2026 Season has started!

Since the last blog at the beginning of February we have been flat out making changes and getting ready to reopen for 2026. March and Easter turned out to be really busy with lots of mini break bookings - definitely a new trend of 3/4/5 night breaks with bookings very much last minute.

We met a lovely family who regularly visit the area and they were telling us about AD Surf in Bude (Adaptive surfing | AdSurf | Bude | Cornwall) which is a charity with the aim of including everyone who wants to experience the benefits of the sea and surfing by providing accessible and adaptive surfing to people with disabilities, mental heath conditions and neurodiversity. Joe, who stayed with us, was training to be a volunteer instructor and listening to him talk about it was inspiring. Part of his instructor training was being blindfolded and assisted into the sea so that he could understand how it would be to be blind. What an amazing charity which until now I had not heard about.

Some guests kindly left us a little note on departing along with some clearly very good quality bacon and sausages -  which would not have faired well on the journey back 'Up North'. Needless to say it was well received by Guy but as a vegetarian of almost 40 years I didn't partake but I was grateful for the lovely note saying they had a wonderful stay in The Stable.

We (along with our fantastic neighbours Ian and Carolyn) decided to do some major groundwork (well it felt like it to me!) to our boundary which is the main entrance way for our guests. To be honest I was quite happy with the rambling wild boundary which the wildlife loved but I do have to admit the brambles were getting quite out of control and hard to manage. On top of this, as mentioned in my last blog, we had lost a lot of trees along this boundary to Dutch Elm disease. It all looks quite dramatic and bare at the moment (as in the photo) but it has been planted up with native hedge plants (hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, crab apple and elder) and trees (goat willow) from the Woodland Trust (UK's Largest Woodland Conservation Charity - Woodland Trust) with the bank being seeded with hedgerow wildflower and grass mix from South West Seeds | Specialist Seeds | Agricultural Seeds | Amenity Seeds. It was only planted up on 29 March and already we can see little seedlings which is exciting! Hopefully once established it will look native and natural and blend into the surroundings along with providing a valuable resource for wildlife.

I have been busy in the greenhouse planting up seeds. Having been so impressed with the Zinnias last year I have gone a bit crazy planting these. I am hoping they will fair even better being grown in the polytunnel rather than being battered by the wind.

The digital guidebooks I mentioned in my last blog have now been finished and have been emailed out to all guests who booked direct with us. Going forward if you book direct you will get the digital guide as soon as you book, and again two weeks before arriving. I might be biased but they do seem to be very user friendly and offer a helpful search facility and it should mean guests won't need to refer to the hardcopy/PDF version of the House Book but instead can have the app on their phone/tablet. It is much wider than just a House Book and includes a local area guide. Being digital I can amend it far more often. Therefore if you stay with us and find a nice place to eat or visit and it is not in the guide do let me know so I can add it to the guide.

Talking of apps I was recently told of a great app called Merlin Bird ID by my brother-in-law Ben. You just press the 'Sound' button and your phone listens to all the birds around and IDs them! Honestly I have been blown away with how amazing it is. So far it has identified 42 different species including some unusual ones which I didn't know were around here - Dunlin, Linnet, Skylark, Cetti's Warbler, Redwing and a Curlew. I was also delighted to spot last week that the swallows are back again - a sure sign we are definitely now in Spring.

Guy has been busy progressing the potting shed which has turned into a bigger project than I could ever have imagined! If you take a look at our YouTube channel  Mill Barn(s) Holiday Accommodation - YouTube you will find a couple of little clips from early March showing the progress.

I am planning on a little sewing season next week (probably assisted by my crafty and talented Mum!) to make a batch of morsbags.com which are proving popular with guests staying with us. It is a really great way of repurposing all the rejected duvet covers.

I am now back to my usual random mix of cleaning, ironing, gardening and office work (for the next 7 months!) with the occasional spot of bargain hunting in charity shops with my Mum - I am on the look out for interesting vases to present flowers to guests but the challenge will be to not keep them myself! 

Wishing you all a glorious Spring x