Meet Fran!

This is the newest member of our family. 

She's an 11 week old border collie and, after much discussion, we have decided to name her Fran. 

Green Tourism Conference 2013

Yesterday we had an early start, leaving home at 5 am to travel down to Bristol for the first Green Tourism Conference. We arrived just after 9 am and were able to have a look around the various exhibitions prior to the start of the conference at 10 am. 

Following the introduction and welcome from the directors of Green Tourism there were talks from Satish Kumar, Editor of Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine and representatives from Tridos Bank, Ecover, Wrap, Kimberly-Clark, Save Money Cut Carbon and NIBE as well as several case studies from existing Green Tourism businesses.

The day culminated in the presentation of 11 GoldStar Awards, Caldertop Cottage being one of seven self catering businesses shortlisted for an award. We were not successful this time but feel proud that we qualified for the award by being in the top 3% green businesses in the UK & Ireland.

Nature Diary

29th October to 3rd November 2013

Wildlife seen from the cottage:-

House Sparrows, Robins, Dunnocks, Pheasants, Balckbirds (7), Song Thrush, Redwing (2), Fieldfare (2), Wood Pigeon, Carrion Crow, Starlings, Wren, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Magpie, Pied Wagtail, Red-legged Partridge (3), Greenfinch (2), Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Chaffinch (4).

Wildlife seen from the track to the bird hide:-

Snipe (6), Curlew (2), Hare, Goldfinch.

Thank you to Ruth & Jim Wiseman for making a note of these sightings in the Nature Diary.

Garden pond visitors

Mother duck and her ducklings are visiting the garden pond daily for a swim!

Fruitful morning

Had a walk down the lane and picked almost 1 kg of blackberries - now should I make a blackberry pie or a blackberry crumble or maybe 1 of each?

Nature Diary

19th to 24th August 2013

During our stay we saw chickens, hens, cats, a very rude dog who jumped over the wall, great tit, swallow, robin red breast, argument inspiring bird, duck and several ducklings, several species of spider, cows, sheep and pheasants.

Thank you to Phil, Svetlana, Sam and Harry for completing the diary.

Duck and ducklings

We have a duck and 8 ducklings on the farm.