Last minute booking?

Cottage is available this weekend, 4-6 November. Fireworks are on Friday in Hayfield and there is great Autumn walking AND even the possibility of snow!

Please phone me, 07958 930049.

Cottage is available today for this weekend

Due to an early check out the cottage is now available for this weekend, from now!
It's Hayfield Sheepdog Trials so a good weekend to visit (see below for link).
Please phone me, 07958 930049.

Comb honey for sale . . .

Many guests this year have asked if they could buy honey from our bees. The answer until now has been 'No'. (We have not had any.)

But at the weekend we removed a full super and can now sell blocks of comb honey.

To my mind comb honey is the absolute best way of eating it.

More pics on my sister blog http://jamesellson.blogspot.co.uk/

Availability
Weekend of Sheepdog trials http://hayfieldshow.co.uk/ is available, 17-18 September (and Mon 19th)
Then week beginning Mon 26 Sep.

Smallholding tours . . .

I run smallholding tours - see the orchard, bees, chickens, veg garden etc whilst I wax lyrical on grafting fruit trees, trying to be self-sufficient in fruit and veg, permaculture, seeing ourselves as stewards of the land  (as opposed to property owners), attuning to the seasons and the simple joy of being outside . . .

See tab above for details.

Recently, anticipating a Summer rush, I put a notice in the village shop. Which to my surprise quite a few people have seen.

Yesterday I did a tour for a five year-old and her grandmother. And it went quite well . . . she collected eggs, sampled snap peas, tomatoes and purple podded peas. She (the five year-old / 'nearly six') told me she liked mint tea so we picked mint and black peppermint too. We explored the veg garden, the greenhouse and the fruit trees.

To finish I put her in Sarah's bee suit and we looked at the bees!

She went home with mint and eggs and peas and beans; maybe next year she will grow some of the peas in her garden in London.

I hope (as I do after every tour) that I might have inspired something.

Walking around Kinder Reservoir

Walking around Kinder Reservoir takes about 90 minutes and is the perfect short walk for a morning or an afternoon. Or, even better, stop halfway for a picnic.

It is not a flat walk and the views are fabulous and always changing as you circumnavigate the water.

Strongly recommended for cottage guests. But we often do it ourselves. I took this photo on Saturday afternoon.

Next availability is now the weekend of 17-18 September.

One weekend left in August . . .

Only one weekend left in August, 20th and 21st. Monday and Tuesday nights also available to make it a long weekend.

Availability this week, Tatton . . .

Bookings have been coming in fast, coinciding I imagine with the good weather. Heat wave predicted this week.

Still have Wed and Thurs nights available (20 and 21 July) which would suit anyone thinking of going to Tatton Flower Show (20-24 July).

Vacancies, well dressing . . .

Main changes to blog now complete.

Still have a vacancy for weekend of 22-24 July - this is the weekend of the Tatton Park Show . . .

http://events.tattonpark.org.uk/viewEvent.aspx?eid=53852&s=635987808000000000&e=635988672000000000

This weekend coming it's Hayfield's well dressing and flower festival . . .

http://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/events/High-Peak-Hayfield-Well-Dressing/details/?dms=3&venue=6060604&feature=1012&itemtype=436&uv=1&w=100%25&events=1

Changes . . .

I have started re-designing the blog so please bear with me. Information on the holiday cottage can either be found on the page tabs or older posts.