We’re very lucky to live in an area where people put in the effort to host events for the community. This weekend two of our local farms (the ones that also own Daisy’s Dairy and sell our jam) hosted Open Farm Sunday, welcoming visitors and putting on various demonstrations to educate people about different aspects of pastoral farming. It was a hugely successful event, full of people enjoying themselves and learning about farming. We watched the sheep shearing and learnt about how to hold the sheep and avoid pressure on certain bones, and got to stroke the sheep afterwards to feel the lanolin that they produce. Unfortunately we missed the milking demonstration, but there was a very informative talk from a vet about the internal parts of a cow including how their stomachs work which was well attended. The farmers had gathered together a fantastic display of tractors and equipment, from vintage tractors to balers and silage trucks, with photos showing them in action. And they’d also brought in a sow and her gorgeous little piglets from another local farm. A very lovely afternoon out.
We spent a lot of time this week acting on guest feedback and making improvements to the farmhouse. We really appreciate getting suggestions about how we can improve our offering and make our future guests’ stays more enjoyable, so we try to act on things they suggest. Inside, we added a new full-length mirror on the landing, and bought new kitchen utensils – 2 pie/cake slices, silicon spoons for serving from the non-stick saucepans and bottle stops. We installed a new shower head in the master ensuite to try and improve the water pressure and added a new plant in there to add some greenery to the room. We added extra children’s books into the bookcase so we have a good selection for guests to choose from – we’re very lucky to have had some donated and others left by previous guests as well. And we put new fairy lights into the conservatory as the previous ones were starting to fade – it makes such a difference with fresh new lights.
Outside we spent a wet Saturday weeding the front garden and planting new flowers out to brighten up the bed before our new guests arrived. Despite clearing the weeds in January they’ve started to reappear with some force – it turns out it’s much harder to weed when there are already flowers in the bed! We’ve made a start at least – still plenty more to do though.
All our recent guests have left us reviews on their respective booking sites (mainly cottages.com and one on Airbnb), which we’re really grateful for as it helps with future bookings. We also finally had a review published from one of our guests who stayed back in March and has been trying to leave us a review ever since!! We’ve talked before about the lengths some guests have to go to to leave us a review, we’re very lucky we’ve had amazing guests who are willing to do this for us We’ve ordered a multi-link sign that makes it really easy for guests to follow us on social media or leave us a google review – several of our guests have said they find us on a booking site and then check us out google before deciding, so we’re trying to build up reviews everywhere to help with future business.
And we’ve finally made a start with our own garden – at least, we’re paying someone else to!! We’ve got a lot to do to make it a usable space including laying a patio and creating a stone-faced raised flower bed as a retaining support for the cracked old garden walls for the three-bed barn next door (which sits about a metre higher than our garden). The other breeze block walls were built specially by our builders as retaining walls so don’t need supporting in any way. We’ve started by rendering these breeze block walls – one of which will form part of the flower bed and one that will be left open. As the open wall runs parallel to our extension alongside a fairly small space that doesn’t get sunlight, our long-term plan is to add a roof and turn this into our wood store but that’s a couple of years away. Because of this it’s not worth facing this with stone – and this would also take up extra space that we don’t want to lose – so we decided to render it instead and paint it the same colour as the front of the shippon.
We’re really impressed with the service we’ve had from the renderers so far – they quoted us on Thursday and offered to start it on Friday which we jumped at! Although we have an awful lot of garden jobs to keep on top of, we’re hoping that taking the first step will motivate us to do more. The renderers are the same people who did the front of the shippon so we know they’ll do a good job. They’re coming back next week to do the second stage and then we just need to find time to paint it…
Ley Farm Cottages 