Mel's BLOG

Summer 2010 so far...

Where has the summer gone?  Time is flying and without so much as a sun burned shoulder!  What is the British summer coming to?  Despite the rubbish weather we have been out and about in Shropshire with the girls, seeing some fun sights and good outdoor activities!

'Pond Dipping' (!!?!)  at Carding Mill Valley, Church Stretton

Newport Show - July 2010 Newport Shropshire

Telford's CULTURE FEST '10.......................... and Basil!

and finally a trip to Ironbridge in August... xx

St. Peters Church Fete ~ June 2010

Last weekend the St. Peters Church Fete was a great success partly due to fantastic weather for a change!  Rosie did us proud, making a great attendant to the Fete Queen Millie.  Here she is carrying the Queens cape along with Megan and a few others from the village. 

Our stall sold jams, marmalade & chutneys - apple, plum and tomato which raised £85.00 for the church fund!  Martins mum was a whizz at selling!

Rosie and Millie were presented with their crowns and a posy of flowers by Mrs. Holt.

Good day had by all!

Furry Guests!

Last weekend we had quite a few guests with their canine travel companions... some photos of these very happy guests!  See our Pets Welcome page for further details on accommodation here at Church Farm.

Nicki Haggart with Millie...          Bracken & Molly...     and of course Basil takes it all in his stride!!!!

A bit wet for the JOGLE's!

Jane & Peter Harris enjoyed their stay with us last night (including a 4 course dinner!) before furthering their journey down to Lands End in Cornwall.  Peter & Jane have taken 2 weeks to get here from John O'Groats and should complete their journey on Tuesday next week.  Their spirits were high this morning despite the dismal weather report for the day!  Hope you are not too wet by now!  Keep in touch guys and have a great week!  Their sponsorship website is... www.macjogle.co.uk

Wroxeter Roman Weekend...

May bank holiday and the Romans came to Wroxeter!  A great event where the kids went into battle against the Roman legionaires... fun family entertainment at Wroxeter Roman Village which is only 2 miles from Church Farm, Wrockwardine!  Here are some photo's of the romans with our girls!

For further information on Wroxeter Roman Village click here.

Happy 40th Helen!

This weekend Helen Gough celebrated her 40th birthday at Church Farm, entertaining her guests with a fabulous 4 course dinner of Deep fried duck eggs, seabass with scallops, black pudding and pink grapefruit sauce, roast rib of beef with dauphinoise potatoes and citrus trio desserts with cheeseboard to follow... the weather was fabulous so drinks on the lawn started a great evening... Happy Birthday Helen!

VERY Child Friendly Chickens!

This child guest enjoyed every minute of his stay - honestly...he did have a bed ... but decided to spend most of his time with the chickens! 

Congratulations Harriet & Grace!

This weekend we hosted the christening party for Grace & Harriet Allinson who were christened at St. Peters church in Wrockwardine on 25th April at 3pm.  Wishing them and their family all the happiness in the world!

The Magnolia is fantastic this year - here are some pictures of it in full bloom this weekend ...

Summer starts.....

Is summer coming at last?  We have magnolia blossom in full bloom, we have sunsets starting to form in the longer evenings, we have ducks and chickens laying plenty of eggs... all seems to be the recipe for the start of something warmer!?  Fingers and toes crossed!

I took the girls to Cornwall for the second week of the Easter holidays leaving Martin to look after the guest house! Despite growing up in Cornwall I still try to take the girls to see as many tourist places as I can bare - this trip we went to St. Ives, Portreath,  we saw Peppa Pig at Flambards, Sharks in Newquay, Gold centre in Portreath!  Had a great time and the weather was rather kind too... we are now back to school, and looking forward to a busy summer of visitors to tranquil Shropshire.  The diary is starting to look fat and busy which is the way we like it!  This visit I did notice how ridiculously expensive everything seemed to be especially in the very tourist areas such as St. Ives - having commented on this on Church Farm Facebook, it seems that many other people also have experienced the vastly inflated prices of even coffee!  Shropshire tourism does not have seemed to have inflated as much - we certainly have not increased our prices to the degree of Cornwall!  

Easter in Shropshire

The weather has been oh so kind to us this weekend - Sunday was especially fantastic - SUNNY even!  Church Farm was booked by a family this Easter weekend who had a cookery school booked with Martin on Easter Sunday.  Whilst the 4 were cooking the other 4 family members visited Ironbridge, Wroxeter vineyard and Holly accompanied Rosie, Megan and me to Attingham Park for the Cadbury's Easter trail.  I have since found out that 'Wonderland'  at teh town park also had a great Easter trail on with characters and competitions - thats where we are headed next year!  Church Farm can now offer all guests half price entry into Wonderland and Jungleland playbarn - so if you are thinking of visiting us with children - it's now a no brainer!!! visit www.wonderlandtelford.com for further details...

The owners of Magical Play Space had a great time at cookery school on easter sunday and then the whole family enjoyed the fruits of the ir labour in the evening by dining on a 4 course dinner!  Some pics of the evening...

Even Basil had a friend to stay by the name of 'Barny' a 2 year old brindle staffy who stayed with us Thursday and Monday and was extremely well behaved.  Basil and Barny raced around the garden and even had a walk together on Friday morning up the Wrekin!  Now friends forever!

Not even a Daff!

Mothers day has come and gone and still not sign of a daffodil!  I spent a lovely Mothers Day with Jan my mother in law and the girls at Attingham Park this sunday.  Rosie and Megan decided to take Ben for a walk... yes... BEN... The rabbit!  He was a big hit with the other kids!  Jan and I just tried to hide behind our cappuccino's which Rosie let little girls take it in turns to hold or walk Ben the rabbit... most embarrasing but the kids (and Ben!) loved it!  The snowdrops are still out in force but no sign of even many crocus never mind Magnolia or daffs! 

Talking of daffs  - our newest recruit to Church Farm are 2 Khaki Cambells which arrived yesterday.  We are also now up to 10 hens with 2 Lowmans adding to our brood so we should be well on our way to being self sufficient on eggs  this year!  Even a pheasant and a kestrel had a little visit to Church Farms hen run today to see what all the fuss is about... The chickens are not taking too kindly to the introduction of the new feathered friends... waiting for the new run on Saturday.

We are hoping to offer duck eggs as an alternative on the breakfast menu pretty soon.  As you can see... Basil is hoping for them to accompany his full english.. Cheeky dog!

Our newest recruit!

Ben is our new pet ~ a four year old dwarf rabbit which a customer has given to Rosie to look after...  Basil was initially extremely interested in Ben and is now nicknamed the 'slayer' (for obvious attempted reasons!) ~ however Basil and Ben get on quite well now that they are used to each other and actually lick noses through the hutch! 

This summer we will be increasing our 'pets corner' as Megan now requires a rabbit and we are introducing ducks in an orchard so that duck eggs can be added to the breakfast menu! Mmmmmmmmmmm...  4th March 2010

Attingham Park National Trust - a day out!

It has been a beautiful sunny cold day in Shropshire today and being half term we braved the chill and walked Basil around our local (3 miles away) National Trust property Attingham Park.  The girls took part in the bird watch nature trail and Basil frollicked with every dog which came in contact!  It is also snowdrop season and the nodding white flowers were literally everywhere at Attingham.... we have a fair few dotted around at Church Farm too!

Valentines weekend

Love was most certainly in the air at Church Farm last weekend!  Congratulations to Maria Fowkes and Gary Barker who got engaged on Saturday night!  Keep us posted on the wedding plans guys!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year!  The 'BIG FREEZE' is bringing some beautiful sights to Shropshire.  This photo of Basil was taken this morning in -5 degrees - which he does not seem to mind!  We had a great Christmas here at Church Farm - really busy with guests visiting family and friends locally.  As a family we have had our first Christmas off working for 8 years and we also spent the holiday with Martins mum and dad who were here from Arizona so great times had by all. 

New Year was a little strange not having to arrange parties for 70 - 150 people which we have always had to do at the pub.  We had a very civilised dinner with some of our closest friends at home!

So Happy 2010 to all our guests, past present and future!  Look forward to seeing you in 2010!

Mel - 7th January 2010

New Accreditations...

During our October Quality in Tourism visit we have been awarded Cyslists Welcome & Walkers Welcome!  Unbelievably we just missed out (2%) on our silver award which Martin & I are a little gutted about, I think we had a particularly tough assessor when we look through accommodation which has achieved silver awards! Anyhow - we continue to improve our guest offering daily... and the amount of returning guests we are welcoming back certainly is good enough for us!

Basil's contribution to the guest house also improves daily... he is improving the calibre of shoes, presented to guests on arrival and still guards the bedroom doors in order to accompany guests downstairs! 

Winter is now fastly approaching - we have had to fell our Cherry Tree as it finally looked as dead as possible so Martin assisted Jon with the chain saw!

We also had a bumper crop of Walnuts from the small and large walnut trees - so if anybody wants any Walnuts for Christmas just let me know... otherwise Martins orders for Walnut cake maybe a little high!  Next year we will be pickling them (I was too late this year!) so if anyone has any tips for pickling walnuts please forward them on mel@churchfarm-shropshire.co.uk

A day at the Roses...

The girls and I went to David Austin Rose Gardens last weekend to buy a rose for a wedding present.  We have not been before and so I didn't realise how close it is to us in Wrockwardine!  The rose gardens, near Shifnal, are beautiful full of both colour and fragrance!  The girls loved all the various areas of the gardens and then we had strawberries and cream in the Rose Cafe which Rosie thought was fabulous!!

Next time you visit us - this is a must see destination!!

See www.davidaustinroses.com  for further information.

This month we have been busy with functions...  Ian Howles celebrated his big 40th birthday in style with a 3 course dinner and last weekend little Ryan Wyatt was christened at St. Peters Church with the follow on party, here at Church Farm.  Fun was definitely has by all!

With the summer drawing to an Autumnal close we are starting to clear the garden in preparation for Winter.  If anyone has a good pickled walnut recipe - please let me have it!  I apparently missed the pickling season and the walnuts are too big for pickling now - the crop is collosal and the squirrels are having a field day! I feel some walnut cakes and good Christmas crackers coming on!!!

We also seem to have a stray Parrot flying around our garden on a daily basis!  Yes a Parrot!  It is bright green with red wing tips - I thought I must be drunk the first time I saw it flying over the garden, however it sqwarks at us every day so someone must have lost it!  The RSPCA have logged its position but I cannot catch it!  Again - any ideas for catching a tropical parrot would be greatly appreciated!! Mel September 2009

Ryan .... come down and see me some time!!   Love Basil xxx

Damp saddles but no damp spirits!

Harry Burton, Peter Williams, Margaret Cockburn & Janice Bennett

Our latest guests travelling on 2 wheels from Lands End to John O'Groats in this rubbish British summer weather.  All in fine spirits and fed to the gunnels at breakfast to help them up those hills to next stop Macclesfield...  Good luck to you all!

... and they made it !!!

Dear Melanie,  We made it to John O'Groats on schedule! We thoroughly enjoyed our three weeks on the road and especially enjoyed our stay in your beautiful home. It was definitely the best! Photo attached.  Thank you for making us so welcome.  Yours, Margaret (and Janice, Peter and Harry) 

Congratulations Nick & Kelly!!!

Congratulations to Nick & Kelly Lynch on the birth of their baby boy Daniel, born only 4 hours after leaving Church Farm on Sunday 2nd August!  Very close Kelly! Well done and huge congratulations to you all.

Lots of love, Mel Martin Rosie Megan and of course Basil xxx

Wrockwardine Church Fete 2009

The St. Peters church fete was held at Wrockwardine Hall last weekend.  Our stall selling Church Farm jams, chutneys and dressings raised £89 for the church.   It was a great day and the weather was as kind as possible! Rosie has also been selected for next years Fete Queen which is fab!

4 more weary legs head North!

Alex Devear & Andrew Langton stayed with us on 8th July - 4 more weary legs on their way to John O'Groats!!  Are you there yet guys?? Good luck from all of us!

We have received a postcard from John O'Groats from Alex & Andy - so they made it!! Hurrah!

Congratulations Maeve, Chris & Orlaith!

Congratulations to our good friends Maeve & Chris Gambrell who got married on 27th June 2009.  Maeve & Chris were extremely lucky with the weather as following a day of torrential rain, the sun appeared and shone on them for their special day!  We wish them a very happy and healthy future together with their absolutely gorgeous daughter Orlaith.

All our love to you.

Mel Martin Rosie Megan and of course Basil! xxx

More cyclists...Lands end to John O Groats!

This week we have accommodated more mad cyclists travelling Lands End to John O'Groats!!

Rob Butler with his fellow cyclists Mark & Jonathan, with tight Tim the van driver!!  Hope they finish in good time and have a safe trip north.  Great to meet you guys and good luck!

A visit from the AA Hotel & Restaurant inspector...

Following the glorious weather which shone down on the Peplow Hall wedding and Freya Gettings christening, last month, the stair rod rain came back to bite us all on the bum this weekend!  Our guests visiting Shropshire for a family wedding at St. Peters Church unfortunately had a very wet walk down the driveway!  No doubt their special day was still fabulous despite the rain! 

Last Thursday we were inspected by the AA Hotel & Restaurant inspector for the first time!  We are thrilled to say that he was very impressed and awarded us with a highly commended 4 stars plus a breakfast and dinner award for Guest Accommodation.  As the restaurant is building and the inspector had dinner, Martin has also been awarded an AA Rosette which is fantastic news!

We have also seen the hatching of four baby birds, right next to our back door!  The black birds, for some reason decided to nest in the climbing rose around our back door, and now 4 eggs have hatched into very hungry chicks!  That daddy black bird doesn't half work hard getting them fed!

The last weekend of May!

This weekend Church Farm was booked in its entirety by a group of friends who trekked through Nepal in 2003.  The guys were brought together by Ken, who sadly is no longer with them, but the group still meet annually to relive their memories and see each others part of the country.  Mike & Linda Pierpoint from Shrewsbury,  hosted this years meet up ~ walking and visiting some of the great places of Shropshire.  On Sunday night they enjoyed the fruits of 'Spiceland' on the patio of Church Farm as the weather was fantastic!

We also hosted the Christening party of Freya Elizabeth Gettings who was baptised at St. Peters Church in Wrockwardine at 11am on Sunday 31st May.  Guests frazzled in the afternoon heat in our garden, whilst the kids overheated on a bouncy castle!  Great weekend had by all!

Mel x

Lands End to John O'Groats

Last night Mark Crick and Steve Parker rested their wiery muscles as they head up to Scotland's northern tip on their cycle ride from Lands End.  Mark & Steve are the second of eight groups of cyclists staying with us over the next six weeks which are on this crazy ride! 

Good luck guys... keep going!  And lay off those big breakfast Steve! www.endtoend2009.piczo.com to track their progress!

April 2009

When I first heard the word 'BLOG' I thought it the most crude word ever heard!  However, having recently been on a marketing course, I now see that its use is to invite customers into our house and share the experiences of living at Church Farm, before, during and after your visit!  Martin & I have lived at Church Farm with our family, Rosie, Megan and Basil since February 2008.  The house has been completely gutted and renovated and we were able to open to guests in June 2008.  Over the last 12 months we have developed the house and our offering to guests significantly.  The rooms have evolved, adding further home comforts here and there and the house has seen some great times already.  Guests who have really enjoyed their stay have arranged family unions and had dinner parties... others have arranged their wedding receptions or birthday party's here... Martin is a fully trained chef, until recently owning 3 pubs & restaurants.  Martin's skills are concentrated within Church Farm now and we can offer dinner to our resident guests as well as a 5 star breakfast!

The house and gardens are enjoying the start of Summer.  Magnolia Blossom is in full bloom as you can see from the view from Bedroom 2!  Basil our Staffordshire Bull Terrier is a hit with most guests - his photograph must be all over the globe by now as most guests request a shoot with Basil!  Here he is resting after a good half hour chase of our resident chickens (which are behind the wire!) Daft dog!