Broome Park Farm, Farmhouse Bed & Breakfast Accommodation Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire

We have acquired 5 new hens this week from our local free range egg farm. They were destined for the chop as the farm replaces its flock every year to maintain maximum egg production. These 5 have had a lucky escape and seem to be settling in well and already laying too - eggs have doubled in quantity since they arrived! Hopefully these comercial hens will continue to lay regularly throughout the winter months when the rare breed ones stop.

Another busy weekend - this time supporting Cleobury Country’s Food and Ale Trail. 250 walkers came out in the glorious sunshine to walk a route around Kinlet, Chorley and Stottesdon. On the way they sampled local food and Hobsons beer - we provided the desserts - Eton Mess, Catalan Cream or Strawberries and Meringue - for the final stop at Kinlet Hall. Many thanks to Bekkkay, Becki and Sandra for all their help.

The day ended with local entertainment - Crooked Steeple Morris, The Bell Inn Brass Band, The Reid Warblers and country dancing.

Breakfast looked so good this morning I just had to take a photo!

Becky and I have become film stars this week and will be expecting the red carpet treatment everywhere we go - well almost! Cleobury has been part of a 3 year project to reduce our carbon footprint and the project has been so successful it has been shortlisted (1 of 2) for an award from the Ashden Trust. This meant a day of filming to show off what has been achieved - all to make a 5 minute film! Becky spent the morning at Hobsons as part of a group looking round their sustainable energy initiatives, then Nick the cameraman filmed Simon, one of the project co-ordinators, talking to my Year 7 class at Lacon Childe school about sustainable energy.

The day ended at Broome Park to film the changes we have made here as a result of the project. That included the solar panels installed in 2007 - working very succesfully to generate most of our hot water from April to October; underfloor insulation above the cellar; wood burning stoves and low energy lightbulbs. The Awards ceremony is in London on the 10th June and the film will be shown then! We may be available for autographs if we win!!

Had a fantastic day today at Upton Folk Festival - this is an annual event, attracting Morris sides from all over the Country and even a side from British Columbia were dancing today. The day starts with a procession through the town then we dance outside the pubs along the river front. Everyone gets a ’spot’ where they can showcase their best dances - we did Pipers Ash, Lancaster and Royton. By the end of the day we are all exhausted but happy!

Everything is growing well in the garden - the strawberry plants all have lots of flowers so hopefully we will get a good crop. Beyond them John has planted beetroots and carrots and today I have planted a few more mangetout (under the mesh to keep the pigeons off), spring onions and mixed salad leaves.

Beyond that are some mini sweetcorn plants that I started in the greenhouse - these really take up too much space for the amount of crop returned but I like to have lots of different crops! Finally there are my 3 new blueberry bushes - these won’t fruit for another 2 years but will hopefully establish themselves out of the wind by the hedge.

The onions and shallots I planted in February are growing well, as are the first crop of salad leaves - the egg shells are supposed to keep the slugs away! The are also mangetout under the mesh and spring onions too. Between the rows of onions John has planted more root crops - companion planting, especially carrots with onions is supposed to ward off carrot fly.In the greenhouse I have lots of bean plants ready to plant out once the ground is prepared and over 40 tomato plant - no, I don’t know why I need that many either!