Normal for Norfolk..........: The return of the Creaky Old Backpackers.

Where have we been you may ask. Well the short answer is Scotland, busy with guests, down the allotment, Jam making, cottage maintenance and gardening.

SCOTLAND

Firstly we took a ten day jaunt up to the Western Highlands and Islands of Scotland. With just a rucksack each we flew to Edinburgh then wandered through Scotland by train ferries and buses. We got full on sunshine and at times drenched by rain but we had a really great time and plan to do something similar next year in Europe. Having traveled around on so many holidays by car it was, for us, a really interesting exercise in packing the bare minimum especially knowing that we could expect a huge mix of weather. We did seriously discuss the possibility of posting our dirty underwear home but as the temperature back home was in the high twentys we thought that they might hum a little by the time we got back. We also considered what if they went missing but decided we wouldn't report it, just too embarrassing, so there would be the same stinky package sitting in some poor guys office for the next 3 years.

Anyway just to make all our friends absolutely sick of us and our bloody blogs we created a new one purely as an extended 'postcard' of our trip. So if you wished you may view it here... "The Creaky Old Backpackers".

FYI the card actually starts at the very bottom of the page that you are signed into and then progresses up the page.

At the end of the holiday I was concerned that Alison seemed to have gone native in the ways of the Scots...

BUSINESS

We have been very, very busy and so far this year between the bookings that have already stayed and those that have booked to do so we have already matched the Total amount of bookings achieved last year and it is only early June!Our Tripadvisor reviews have reached 45 all of which are excellent. Consequently we are proud to have received a Certificate of Excellence

award for 2014.

THE ALLOTMENT

This always plays second fiddle to the B&B and Cottage work and so I often get behind with it making it all the harder to play catch up when I do get some time down there. That said we have been serving The Old Bakery Strawberries in our fruit salad for several weeks now and we have served our beautifully tender Broad beans to our guests that had an evening meal here Oh and served them our classic Rhubarb & Orange crumble made with freshly picked rhubarb. The New Potatoes have also started to be harvested.

Last year we lost all of our Gooseberries to the pigeons, currents to the sparrows and Blackbirds and the Cabbage Whites even managed to squeeze through our netting and decimate the brassicas. So this year Alison joined me to erect several fruit and veg cages.

Rather than messing around with makeshift 'cane' or 'pipe' tunnels I decided to invest in some metal cages which have a long life.
As I write this I am pretty much on top of the weeding, but a little bit of sunshine and rain and I'll have my work cut out for me. We have had practically no rain for several weeks and I am relying on the 2,000 litres of stored rain water that I had collected over the winter months. The long days have afforded me the opportunity to be hoeing as late as 9:30pm which is why I am not too far behind.

The allotment is just too far to pop down to and back quickly unless I cycle so it has been a chore to move plants and stuff down there up until now. Sad as I am I asked for a small trolley for my birthday (thanks mum, dad, and mum & dad in-law) and so now I can move bulk quantities of things in my truck, all I need now is a Yorkie chocolate bar.

JAM MAKING and PRESERVING.

Well the season is still in it's early days but we have made about 30 jars of Strawberry jam which is selling fast. we have also frozen over 7lbs of Rhubarb securing the raw ingredient for our most popular winter dessert, the aforementioned Rhubarb & Orange crumble. The Gooseberries look almost ready to harvest and so that will be our next job.

THE COTTAGE

Being well over 200 years old naturally the fabric of this building requires a lot of TLC and so it is a constant battle to keep the old girl in a fit condition. There is rising damp, a little woodworm and some movement but nothing too severe yet but that's enough about Alison! The tiles in the Self catering cottage's shower are slowly easing themselves off the wall and whilst I have made a temporary fix to get us through the season I can see that this will be a winters task (unless they fall off any sooner!).
However the general condition of our cottage is still excellent and we have just been graded by the Visit England tourist agency and once again achieved a 4 STAR rating.

THE GARDEN

Many comments about my 'Fedge' and 'Stumpery' most impressed, a lot want to create one in their garden and a handful just think I'm nuts. "Why an earth do you put the stumps upside down?" "But what does it mean?" Or simply an incredulous "Why?" That's all fine because we have already had one small child stay who loved having stories read to her whilst she sat on the bench in the stumpery. We add a little 'magic' to the area by hanging some Ikea lanterns from the walls and the arch. The lanterns have been pimped by my sister in law, Helen who gave me lots of stained glass replacement windows for the lanterns and they really make the area magical.

Once again we have had lots of birds nesting in the garden with fledgling Blackbirds, Goldfinches and Blue Tits. The Blackbirds and Tits both had two broods and sadly I have had to lock our cat in on several occasions because the fledglings were out and vulnerable. One of the Goldfinch fledglings even entertained my guests at breakfast by clinging onto the wooden french windows for about 5 minutes, very odd.

The blackbird had 2 chicks in the first brood and 5 in the second! It was comical seeing them all squeezed into the nest. It looked like a group of old ladies crammed in on the top deck of a bus on a shopping trip. The Mother Blackbird has been a real nuisance continually making it's warning call, really irritating. My Dutch guests got so sick of it that they tried to download a Hawks call to see if it could be scared off, but sadly to no avail.

The breeding season is a good time of year for spotting some of our more hidden birds as they have to get out and feed their young. For the last few weeks Alison has seen a Barn Owl just down the road as she drives to work and so she suggested I take my camera down there.
I only really had one opportunity this week because I had breakfasts on most days to cook, so I jumped on my bike at 7:45am and cycled down the road to the farm.

I stopped a fair distance away and eventually I saw a Barn Owl enter a barn then I cycled down and waited. When it appeared I followed it and then found a good spot to wait for it's return trip.
The subsequent photos are my best ever of a Barn Owl and so I feel compelled to show them right here....