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.

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.

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!

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!

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!!

We would like to wish all our previous guests a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and hope we can welcome you in the near future to our home once again!

We had some very sad news, a couple of weeks ago we lost Bridie, our older Labrador, which was devastating for all of us.  We didn't plan to get another lab until next year but then a friend of Nick's had a 3 month old bitch he wanted to find a home for so we have got a young puppy to entertain us.

On a brighter note the new chickens are laying really well, so we seem to have a surplus of eggs, and as I hate waste it means I have been doing a lot of extra baking! 

Fortunately I have had a couple of meetings here which have required lots of cakes!  Last week we had a Quality in Tourism(QIT) Meeting here, when the Area Accessor came and talked to people in the area who were either thinking of starting a bed and breakfast or who was already running an ungraded one. QIT are responsible for the Star Grading Certificate given to graded properties providing accommodation.  This was an interesting day meeting new people and sharing knowledge and experience.

We have just completed our first residential equine course here for Parelli - for those of you not horsey this is a method of training horses and owners.  Rachael Morland, a Parelli Instructor, came and ran the course with most participants and their horses staying here and everyone ate together in the dining room, so quite a busy week for me in the kitchen, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  It was great to see the improvement in the horses and owners and how pleased they were with the progress the horses had made at the end of the course. 

More courses are planned for next year!

The schools have gone back now, the Summer holidays have flown by, it only seems like yesterday when they were breaking up and we are still waiting for the Indian Summer!!!

This summer we have acquired two black (& a little bit of white) kittens, we have called them Ebb and Flo, they are sisters and are almost identical!  They live outside in the yard - although Flo has tried to sneak in through the front door with some of the guests as she has taken a shine to being indoors - but we seem to have stopped that at the moment!  They are really friendly kittens, great fun and have kept me amused while washing up as they are usually playing games with each other or up to some sort of mischief in the yard outside my kitchen window!

They are meant to help Grommit keep the mouse population under control, although I think Grommit seems to prefers Spring rabbits and he can usually be found curled up in his bed in the feed room resting!  Sadly we lost Grommits sister last Christmas so we planned to find him some company once the weather warmed up!  We are still waiting for the weather!