Village VE Day 80th anniversary celebrations

This week has mostly been taken up with the final preparation and then hosting of our village celebrations for the 80^th anniversary of VE Day. Living in a village with a wide age group, and a mix of younger families, farmers (who work long hours), and others inbetween, it makes it hard to come up with something that works for everyone. John and I are both directors of the Yarcombe Community Benefit Society, who hosted the two events.

On the anniversary of VE Day itself we organised a singalong of WWII songs in the church, complete with a bar and cake sale, and a children’s WWII-themed craft table, and then on Saturday we held a multi-layered event with members of the local community sharing moving stories and memories of life in Yarcombe during the war; followed by a Lindy Hop demonstration and energetic (!) lesson from the South West Lindy Hoppers; and then the most amazing food served by one of our local pubs the Flintlock Inn. We also held a raffle that raised over £230 for the Royal British Legion, which is fantastic given all prizes were donated within the village. We must have had at least 100 people attend across the two days – we’re very lucky that we live in an area where so many people get involved in locally-organised events.

After a bit of post-event admin in the morning, we managed to spend the rest of Sunday outside catching up on a few more jobs. John weeded most of the vegetable beds (which badly needed doing) and I followed, planting out some of the seedlings that are ready to go out. We’ve also got all the brassicas that are ready to go, but given our lettuce and chard has already been enjoyed by uninvited garden visitors, we’re reluctant to put much more out until we can cover it.

We also took the covers off the peach and nectarine tree – a little later than planned which means the branches have been slightly squashed by the covers. And conveniently the covers fit perfectly down the side of the New Barn and under the air source heat pump. No more need to store them in the orchard and find weeds and grass growing through them at the end of the season! And we finally finished off the brick trough by the front garden, after picking up a few extra plants from my parents last weekend. We’re still waiting for the trailing plants to grow over and down the walls but it’s looking good for now.

We spent the Bank Holiday Monday cleaning the Farmhouse after our last lovely guests left. During the changeover we realised that the dishwasher wasn’t working properly – upon further investigation the motor had broken and as it was an old model we’d inherited with the house, the part wasn’t available anymore. Cue a desperate dash to get a new one ordered and installed before our next guests arrived on Friday. The last thing we wanted them to have to do when going away to celebrate a birthday was to have to wash up after a large group!! Luckily John managed to sort it so the new dishwasher was installed on Thursday – giving him enough time to write out new instructions for the welcome book. As well as a new dishwasher, our guests were greeted with a birthday balloon and prosecco – a nice way to welcome them!

And we received a lovely online review from our guests who left on Bank Holiday Monday as well, which was really motivating to read. We still have one guest who has been trying to leave us a review for two months now. She’s tried everything cottages.com have told her to do and nothing has worked! We’re so grateful that she’s tried so hard and we’re so frustrated with cottages.com’s processes. Given that reviews are a key part of the hospitality industry, it should be the easiest thing in the world to leave one! Fingers crossed a second escalation to the CEO makes a difference…