Wednesday, March 4th, 2026
This year’s season is certainly getting off to a very lazy start. After a succession of winter months that seemed to have an endless capacity to produce grey, rainy days, during which the cats didn’t want to venture out of doors at all, today we’ve had a glorious spring day full of warming sun, with cheerful daffodils dotted about the garden. The boggy squelchiness of the lawns is finally beginning to change to something a little firmer under foot, and the birds are singing in the tree tops.
In the house, the quiet winter months are a useful time to carry out maintenance, so stained ceilings have been repainted where leaks in the roofs had caused discolouration. The leaks were patched up at the end of autumn. There’s a good reason why ceilings in old houses are traditionally painted white; they certainly get repainted far more frequently than the walls. So with the house looking reasonable once again, after its new windows two years ago and new central heating pipework last year, all we need now is some guests! But with so much uncertainty in the world, and the prospect of further increases in the cost of living becoming more likely with every passing day, I am not optimistic that the 2026 B&B season will be a lucrative one. But whether Bressenden’s guests are sparse or plentiful, they will always be assured of a warm welcome.