Tuesday, October 2025

This latest bit of news is of a financial nature so I am not going to add a pretty photo. Inflation is a fact of life. I hate putting up my rates, but I cannot keep charging the same rates that I was charging in 2022 for ever more just because I am reluctant to charge a three-figure sum for bed and breakfast. I have three options: (1) refuse to put up the rates, operate at a loss and close down the B&B; (2) adjust my rates to take into account the inflation that has occurred since the last increase; (3) keep the budget rooms in double figures but increase the prices of the East Wing for those who book via third-party online agencies. The East Wing is the only room that can be booked via online travel agencies, and it does attract a lot of bookings that way, particularly from overseas visitors. A substantial percentage of the income I get from that room goes straight to the agency in the form of commission. It makes sense therefore to let guests continue to book at the old prices if they book directly from this site, but to let them cover my commission fees if they choose to use an agency instead of booking directly. For moral reasons I had always resisted making users of agents who help to fill my rooms pay a penalty, but it is the only way I can think of to avoid raising my rates in 2026. Let’s see how this works for the coming year and think again at the end of 2026.

Tuesday, October 21st, 2026

The Stachys, or Lambs’ Ears, bush next to the front door is decades old. It is so well established that it doubles in size every year with no encouragement at all. It needs not just trimming but savage pruning as soon as the flowers (much loved by bumble bees) are over. My photo doesn’t really capture the glistening freshness of the raindrops that clung to its hairy leaves after a shower.

At the other end of the lawn were clumps of mushrooms that called to mind pigs’ ears rather than lambs’ ears.

Tuesday, September 30th, 2025

The long, dry summer finally transitioned into autumn and mushrooms started to spring up in the woods behind the house, bringing a welcome bit of colour in there at a time when the wildflowers have withered away and the leaves are still green. The early berries on the holly will surely have disappeared by the time they are needed for Christmas decorations. Some days are still surprisingly warm and sunny, and dragonflies and butterflies are abundant on the few remaining buddleia flowers. There were so many butterflies this year, and they favour buddleias over all other plants to such an extent, that I have ordered some more butterfly bushes in a range of colours to add to the three plants that we already have.

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025

This year we have not seen many of the colourful English Summer butterflies. There have been one or two Red Admirals and Peacocks but no Painted Ladies. Mostly it’s been the less welcome — when you have a vegetable patch — Cabbage Whites and some yellow Brimstones plus lots of the smaller Meadow Browns and occasional Tortoise Shells. Today, however, a Comma came to settle on a rhododendron leaf. It’s a strange name for a butterfly, but its punctuation mark is only visible when it has its wings folded.

UPDATE:

How wrong I was with that first comment! The butterflies came in force in August and September. Dozens of Peacocks and a good number of Red Admirals landed on the buddleias in such numbers that every single bloom had at least one butterfly on it and some had three trying to share the irresistible nectar. Below are a Peacock and a Dragonfly that came to the garden in September.

Peacock

Female migrant hawker

Tuesday, July 15th, 2025

Mid-July is lily time. Lilies are said to be highly toxic to cats, so it’s a risk to have so many in the garden, but so far, none of our cats has ever died of lily poisoning. The scent from this gigantic tiger lily wafts for many feet across the garden. It and its yellow counterpart on the other side of the steps shine like torches when dusk descends (see below). We have all kinds of other lilies in the garden, including mauve and white Nile lilies (Agapanthus), crimson arum lilies and, down by the pond, yellow and orange day lilies. For my birthday I was given three pink Oriental lilies in a pot. We’ve planted them in the front border, which is very much a work in progress. Until recent years it was impossible to raise many types of flowering plants because there were so many rabbits. Now there are none, as whole colonies were wiped out by disease and they haven’t come back. Deer are more of a problem, but they don’t seem to eat lilies.

Saturday, May 10th, 2025

For the past three weeks land drains have been created around the property. After last year’s wet winter, during which water kept pouring into the grounds and underneath the house from ever-rising underground streams, springs and seeps, we decided that something had to be done because the garden was turning into a spongy bog and sand bags were needed to stop water running down the back path into the house. Old pipework from the days when the house was built had long since ceased to work. We put in a small local French drain which helped to some extent last year, but what was needed now as a better and more permanent solution to our changing climatic conditions was something much more extensive.

After much thought we concluded that we should install a ring drain all around the perimeter of the garden (see bottom photo) with a few spurs to catch and drain water near the house. Our contractors have dug a deep trench up to 5 feet in places (top photo) in the clay soil at the bottom of which they have laid a perforated plastic pipe encased in a textile sock (middle photo). On top of that, they have poured in tons of stone and gravel up to the top (see video). A gentle incline from one end of the drain to the other ensures that water will drain away.

Tuesday, April 29th, 2025

The azalea bushes usually start to open their flower buds before the rhododendrons, though both varieties spend a long time in the process, dotted around various parts of the garden, from the end of April right through the month of May and into June. Interestingly, the order of flowering of the different species varies from year to year. Here is an azalea bush at the top of the big lawn.

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025

After a long run of very sunny days, the wisteria decided to make its appearance in mid-April, almost a whole month earlier than last year. Here is the western side of it. On the eastern side of the front door (not visible in this photo) it is less exposed to sunlight so is a little less impressive in terms of abundance of blooms. Early rhododendrons are about to flower too. In this year’s photo you can see the beautiful replacement windows that were fitted throughout the house last summer.

My little cat Peonie escaped onto the road a fortnight ago and was hit by a vehicle. She survived but needed specialist surgery to put her shattered leg back together again with metal implants. She has to live in a cage for several weeks. I myself had scheduled surgery last week. We are recovering together and hope to resume normal B&B business by the second half of May.

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024

I cannot believe that on Sunday it was time to bring down the Christmas tree from the attic yet again. This photo looks almost identical to last year’s, but there is a big difference — the new windows behind it. Last year (and presumably every year from the time the house was built), whenever the nighttime temperature fell below 6 degrees, by morning water would be pouring down the glass in rivulets from top to bottom and creating pools on the windowsill. It was a major job to get the breakfast room looking reasonably inviting for the occasional guests who come at this time of year, and reaching behind the tree to mop up or use the window vacuum cleaner was not possible. Trying to keep the windows dry was soul-destroying because no sooner had the last window been mopped up than the first one was already building up a layer of condensation. This would continue until midday and sometimes all day if the humidity levels were high. With these new windows, the condensation problem is all but eliminated as long as the indoor temperature is not allowed to fall too low. As we approach the darkest weeks of the year, it is important to make this isolated rural house feel cosy.

Friday, October 18th, 2024

The fig tree has had its hair cut while it still has its leaves on to make it easier to shape and style. If it were not pruned back vigorously every year, with light trims in between, it would soon overwhelm the turning circle to the extent that vehicles would no longer be able to drive around it. Before they drop off, the leaves take on a luminous lemon yellow hue, casting a golden glow into the breakfast room.  We will enjoy the tree’s autumn colours for a short while only, as the leaves are easily dislodged. Fortunately the garden is very sheltered from winds at ground level, being enclosed on all sides by a thick ring of trees that keep getting taller as the years go by.