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Posted in peak district cottages Tagged: peak district cottages ]]> http://peakdistrictcottages.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/blog-has-moved-to-www-peakdistrictcottages11-co-ukblog/feed/ 1 peakdistrictcottages http://peakdistrictcottages.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/more-snow-at-our-peak-district-cottages/ http://peakdistrictcottages.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/more-snow-at-our-peak-district-cottages/#comments Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:54:16 +0000 Chris Swaap http://peakdistrictcottages.wordpress.com/?p=127 ]]> I don’t believe it.  More snow.  9:00Am wonderful day, sun shining etc. 9:15 snowed and didn’t really stop till 13:00.  We have had another 3.5 to 4 inches of  snow.  Far too much to clear from the drive and we are running low on salt/grit again. So I decided that I would clear the bottom of the drive (to make it safe) but leave the main drive.  This would let the people  from our  peak district cottages, that were going today, to get away.  There is never a problem going down. But the people arriving this afternoon would have to park at the bottom of the drive and I would ferry their luggage up in the Discovery.  This is what we usually do in this situation.  The min road is always kept clear as it is a Bus route and alternative route for the A6 if it gets blocked.

Peak District Cottages - A Gray Day

[Just an aside - The discovery is rather old and has now been 'off the road' for 2-3 years.  It still runs well but things do keep dropping off or stop working.  The back door doesn't work anymore, the breaks are not good and now the clutch is starting to play up. However, it still does a sterling job of carting wood around or getting stuck cars unstuck. ]

Any way I cleared the bottom of the drive just in time to get everyone away.  It then snowed some more and covered all my hard work.  At this point I gave up.  As Sheepfold is booked for most of January and February I decided I would get the new blinds installed in the Lounge.  As normal it took a little longer than expected but no real problems.

At about 15:00 the first guests arrived.  As expected they only manage to get half way up the drive.  So I went down with the Disco to help ferry the luggage up.  By the time the second cottage arrived the weather had deteriorated and the fog/mist had come in.  So it was all a bit unpleasant but still managed to get all the luggage up and pull one of the cars out to enable them to go out if they want to.

Peak District Cottages - My Study

I have spent the last two days programming our ‘Booking Database’ to enable us to send out emails directly from the Database.  I did a lot of the preparatory work before Christmas so I knew (roughly) what I was going to need to do. But like all things to do with technology the ‘Devil is in the Detail’.  Part of the problem is that although I have written VB code for over 20 years I am not a programmer and have never really fundamentally understood what I was doing.  I hack code is the best definition of how I program.  It gets me there but very slowly. Especially if the documentation starts talking about object models etc.  Anyhow I have now got a workable set of code.  We will find out in a day or so when we sent out our first New Years Letter to Guests by email.

It’s still freezing cold here and the car park, where I haven’t cleared it, is like a skating rink. So I spent an hour this morning scattered yet another bag of salt/grit on it.  Hopefully that will make it safer.  I should have kept a record of how many bags of salt/grit I have used. I must be passed a dozen by now.

Peak District cottages - Car Park in the Snow

Now this is really starting to get boring.  Another 2.5 hours out in the snow this morning (before breakfast) clearing the drive and the footpaths, to our peak district cottages, of snow.  It wasn’t very pleasant this morning.  A biting north wind, wet snow (you know what I mean) and driving icy rain.  I was frozen.  Shirley came out to help for an hour which I was grateful for and saved me some time but it was still very hard work.  I wonder how much a snow plough and gritter would cost?  The afternoon was spent updating our database records ready to send out the ‘yearly letter’.  This year we intend to send it out by e-mail which is going to be a challenge as it is the first time we have done it.  We have resisted it for the last 2-3 years because of the impersonality of email but now feel that as most of our guests have e-mail we would try it and see how we get on.  We will still be sending a letter to those we know don’t have e-mail addresses.

Why is nothing easy.  we have bought lots of blind over the last 6 years from blinds-2go.co.uk (very helpful company) so I thought I knew what I was getting.  Unfortunately these had to be made to measure where as all the rest had been standard Velux fit blinds.  When they arrived I noticed they weren’t as wide as our other ones.  Then I started wondering how I was going to fit them.  Easy on the old blinds but these had not catches to screw into the window!  In the end I gave up trying to figure it out and read the installation instructions.  Then the penny dropped.  Blinds-2go had said they were ‘conservatory’ blinds.  I had not taken any notice and just assumed they were the same.  In fact the installation is completely different as it assumes you can push little plastic lugs into the rubber separating the glass from the frame.  Not on our windows you can’t.  So it’s into modification mode.  It turns out it didn’t need that much modification.  Just a few new holes in the top and bottom and the ‘lugs’ taken off.  It was too cold to work in the garage so I ‘borrowed’ Shirley’s kitchen.  It wasn’t a difficult job but by the time I had finished the kitchen was strewn with tools etc.  Anyhow the job is now done.  And very nice they look too.  I just have two more to put up in Sheepfold (one of our bigger cottages) and that will be it.

Blue and Smudge in the Snow

I then spent the rest of the afternoon starting a new blog for the dogs!!  It wasn’t my idea.  Anyhow I have now updated an old blog test site I have had for 3-4 months and have started modifying it to be the ‘dogs’ own blog.  You can have a look at it at www.pet-friendly-holiday.co.uk.  It’s just a bit of fun but might be interesting to dog lovers as I have tried to write it from a dogs (or in our case two dogs) perspective.  Smudge is the lay back ‘where is my next meal coming from’ kind of dog were as Blue is the ‘where are we going, what is there to do next’ kind of dog.

Peak district cottages - carsington water

Again no snow to clear at our Peak District Cottages.  In fact the snow has started to melt and we are starting to see some of the grass popping through.  Boxing day is usually a day for a long walk (weather permitting) but our friend’s husband has a bad back from clearing snow at home before they left so we decided to look for a flat simple walk.  The obvious solution was one of the many ‘trails’ in the Peak District.  These are old railway tracks that have been converted into walking/cycling/horse ridding ‘trails’. There are a number only a few mins drive from our Peak District cottages – Tissington, High Peak, Monsal and Manifold. These by their nature are flat and simple to walk/cycle on.  However, there were a few disadvantage to them – they are likely to be slippery when ice is about and are ideal for Children with new Bicycles for Christmas.  Basically a place to be avoided on an icy bank holiday.

Peak District Cottages - Carsington Water

So we decided to go to Carsington water (a reservoir near Ashbourne) for a walk over the dam and lunch at the restaurant overlooking the reservoir and nature reserve.  There are a number of walks round the reservoir and the associated wild life reserve but we felt our friends back only warranted a brief stroll over the dam and back.

Merry Christmas

Peak District Cottages - Xmas Day

Peak District Cottages in the Snow

Another 1-2″ of snow fell again last night so once again it was out with the trusty helpers to clear the drive and the paths to our Peak District Cottages.  It was a lot easier this time as the snow had settled on top of the previous day’s salt/gritting.  A walk up and down the drive with the snow shovel and  30 mins to clear the bottom of the drive and the drive was passable.  Our friends (who are staying with us for Christmas) came out to help clear the paths to the cottages and make sure all the steps were salted/gritted.  It was then just a  matter of going down the drive with the salt/grit to  make sure there were no slippy bits. Two hours from start to finish – not bad considering how long it took the first day.

As all our guests are now in we took the rest of the day of and went over for a walk in the grounds of Chatsworth House. Always a great walk even if it was a bit murky.  We had intended to have a coffee at the little tea room in Endsor (one of the Chatsworth Estate Villages) but unfortunately it was closed so we walked back to the car and then on to the Chatsworth Garden Centre Restaurant.  Shirley loves the Garden Centre at this time of year as they always have some sort of plant  Sale. No exception this time – so yet another plant for me to find somewhere in the grounds of our peak district cottages to plant.

Snow on one of our peak district cottage trees

Yet more snow to clear at our Peak district cottages.  Out by 9:00 to get the cottage courtyard, paths and drive cleared.  I have learnt my lesson from the other day – get the drive clear before anyone from the cottages uses it and compacts the snow.  This new strategy seemed to work.  Far easier today then the other day.  I still needed to clear snow from about 20-30 ft of drive where it had drifted overnight but the rest of the drive just needed salting/gritting.  In all it took about 1.5 hours.  This included talking to a number of our cottage guests were out walking their dogs and Andrew (from the farm) who had come up to help me but was just too late.

After completing a few other chores we went of the Buxton with friends to pick up a few items from Waitrose and Marks & Sparks and more importantly pick up some more Salt/grit.  Not a good idea it was like shopping Hell (it probably wasn’t that bad but we are just not use to crowds any longer). Anyhow managed to pick up ‘another’ 6 bags of salt from the Builders merchants so should be Ok for a few more days.