden area will be created allowing guests in the cottage to relax and enjoy our beautiful summer weather....if we ever get any !!!

What a difference a week makes !!

This picture was taken on 9th October

This one was taken on 16th !!!!!   

BEST IN LANCASHIRE

photograph from visitlancashire.com

Delighted to announce that we won 'Best Self Catering In Lancashire' at this years Lancashire Tourist Board awards. We were unable to attend the awards ceremony as we were away in Ireland cheering on the European ladies at the Solheim Cup so our daughter Zoe and her partner Chris attended on our behalf.
They had a great night and were presented with the award by Jodie Prenger (Nancy in the West End musical 'Oliver'). They were both relieved that they didn't need to give a speech!
Our cottages will now represent Lancashire in the national 'Visit Britain' awards 2012.

FIVE STAR *****

Great news.....We have just been awarded 5 Stars for our latest cottage 'The Stable'. We are absolutely delighted, makes all the hard work worth while. It has also achieved M3 in the mobility ratings which means that it is suitable for a disabled guest with the severest disability. Everyone who has stayed in it so far have been full of praise for it.

NEW ADDITIONS !

Meet the 2 new additions to our Barn Owl family. They're ever so sweet, we've christened them 'sleepy' and 'dopey' . They probably won't hang around for too long before they spread their wings and find pastures new.

The Stable continues to delight all those who stay tin it and has been fully occupied since the begining of July...

Were delighted that we have been shortlisted again for the Annual Tourism Awards, it would be the icing on the cake if we won this year.

THE STABLE

Our latest cottage is finally finished and it's fab. Been alot of hard work but we're delighted with the finished product. It has been carefully designed to accommodate guests with any disability whilst not appearing too 'clinical'. More photographs and a complete description of the cottage can be found on our website www.martinlanefarmhouse.btinternet.co.uk

SPRING LAMBS

Meet the latest additions to our farm. These two beautiful hebridean lambs were born this morning. Mum needed no help whatsoever, she just got on with the job and produced these healthy twins. 1 boy & 1 girl. .....perfect

GREEN SHOOTS !

Signs that Spring is on its way are definitely all around. The snowdrops and crocus's (crocii ??)are up and loads of daffodils ready to burst out.

The birds are busy looking for nesting sites, the boxes that Alan put up last year have lots of activity around them this year.

Our resident Robin was captured on film last year, by one of our guests from Australia and he sent me this copy at Christmas. I think its fab! He's coming again in July so I look forward to some more fantastic photos.

Milly continues to be an absolute treasure. The only problem is that she gets so excited when she sees anyone that she jumps up at them like a 'jack in the box'. We are trying to stop it but its not easy as everyone makes such a fuss of her!!

Home to the Sun

Mykela & Kirra with their very first snowman

Really sad, just waved goodbye to our dear friends from Perth, Australia. They have been here since the beginning of December and Mykela & Kirra were delighted when it snowed....they had never seen snow before! Their snowman sported a very attractive 'Freemantle Footbal Club' scarf! However I think, like all of us, they were glad when it had gone....enough was enough !!! It really curtailed their sight-seeing trips. It was great to have them here though and I hope it won't be too long before we see tem all again. Milly will really miss them, they made such a fuss of her.

Fortunately, none of the animals came to any harm during the freezing weather but it made a lot more work for Alan, trying to keep them with a constant water supply. The only fatalities we had were one fish and two frogs who perished in the pond.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr !!!!

Its sooooooooooooooo  cold !!!! I really feel sorry for the  animals at this time of year. Even though the sheep have nice woolly coats they still look forlorn in this weather.

Afraid I have bad news about the hens. You will remember that in my last blog I said that we had bought 8 new hens and now had plenty of lovely brown eggs for our visitors. Then a friend gave us 2 bantams so we had 13 hens in total. This week a fox has been on the rampage and we now only have 4 hens left................ What do the 'anti hunt' brigade think about that ??? ............Maybe they think that a few domestic hens, pecking around in the garden, are fair game !

Where Has the Summer Gone ??

I can't believe I haven't blogged since June....just where has the time gone?? The cottages have been pretty full all summer and we are still almost fully booked until end of October.
Milly hasn't been well and had to stay in at the vets for tests. Eventually found that she had picked up some sort of bacterial infection but, a course of antibiotics and £115 later she is finally OK again. She just loves all the visitors because everyone makes such a fuss of her.

Finally bought more hens as the demand for eggs was bigger than the supply so now we have plenty of eggs for everyone. We've also got 3 new piglets. Val, one of our regular guests, has christened them 'Itchy' 'Scratchy' & 'Patch' . Thats Patch, the one in the middle thats got its beady eye on you! Scary or what !!

The weather has been foul today, so much so that the Southport Airshow was cancelled.
The golfers staying in the cottages this week came back like drowned rats today, they got absolutely soaked......hopefully all their gear will be dry by tomorrow.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Absolutely thrilled to receive a ' Highly Commended' award at the recent Lancashire & Blackpool Tourist Board Annual Awards. Micheala Strachan was lovely, a wonderful personality and great fun.

The blackbird nesting in the clematis hatched 4 eggs but there only seems to be two birds in there now. They are almost ready to leave the nest now so I hope they survive ok.

Our visitors arriving in the Dairy today found a tiny, tiny baby sparrow alone on the cobbles. Can't find the nest it is from so Zoe has taken it home to try and feed it and help it to survive. Its such a tiny little thing, I just hope it makes it.

CONGRATULATIONS

Many congratulations to Philip & Hannah who stayed with us over Easter while competing in the Ballroom Dancing Festival in Southport. They did extremely well and are now ranked 4th in the UK sequence dancing. Well Done.
Plenty of activity in the various nests around the place. Our blackbird is back again this year, nesting in the clematis around our back door. She fledged 3 babies successfully last year so lets hope she does the same this year. We have also been watching a pair of robins who have built their nest in an upturned flowerpot in the rockery. Mum and Dad were very protective and 'dive bombed' Milly if she went anywhere near!
The hens are away on holiday at the moment. We took them to stay with Zoe while we went to France for a week and haven't been back for them yet. Alan is making a new compound for them in the field so we will bring them back just as soon as it is finished.

GTBS AWARDS

Just received the photos of the GTBS awards. It took place two weeks ago at Salmesbury Hall and was a really nice event. Salmesbury Hall is well worth a visit as its a most beautiful building with lots of history and there's a really unusual craft/gift shop. They also serve great food and scrummy home made cakes.Sharon, the manager is 2nd from the left in the group picture.
Victoria and John in the centre are from Martin Mere, they won a Gold award. We now have an arrangement with Martin Mere. They allow our guests in at a reduced entry fee and I give WWT members a 5% discount on their stay with us. Its working really well already.

GOZZY

Think  foxy roxy must have moved home! The geese were ganging up and attacking another one, (now called 'Gozzy') so we had to spilt them up. Gozzy now roams free around the farmyard and is still alive to tell the tale so foxy roxy can't still be around. Milly isn't quite sure what to make of Gozzy. She runs towards him then, as soon as Gozzy flaps his wings and hisses at her she skids to a halt. Then its like a 'mexican stand off'......neither will lose face and turn away so they both stand there looking at each other menacingly, at least as menecing as a 15 week old puppy can look!!
Beautiful day today, sun cracking the flags so should be able to get some work done to the nature walk we are trying to establish.

TOURISM AWARDS

Delighted to have been shortlisted in the Lancashire Tourism Awards for 'Best Self-Catering'. Busy working on my final submission, I can't believe just how long these things take to put together, still it will be all worth while if we win.

Milly is just adorable. Can't wait to start taking her for walks next week once she is fully vaccinated.  She has really settled in well and doesn't cry at night any more.

The hens are laying well now but we will have to get some more to keep up with demand.

MEET MILLY

Meet the latest addition to our family. MILLY is our beautiful border terrier puppy. She is just 11 weeks old and is absolutely gorgeous. Only arrived here on Sunday and hasn't lost a minute exploring her new home. She's very inquisitive and full of mischief but loves nothing more than to cuddle up to you.

She's had her first vacination and will have the second one in 2 weeks time. Until then she cannot go out but I know she will love running around the garden and will definately be a big hit with our visitors.

GOING GREEN

Over the last 12 months we have been endeavouring to be 'greener' and all our hard work has now been rewarded with a SILVER award from the 'Green Tourism Business Scheme.

The hide is well & and truly finished and loads more bird boxes and feeding stations have been installed around the grounds. Our project for this year is a nature walk, through the garden and down the side of the field. As soon as we get some reasonable weather and the ground is soft enough to dig, we will get started.

Work has started on our 4th cottage. This will be a single storey, 2 bedroomed cottage with complete accessibility. Hopefully it will be ready by the summer but not taking any bookings as yet.

FOXY BUSINESS

One good thing to come from all this snow is the discovery of a fox living in style under our big barn. After the first heavy snowfall we noticed this strange set of prints coming from the lane and down our drive, skirting around the edge of the courtyard then over the wall into the farmyard. We could then follow them around the barn to a foxhole dug under the floor in the wood store. It is probably the same one who killed the geese last year!. Talk about 'sly'....living rent free with ready made meals to hand!! Anyway, the hens and the geese are now kept in their compounds at night so 'Foxy Roxy' can't get to them. This is presumably why she/he found it necessary to go down the lane to look for sustinance. Don't quite know what to do about it at the moment. Zoe would never forgive us if we exterminated it. (She's already horrified that we now have 2 freezers full of pork/bacon)