The Estate

The older you get the more you seem to revert to cliches. Hasn’t this year  gone so quickly? But truly it has flown by. It’s nearly Christmas already and soon we will welcome in the new year. A momentous year, for many reasons I’m sure, but also because I will be 50 years old. Again that all went very quickly! Although I think part of the reason life flies by is we have had another busy and fruitful year. Firstly Alan has now started working for the business full-time, Max has also started working on the Estate during school holidays and at the weekends too.

Secondly we have been finishing off the cabins. We added the Gardener’s Retreat, number 5, early this year. I think it might be my favourite cabin as it’s such a romantic spot. The hot tub adds just that extra note of special. I said to Alan that I’d like to stay somewhere like that for our anniversary. He replied, “Book yourself in, but there’s no discount”. That’s true love right there. Then thirdly, we added the Gardener’s Bothy to our Lakeland Cottage collection in May. It has proved to be a happy place for lots of guests. One guest, who has already stayed twice, called it heaven. We have decided that that is enough for now, no more building or renovating, at lest for the time-being. However all this hard work did result in the Estate being a runner-up in the Cumbria Tourism Awards and being given a Green Tourism Award too.

Fourthly we’ve undertaken the usual repairs and maintenance too. Brow Wood cabin has been completely repainted by Alan, helped enormously by Colin once again. Home Farm House too had a couple of rooms repainted.

Lastly, it was time to harvest the willow crop. This is used for making briquettes, but has many other uses for the garden, outdoor areas and for animal bedding. Th team from Eco Crops did a great job and completed it all in just 4 days. Now we just have to wait another 3 years until the next harvest.

Next year we won’t be adding to the holiday business but we are going to re-roof some of the barns in the quadrangle at Highgate. in the first part of the year. After that we shall just have to wait and see. The holiday let business, looking ahead is in a time of change, but I’m sure there are many exciting opportunities on the horizon.

The House

My parents left the main house in a great state of repair, but there’s always something to do. As the second part of the year didn’t involve building elsewhere we were able to catch up on a few jobs in the house. Shaun, as always, was on hand to repair the doors at the top of the tower. They had seen better days. I was pleased to be was able to save the original handles and after a little repainting, they came up well. I will post pictures of the new doors on Instagram when I have a moment. He also appears to have fixed a damp/leak problem that has been an issue for at least the last 30 years. My mum and I have both thought we’d got it. There were years when the top tower room had no leaks and no damp and then mysteriously it would appear again and we’d try another fix. If Shaun has fixed it, I told him I’ll give him a prize. We just have to wait a decade or so to make sure it’s really fixed!!

So it’s goodbye to 2024.

Wishing you all the very best for the festive period and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Kate, Alan, Ian and Max.