News

Jessica

Pictured here is our Grand-daughter born on the 29th May 2009 at 12.44 and weighing 8lb 3oz

Jessica now has a couple of teeth, she was christened on the 8th Feb. and was quite good. We still think she's too cute for words.

News Flash Lions Club

Ask about your Lions Card when you visit.

The News Page

Home

This page has our news, a cake recipe, details of how we're being 'green' The latest information on the bees and so on. Please read on........

Kingswood

Rooms

I kid you not !!

I had to buy some expensive sheep clippers to clip the sheep. Never having done this before thought it would be a good idea to read the instructions.

It tells me that serious injury or death can be caused if the clippers are used on beasts of prey. Shame that, because I was hoping to do the odd lion or two !!

Whilst cooking the breakfast mushrooms the other day I was pleased to note that they contained no fungicides. ( Think about it )

A neighbouring guesthouse has 'Green' accreditation which they have to pay a lot of money for.

As part of their method of working to attain this accreditation they advise guests who are too warm to open the window, guests who are too cold are advised to close the window and turn the heating up.

News

Terms & Rates

Ambleside

Book Now

**Green issues have become a major topic in the UK - to read more about how green we are click here, Possibly the greenest thing we do is to keep bees, Read more about the bees below.

We are often asked for the cake recipe when guests enjoy a slice after a day out walking. So many people asked for it the easiest way for us was to put it on the website here..

Sometimes guests will ask "Who plays the Banjo?" Davids' stock answer is "On a good day, I can wring a tune out of it!" Click here.

The Field and Pigs.

We have now gone onto a different breed of pig, these are Saddlebacks but the latest ones are Gloucester Old Spot.

Pigs

What's going on with the bees ? The bees are finishing off the swarming season ( May and June ). They have swarmed but we gathered two swarms back so it evened out.. Best news this year is that it looks like we'll have some surplus honey. People sometimes ask if our bees have 'that disease' they normally mean Varroa mites. All honey bees in the UK have this problem. The mite lays its eggs on bee larvae and when these hatch they feed on the young bees, making them weak and deformed. Worst of all the mite is becoming resistant to the treatments we've used. So we now use sneaky methods to reduce their numbers, like sprinkling the bees with icing sugar. The bees groom themselves and in doing so knock the mites off. We've put a mesh floor on the hive so the mites fall out and can't get back. The icing sugar of course is not harmful to the bees as for them it's food.

			Varroa mites on drone larvae

Trophies

At last years Ambleside Flower Show we managed to win various awards. Mens Baking, Stickmaking, Honey, Vase of Shrubbery, Unusual Planter, and a Silver Tray, a special award from the Chairman, which Christine is pictured with.

Christine recieving her Cumbria in Bloom certificate from Lord Cavendish - for runner up in the 2009 Guest House / Small Hotel category,

Quite an achievement when you think of the number of Guest Houses in the county.

Musicians Visit

We were chuffed to have Lisa Mills, Ian Jennings and Gina Jo come to stay, fortunately they're not 'rock' musicians so no throwing tellies out the window. The girls are from Alabama and I was particularly struck with Lisas singing and Ginas ....... eyes. Thank you Gina for the bag of Grits, goodness knows what Customs and Excise made of that !!

If only Lisa hadn't mentioned the bargain leather jacket she got from Lakeland..... Christine hadn't noticed it up to that point !!

http://www.myspace.com/lisamillsmusic

			'Larry' our Ryeland ram.
	Sheep shearing. The guy in the shop, along with everyone else, fell about laughing when I bought clippers to shear the sheep. Well they have to be done and as I explained to the ewe. I didn't want to do it, she didn't want to have it done, but it's the law. Fair enough it did take a while and I'm not up to competition standard (or time). And I've now got the scars to prove it!!

							Sheep and Lambs All are doing well at the moment, it will soon be time to consider how we go about the arrangements for tupping.



	Rosie and Jim, these are two orphan lambs that Christine is bottle feeding. Sadly Rosie died but Jim is still with us.

	It's been a bit of a long Winter

DVD Licence.

The relevant authority have written to the trade to tell us we all need to buy a licence for guests to watch DVD's. The cost is considerable and we know you all come to The Lakes for the scenery not to sit in the room watching a film. They seem to have confused us with large hotels !!

You can of course bring your own DVD's to watch on our player. As far as we know that's ok. Bit of a cheek if it's not, don't you think !!

Best Drive in the UK

For ages I've been sending guests on a drive to Keswick, this drive has just been on our local news as the best drive in the UK - and unless my ears played a trick on me - the third best drive in Europe !!