February 2020 - BLOG update
2018 was a year of juggling getting the cottages refurbished, managing the building project along with welcoming our first holiday guests - 2019 has been a bit calmer and our first full year of running Penrose Burden cottages without project managing all the associated works.
Its been lots of fun and we haven’t looked back, its hard work doing all the changeovers on Fridays and Saturdays, 3 on a Friday and 4 on a Saturday but as a family we all muck in, Jane does bathrooms and dusting, Ian does kitchens and floors and the boys change the beds, fill up the logs and empty the rubbish bins – that’s how they earn their pocket money. After a year we are getting it down to a fine art just and its so great to meet lots of new guests every week from far and wide.
This move has given us lots more family time together and much less commuting time, Ian’s has been cut down by 4 hours 55 minutes a day with just a 5 minute commute to the cottages or the barn and he doesn’t see 4.30 am anymore luckily.
In the week there are still a fair few jobs to get on with, it takes a day to cut all he lawns and we try and do that when our guests are out so as not to disturb them to much. There are always lots of logs to split for the wood burners and kindling to chop, plus the 40 odd pots and baskets to keep flowering and looking good and then there are the weeds – Cornish weeds seem to be more prolific and it’s a full time job keeping on top if them. There are always a few little painting touching up jobs or repairs to do along the way ensuring we maintain our high standards and 4 star gold level of rating.
Its been so lovely to greet returning guests already just 18 months in and hopefully as the years roll on we will get to know our customers more and more as they return to spend time in this lovely part of the world and share Penrose Burden with us.
There have been many moments of hilarity along the way, the neighboring cows managed to get out early one morning, 4am and were wandering around the garden mooing, you don’t realize how big these lovely beasts are until they are coming towards you in the dark! Then there are the lambs – they are so cute and cuddly but small so they get under the fences and run around the gardens unable seemingly to find there way back into the fields – so we have the “lamb rescue” squad – which entails Ian and Henry going one way and Jane and Sam going the other way and in a pincer movement we get them back through the gates – although not for long as normally an hour later they are out again – what do they say, the grass is always greener on the other side, I guess it means less grass cutting but it gives hours of amusement to our holiday guests watching us trying to round them up.
We do find that we seem to get proper seasons here, the Winter brought us snow which was so picturesque although our thoughts went out for all the people stuck on Bodmin Moor at Jamaica Inn, plus those locals who got stuck in their cars, Spring was lovely and warm with long days and superb flowers on all he camellias and rhododendrons, Summer was gorgeous with days on the beach and cycling along he Camel Trail and Autumn seemed calm and still although buried in leaves with the obligatory windy and wet day of course.
So 2020 will see a bit more building work, giving us a reception room to greet guests with a few shelves of local goodies and essentials for sale plus we are looking at our sustainability credentials – we use a natural spring bore hole for water and in January have just moved over to a biomass renewable electricity source plus now we are using a new company to recycle all our waste.
So we really are looking forward to welcoming returning guests and new ones alike and of course Dillon is still here as part of the welcoming committee with his waggy tail and constant search for treats!