Hill House Farm

Happy New Year to all our past guests, we hope to see many of you again in 2010. 

2009 was an eventful year for us in many ways. 

The best thing that happened was the arrival of our baby daughter, Lucy Rachel, on 18th October.  She was a month early, my waters broke when we were staying Bed and Breakfast in Oxfordshire on our way to a christening in Sussex!  We went to The John Radcliffe Hospital where Lucy was delivered by emergency Caesarian Section.  We stayed in for 5 days as thankfully she was well enough to come home with me.

We weren't ready for her arrival as we were still busy with guests until the end of October, but Nick coped amazingly well - as usual!  We hadn't moved William into his new bedroom, so we had not been able to get Lucy's room ready.  So everything was a bit chaotic!  We managed to get the house straight before Christmas and Lucy has fitted into a good routine already - lets hope it lasts!!

Every year we continue to make improvements to our home to (hopefully!) improve the experience our guests have when they stay, before the Summer of last year we refurbished two of the guest bathrooms, Beeston and Peckforton.  Replacing the shower cubicles with larger ones, retiling and generally giving them a make over.  New flat screen televisions with DVD players and freeview have been put in the rooms to enable our guest to have more choice of viewing.

We have reduced our guest rooms down to two bedrooms in the main house and the cottage with one large bedroom - this is obviously due to the arrival of Lucy!

We are still fighting the proposal of wind turbines, we have got tremendous support for our cause from a vast array of people, and the momentum seems to be growing.  So the dark clouds are still overhead, but we try to keep a positive attitude about the situation.  Another similar project in the area has been abandoned by the developers due to lack of wind, so we are hoping sense will prevail.  As I have said before, we strongly support renewable energy, as long as it is economically viable.

We had our annual Easter Egg Hunt for William's friends on Good Friday which is always a lovely event, to see the children looking in all last years hiding places - as if the Easter Bunny would go back to the same place each year!!

I have also decided to go back on the BHS (British Horse Society)Register of Instructors. I am a BHSII but 'retired' from teaching a few years ago, but have always enjoyed teaching and helping others so by going back on the register I will be insured to teach again. I will be able to offer lessons to guests staying with their own horses, which we are getting quite a few of now.

On a less positive note we had some bad news last week when a letter arrived from Cornwall Light & Power informing us of their plans to put FIVE Wind Turbines at the farm next door to us, higher than Beeston Castle!  They have to be this high as it isn't windy enough lower down.  There is a local opposition group called ChART - Cheshire Against Rural Turbines - of which I am treasuer, which plan to fight this development.

I am a strong supporter of renewal energy, but believe offshore wind turbines, biomass crops, solar power and tidal energy are the way forward and the evidence against the viability of onshore wind turbines is well documented.  This news has cast a huge shadow over all our lives lets hope common sense will prevail.

We had a lovely holiday, it was William's first sunshine holiday abroad and he spent most of the time in the sea or the swimming pool!  The last few years we have taken him ski-ing but this year we fancied a change, and we all had a great time.

Nick planned to get his two spaniels spayed on our return, only to find both of them having a phantom pregnancy and running milk.  The vet put them on some medication to solve this problem before they could have their operation.  Three weeks after the original operation was planned they were both successfully spayed, the vet said it was just as well as Ruby in particular was showing signs of problems starting.

March is very busy with the riding holidays and Oulton Park fixtures have started too and it has been lovely to see some returning faces again.

Nick won the annual 'Spot a Swallow' competition he has with his brother, I think poor Tim has only beaten him once in his lifetime!! Maybe next year Tim!

We are having a busy February, so far, with the current economic climate we are surprised to find our bookings for the year ahead are up on previous years.  It is thought that more people will be looking to spend their holidays in England this year.  The riding holiday package is proving very popular, as is the short break package in our cottage, enjoying the beautiful views of Cheshire countryside and the peace and tranquility that comes with it.

Half Term is aproaching next week, then the following week we are off on holiday to the Canary Islands to soak up some sunshine (hopefully) and recharge our batteries -  to a degree, as we are taking William as well so I don't think there will be much lying around for too long!

Happy New Year!

On New Years Day I received a telephone call from one of my best friend's husband asking if he could hold a surprise 40th Birthday Party at Hill House Farm for his wife - in 10 days time!  Ever keen to take on a challenge I agreed.  The next day my friend rang me as she had found out about the party and wanted to help organise it too, which was a relief to me!  So we booked an outside caterer, hired plates, cutlery, glasses etc, other friends were invited and despite the short notice everybody could make it!  We had sixteen sit down and eat a delicious meal, eight stayed with us and the other four stayed at another B & B down the road, with a taxi service organised to collect them after the meal.  We had a fantastic evening and everything went according to plan. 

We can now offer this facility to other people looking for somewhere special to hold birthday parties, family reunions or private functions.  Our dining room will seat a maximum of sixteen guests and the large guest sitting room is ideal for pre dinner drinks or post dinner coffee!

This weekend I have got William's birthday party to organise, but as I didn't fancy having a group of 8 year old boys in the house we are off ten pin bowling!!