Nesta and Shelley our ex battery hens.

We've had hens with a couple of small breaks since 1982.

When we ran the Bed and Breakfast in the eighties, we
had 

over 20 hens and a cockerel, but these days I don't
have 

so many breakfasts and evening meals to cook.

We took on 3 ex battery hens in April. This is Nesta.
She was hen pecked and her claws were so swollen she
couldn't walk properly. These days she is fit and fluffy
with plenty of feathers. Her back has a permanent
patch that will never recover, but
she is much more a happy little bird.

I am bonkers about hens.  And I'm so pleased
that battery houses have now been outlawed.
Sadly one of the 3 hens we brought home faded away
after a couple of days, but Nesta and Shelly
are now fighting fit and have each laid an egg a day
without fail for about 6 weeks . Bless !

The latest bed and breakfast comes on board.

Back in harness and I nip off to Postbridge to say

Hello to the new people at Beechwood.
Encountering galloping sheep en-route!

I'm so glad that Lynette Lloyd rang me to ask

if they can come on board. They have owned the place for a year and a day, and have made great strides in bringing the building up to scratch. The falling down conservatory has been revamped with double glazing and heating for guests to enjoy their breakfasts in comfort, the bedrooms are slowly being 'made over' and much improved and Lynette and Adam have got a refreshingly positive attitude about welcoming visitors.
Evening meals with home cooking are on offer with 2 courses £17.50 and 3 courses £22 (but let Lynette have some notice please) they welcome families with all ages of children, are happy to take holidaymakers with a dog, and I was very pleased to hear that they actively find beds in other accommodation for people who turn up at the door when they are full.
Only recently I was sitting in a bar of a good class hotel and overheard the receptionist take a call for overnight accommodation. The conversation went ....
"No, sorry we're full tonight, can't take you"
"Thank you, goodbye" !!!!!
How crazy is this ? Why ever didn't she offer a couple of telephone numbers in the area for them to try ?
What goes around comes around. When we had a bed and breakfast we always suggested alternatives, and if we were full at a busy time, say Friday night, one of us would ring around to see what else was on offer as soon as we were full. But sad to say we did know from guests who arrived, this service was not quite so much on offer with our neighbouring outlets, which used to really disappoint us.
In the current economic climate, it is vitally important to keep guests staying locally, so that the shops and tea rooms, adventure parks and historic houses all do well and the community stays buoyant. But as usual people are immensely selfish and not willing to put themselves out. "I'm ok why should I bother about anyone else ?"
What a sad attitude?
However, I detected none of this at the Beechwood household.
Adam and Lynette are keen to work hard and strive for guests to have a good time.
The free range hens are happily pecking away in the paddock, maps are on offer, help yourself to a book to read whilst you are here, everything is spotless, afternoon cream teas are on offer and I just know that they will do well. Welcome aboard Beechwood. Find them on my price range 2 page.

Short of time for blogging

No idea where time is going at the moment. Every day is full to the brim. With Chagford Show just under 3 weeks away, information needs updating as well as the usual day to day admin on Dartmoor Accommodation. The stats for both are rewarding, showing that compared to the same June to July dates for last year, 56per cent more visitors have looked at the DA site and that the average time they spend on the site is over two and a half minutes. This is the latest website that Tom and I have built. It's a new bed and breakfast not far from Widecombe or Manaton and the day I visited was overcast and dull as ditchwater, but the pics have not let me down.
I promised the owners Colette and Martin that I would come over to take some sunny shots as soon as I am able; an attractive inducement being that they run a tearoom in the garden in the Summer months. So yet another entry for my tearooms page no doubt.
Will keep you posted as and when I manage it.

yet another B&B website uploaded this morning just after midnight !

A lady called Mary Lloyd-Williams got in touch and asked if she could come onto the Dartmoor Accommodation website.
She told me that she had been doing bed and breakfast from her home on the south of the moor since 1983, just one year before we started up in B&B ourselves. She sounded gracious and charming on the phone and her e-mails were nice and chatty. Last week I managed to go and say hello to her and take pictures of her lovely home down a bumpy old farm track at the back of beyond.
As I say in my write up on the site, it's not cutting edge modern. Far from it, but if I was a child ages from 2 to 12 with even the slightest interest in the natural world, this is just the sort of place I should like my family to book into for most of the Summer holidays.
There are ponies in the fild, an inquisitive cat, 2 friendly black labradors Archie and Cobble and there must be hundreds of birds nests within a stones throw of the house. Not that Mary would encourage younsters to throw any stones. Two minutes in her company and I see that she is one of the most charming of Dartmoor's many landladies. We nip out into the garden and she calls to the ponies in the field who come cantering down to say hello to her. She and her husband Dick have a very pretty garden surrounded by trees with a stream running through. Birdsong fills the air and there is a real sense of country retreat about the place. She told me in her first conversation that the house is rather ugly, and I have to take issue with that. The house is very 'her' and the visitors book is rammed with grateful thanks and mentions of how sweet and caring she is.
No it's not straight off the pages of Ideal home, but I'm sure you will enjoy the home made marmalade at breakfast here and if your beloved four year old needs to collect frogspawn to examine it, she is the kind of person who will produce a spare jamjar, be happy to join in with the collecting, and then later on take time to caringly explain why the frogspawn needs to go back into the water again once examination has taken place. I just know it.
Do take a look at the new website http://www.hookscottage.co.uk/ that I built for her. Have I managed to get across to you just what sort of place it is ?

I alerted Mary to take a look and she came back to me with an e-mail saying
'Dear Jill -
Just got back from work to find this FABULOUS website - you really are amazing and we LOVE it. I'll get my family to have a look today too.
The directions are such a wonderful added bonus too.
All my thanks for the fantastic site.
Mary - in haste to get some very nice guests their Full English !'

I just knew that she would be generous in her appraisal.
This job of mine is so enjoyable.
Jill

My latest B&B review

I loved Lobhill Farmhouse at Lewdown the minute I stepped in.
Read about it in my latest review.

Very nice indeed.

Colcharton Farm - I fancy a few days there myself !

Now there's something you don't often see... a hen and a cat on a wall together ! But all the cats (5+) stay outside on the farm at Colcharton, one of our Bed and Breakfasts near to Tavistock, and chickens and cats all get on together.
Take a closer look at the bathroom picture. Very swish.

Jane the office treasure and I went along to meet Lowenna the landlady last Friday and I have written about my visit to Colcharton within my website. So if you would like to see some large pictures of the bedrooms and the relaxing conservatory where Lowenna serves home made cake to her visitors. Click here to see more http://www.dartmooraccommodation.co.uk/accommodation/visit_colcharton.html