Hopton House Blog Stories

I had a rare night off this week which happened to coincide with our wedding anniversary so Rob and I headed off to the Welsh coast for the night. Because we only had one night free we decided to splash out on a expensive 5 star Guesthouse.

We did consider taking the train ( it is possible to do a short day trip to the coast leaving HH at 7.40, arriving at the seaside at 11.15, then getting the train back at 15.29 to return here at about 6.30 ) but we wanted to visit a few places en route so we took the car.

The accommodation was very nice - very comfortable beds, seaview etc. The problem for me is that every holiday is now a busman's holiday with me critiquing and picking up new ideas.

One thing I had wished for was a stormy night - one of my favourite memories is lying in my grandparents front guest bedroom in Aberystwyth listening to the wind, rain and sea crashing on the beach. I was in luck. And even better the rain stopped during the day so we able to enjoy a long walk along the beach - perfect!

This a photo of Harlech beach taken a few years ago.

I do love autumn, though  I normally prefer it when it's followed summer! Still if I wanted wall to wall sunshine I should move to the tropical island and not live in one of the greenest and lushest counties of the UK.

Actually it's been pretty perfect weather this summer for exploring Shropshire - apart from the odd rainy day - and hopefully things will improve as we move into autumn proper.

In the orchard the apple trees are heaving with fruit so I really need to get my act together and make my favourite mint and apple jelly and also find a nice recipe for apple compote which I can serve up for breakfast.

The Victoria Plum that we planted last year has also provided us with a few very nice plums - probably only a few meals worth but it bodes well for future years as it grows bigger.

I always like to serve some sort of fruit for breakfast and for the last few months that has been strawberries and blueberries. However I was short of time last week so could only shop in Leintwardine which is a bit limited in its fruit selection. When I went down there they had no strawberries. Thinking I would have to drive into Ludlow I spotted some local plums.

Rob doesn't really like plums so we tend not to have them but I love plum crumble, so I decided to buy the plums and make a plum compote for breakfast with the intention of eating themself when the guests decided against them. However the plum compote has provided so popular that I've hardly been able to sneak any leftovers.

Whilst it is lovely on its own, combining it with natural yoghurt and some of my homemade granola takes into another class.

It's really easy to make. Just halve plums, take out stone, place cut side up in an ovenproof dish. Add a tiny knob of butter to each half, then sprinkle with a mix of demerara sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon. The amount of sugar you add with depend on how ripe your plums are.

Then put in a hot oven ( 200 degrees ) or top oven of the AGA until the plums are soft and beginning to caramelise.

The plums and sugar will have created their own lovely syrup. Top with yoghurt and granola.

The photo below was taken on the walk to Clun from Hopton House a couple of Augusts ago. Clunbury Hill in the middle with Clee Hill in the background. You can also see the Malverns when you get to the top.

If  you were to ask Murphy what his favourite activities were he'd be hard pushed to choose between playing ball or walking in the woods. I used to take the two of them walking in Hopton Woods everyday but had to stop because of a combination of mountain bikers, forestry vehicles and M&M's tendency to run off into the woods.

Murphy is part gundog so loves to disappear into the woods and flush things out. I'd never seen a woodcock till we got Murphy. Now it's rare to walk in the woods without him finding one. Mitsi doesn't know what they're doing but she follows in his wake.

The main problem is that they would run a long way and I was worried about them jumping out in front of a tree felling lorry or a mountain biker. So we've been making do with walks along the lane and in the farmer's field.

The farmer has now filled all of his fields with livestock and the dogs were getting a bit hyped up, so I decided to take them up to Bucknell and Bedstone Woods. You can actually walk there as a part of an 8 mile circular from Hopton House but I drove and parked at the top of Darky Dale. It's a lovely drive, with 1.5 miles up a narrow road with lots of grass in the middle.

I'd forgotten how much I love walking in the woods this time of year. The last woods I walked in were Muir Woods near San Francisco and it would be difficult to tell them apart. The main difference being that in Muir Woods you were never more than 10 steps from another tourist! In Bedstone Wood you don't see a soul.

There was  a lovely woody smell and I saw hundreds of butterflies feeding on the thistles. The only sound was that of birds ( one raven and one buzzard) and 2 dogs rampaging through the bracken.

There are lots of options but I decided on the 1 hour circular route.

If there is one thing assured to turn this happy smiley landlady into a grumpy old goat it's over cautious weather reporting. Quite often the summary of the day will be a black cloud with the sun peeping round the edge. The reality will be a lovely sunny day, with said black cloud turning up at 4, then disappearing again by 20 past. However with many people checking the weather and deciding not to come away to a B&B afterall - the damage has already been done!

Yesterday was a typical example with black clouds and rain forecast all day and the reality being a glorious and hot sunny day with a very heavy shower at 2.00!

Overall it was a slow news day. They were reporting on the plight of the tortoiseshell butterfly, with numbers down by 80%. It seems that my wildlife garden and refusal to pull up the clumps of nettles in the paddock have paid off . I was in the office today when this beauty flew past the window. I grabbed the camera and followed her across the garden till she landed, rather obligingly I thought, on my verbena flowers.

This is an unseasonal blog however I found this photo yesterday and couldn't resist adding it. We didn't have snow last winter but we did have days of very cold weather with the most wonderful hoar frosts.

Of course I would say this, but Winter is the perfect time to visit Shropshire and Hopton House! Lots of crisp country walks, roaring log fire at breakfast, then back to snuggle in your room or the sunroom before an AGA cooked Beef cooked in Shropshire Lad for dinner.

Though Mitsi and Murphy here demonstrate the result of going out without your hat, wellies and mittens.

With the Olympics just about to start I was very pleased to see Much Wenlock featured on the One Show this evening. This is where the modern Olympic Games all started. Even nicer to hear the presenter say that given the choice of 3 weeks in Bejing or 3 weeks in Much Wenlock, he'd choose Shropshire! Picture below of Wenlock Priory.

The wild flowers in the paddock are progressing nicely. The main flower at the moment is the yellow corn marigold, with quite a few blue cornflowers coming through. The wild poppies look much more vibrant now the oriental ones have died down.

We've made a few mistakes and some areas are overgrown with dock and thistle ( though we do have a very pretty purple thistle that is covered in orange bottomed bumble bees ) which we will deal with and try again!

Overall I'm very pleased with the effect and am enjoying walking round daily spotting new flower varieties. I had one wild pansy but have not been able to find that again and the odd scarlet pimpernel.

I think the beauty of wild flowers is the way they all work together to provide a picture rather than the individual plants being shown off in their own right.

I spent a pleasant afternoon ironing in the barn room on Sunday. It was the coolest room in the house and I wanted to spend some time in there getting to know the room better.

I was listening to Virgin Radio ( which you can get through the DAB radio and Freeview on the TV ) and two of my favourite songs came on in quick succession; Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls ( requires maximum volume! ) and then Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars.

I couldn't help but sing along ( secure in the knowledge that I couldn't be heard in the Barn! ) also at full volume and went into the bathroom to discover it has the most fantastic acoustics - so if you like singing in the bath or shower - it's perfect!

Rob and I were sitting down in the garden yesterday enjoying a Pimms ( a rare moment when we found ourselves with nothing immediate to do ) and remarking on what a typical english summer day it was.

It was hot but with a nice breeze, the sky was blue with a few fluffy clouds, the cows were grazing in the field next door and there was a drone of combine harvesters in the background as the farmers cut the wheat and barley.

I was just looking out of the paddock room window and thought that this image summed the english countryside in summer perfectly; roses and poppies in the foreground, cows grazing in the field next door, bales of hay in the next field, white sheep dotted over the furthest field and Clunbury Hill in the background.

The new barn room seems to be going down well with guests, who have enjoyed ( ! ) having the young bullocks pop over to say hello in the morning.

If you like rabbits you get a great view of them feeding in the field in the morning and, when the puddle is there, it is a favourite watering places of lots of different breeds of birds.

Here's a photo I took this afternoon of the deck and orchard out of the barn window.

Yesterday was dragonfly hatching day. It was a beautiful sunny day so I went to the pond to look for froglets and there were 6 dragonflies in various stages of emerging from their nymphs.

Several were already drying out with wings spread. One nymph was twirling round with its skin starting to split - the picture below is the nymph.

I went again today all excited and expecting to see more and there were none to be seen. So what makes them all hatch on the same day ( given that dragonfly nymphs can apparently live in the water for several years )? Do they all get together and have a meeting and make the decision to go for it?

If anyone knows please let me know.

Oh and I also spotted 3 baby froglets, some water speedwell, a mimulus, flowering rush and a warbler of some sort. I think the warbler is nesting in the clematis. I'm normally pretty good at birds but these have beaten me - they all look the same in my bird book!

I recently reconnected with an infant school friend on Facebook ( he would have been my first boyfriend at age 8 but he made me and Louise Howard have a race to see who would be his girlfriend. Needless to say, as Louise Howard was in the athletics team, and sport was never my strong point, the relationship was doomed. ).

Anyway he asked me if I ran a Fawlty Towers type establishment and I retorted with "No I'm a 4 star gold award B&B of the year thank you". I then thought about the things that had gone wrong over the years and decided I could fill a 30 minute episode of Fawlty Towers afterall.

My favourite has to be the time I was showing some repeat guests up to their room. They are a lovely couple. The wife stood by the window admiring the view whilst I stood next to her husband.

He suddenly jumped and turned to me and said "Well Really". At that point Mitsi, having sneakily followed us upstairs,appeared from between his legs where she had just thrust her nose in the spirit of canine friendship.

I'm afraid that I collapsed into giggles. I think goosing a guest 30 years my senior is probably beyond Visitbritain's guidelines for Customer Service.

Rob and I realised we hadn't managed a day out together since before Christmas so, finding we both had a day free, we decided on Wednesday. Of course the weather forecast promised torrential rain all day but we were not to be deterred and decided on a visit to Powis Castle.

Powis Castle is a National Trust property just inside Wales up by Welshpool. It's a very pretty drive from Hopton House, taking about 35 minutes.



There is also a garden centre, Coed-y-Dinas, a 2 minute drive from there, and I had some birthday garden centre vouchers to spend.

We arrived in the pouring rain so decided on the garden centre first. An hour later, weighed down by lots of perennials to plant in front of the barn, we emerged to find it had stopped raining.

So we enjoyed a dry 1.5 hours walking round the gardens which are fabulous with lots of terraces, woodland and rose gardens.

Probably the highlight of the day was a mother peahen trying to get into the cafe with a very tiny chick. We took this photo of what was probably the proud father last year when we visited in April.

I've just been wandering round the Paddock reviewing my very odd assortment of wildflowers. Some are definitely coming up from the seed we sowed so it will be exciting to see what those are. I'm rather hoping for chicory and ox eye daisy.

The predominant species at the moment are the red oriental poppy and the white camomile - all self sown and not part of our mix at all. But they look very striking.

I've also spotted 2 self sown mint plants - which I'm happy to have spread over the paddock if they can!

But the one that has caused greatest excitement is a white datura. It's planted itself there as I've not grown them at this house. I used to have a yellow brugmansia in a pot in our old house which is how I recognised this one. Wikipedia tells me they are limited to the Americas. If we see any rabbits behaving unusually it will be due to their hallucinogenic  properties!

As a family we quite often sit round the dinner table and compile a Top 10 list - Top 10 albums, Top 10 films, Top 10 actors etc.

Our latest is Top 10 TV or Film Characters that we'd like to have come to stay at the B&B:

1. Doctor Who - who else? As a kid I was in love with the Doctor as played by Jon Pertwee but I'm afraid David Tennant has usurped him. A unanimous family favourite this one.

2. The Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves - Robin was such a wimp - but Alan Rickman was superb as the sheriff.

3.  Tom and Barbara Good - I need some help with the vegetable patch - oh and they better bring Margot and Jerry.

4. Victor Meldrew - "I don't believe it". One of my favourite comments in the guest book was "My husband, a grump old man, couldn't find a single thing wrong with this wonderful place!" I wonder if I could win over Mr Meldrew?!

5. Captain Kirk and Captain Jean Luc Picard - ok it's out I've been a Star Trek fan since I was knee high to a grasshopper

6. Aragorn - the Lord of the Rings has spoilt all subsequent films for me. This is my choice but we better invite Legolas along for Jess

7. Harry Potter,  Ron and Hermione - except maybe the Harry Potter movies

8. Captain Jack Sparrow - Johnny Depp has to feature somewhere and this is my favourite of his characters

9. Inspector Morse and Lewis - a firm family favourite and a much missed actor and character in the Thorne household

10.Poirot - one for Rob. He has seen every single episode hundreds of times over!

11. Our top tens always end up with 11 - Shrek - the Thorne Family's favourite cartoon character

Chickens aren't known for their intelligence. However some of my rare breeds are cleverer and more cunning than others. They all have their own personalities.

Having lost 6 hens to the fox a few months and calculating that, as they were rare breeds at least £30 a head, that was a lot of money to lose because Monsieur Renard fancied a snack, I decided to add a few cheaper ones to the flock to keep the eggs going through the winter.

One of the new ones is a Warren or an ISA and I suspect it has a short life expectancy.

Every morning it leaps out of the coop before I've had chance to put the ramp down so has been squashed under the ramp several times.

It insists on running under your feet, so the whole family has trodden on it.

Yesterday I was about to shut the car door when just in time I noticed said chicken sticking it's head in.

It has nearly got taken away by both our plumber and builder after going into their vans to lay eggs - on a hard floor.

And today it probably did its must stupid thing - never get between a dog and its a dinner.

My mum was a mother of the 70's and very much into women's lib - so I had lots of practical toys including a mini woodworking bench. But what I really wanted was a doll's house. I finally wore my parents down and I received one for my 8th birthday.

My parents have now started calling the converted barn my "Wendy House". So I have spent today playing in it. I swept the floor, made the bed and put the curtains up and put one of my handmade bears in the bed ready for its first guests at the weekend.

It's a very tranquil room. I had some help from Laura Ashley design and they suggested patterns and colours I would never have chosen myself. The result is room with muted natural shades then instantly feel calming.

I now await the cast iron headboards and blinds. The woman on the headboard website promised me deliverr by 4th July - let's see!

We've wanted a wild flower meadow for ages. So, with the builders having made such a mess of the paddock, we had the ideal opportunity to sow one with lots of poor quality soil. 

I bought some seeds - not quite as expensive as some I'd seen on the internet but not cheap - and we planted them according to instructions.

Unfortunately the bunnies then moved in. The paddock is a bunny nursery and the dogs have got bored of chasing them. The bunnies are rather keen on my wildflowers. Every time they look like they are growing they get demolished in one bite.

We should probably have just left things to nature though. We have several weed varieties that appear in every bit of the garden. The ones I quite like are a form of chamomile, a double headed feverfew and the most amazing pom pom oriental poppies. These are busy establishing themselves in the paddock.

The poppies are looking quite amazing and - the great news - the rabbits don't like them!

 

My breakfast preparations were disturbed by a baby wren flying into the kitchen this morning. Luckily I managed to pick it up and put it outside before it landed on the AGA hotplate!

It's probably the smallest bird I've had to remove from the house. The largest was a bit more tricky.

Before we had Mitsi, Murphy was snoozing in the lounge whilst I cooked breakfast, when he suddenly started barking in a mad panic at the log burning stove.

I went in, thinking maybe that a sparrow had fallen down the chimney, and was faced with 2 large eyes looking out at me. A young tawny owl had somehow fallen down the flue into - luckily - our unlit cold woodburner.

Cooking a full english for people when everyone has ordered a different kind of egg can be challenging at the best times. Having to remove an owl mid scramble is no fun!

So I went into the lounge, gardening gloves on and armed with a teatowel, opened the door, put my hands round the owl and brought it out. Unfortunately owls are all feather so at that point it slipped out of my hands and started flying round the lounge. It then did, what most birds so, and flew into the window. Luckily not too hard but enough to stun itself for a few seconds, giving me the chance to throw the tea towel over it and take it outside.

Ours neighbours were there and called across - "What have you got there Karen?" "Oh just an owl"

If you like owls but would rather not have them in your front room. You can visit them at the Kington Owl Centre - about 35 minutes from Hopton House, where I took this lovely photo of a little owl.

One of my responsibilities when we go away on holiday is to find single tracked roads with grass up the middle as Rob loves driving along them!

I also love these roads but always drive along them with a certain amount of trepidation as I'm not keen on reversing for miles to get to the last passing place.

Today, having dropped Jess off at Bishops Castle, I decided to treat myself to drive along my favourite road from Clun to Hopton Heath via Black Woods and Obley. The views when you get to the top are stunning and it is very rural. You really do feel like you're in a different country -  though you're only 5 miles from Hopton House.

I parked the car at the top ( probably not wise given the state of my car battery and no mobile signal! ), opened the windows and worked my way through a box of cherries whilst I listened and watched the birds. There was a large flock of baby starlings, a pied wagtail and his 3 kids, a bullfinch, several yellowhammers, 2 thrushes and a bird of prey that could have been a Goshawk.

I was there for 40 minutes and didn't see any other cars or people. No sound of human habitation at all. I then tried to ring Rob as I wanted to share it and then discovered the lack of mobile signal - which probably made it a bit more special in the end. And maybe Rob, driving to work on the M54, wouldn't have appreciated me rhapsodising about nature.

I then drove back through Obley and stopped off at my friend Kate's house. She set up the Ecocabin, a holiday cabin that has been built on very sound environmental principles.

Rob was just finishing off the large deck area for the new barn room when he called me over. He'd moved some wood that had been sitting there for a while and had uncovered a nest of tiny pygmy shrews.

I quickly distracted the chickens with some corn - do not believe anyone who sells you free range eggs from hens fed on a vegetarian diet. If they're outside they'll eat anything they can find including baby shrews! Then I made a makeshift shelter from some wood.

I could see mummy baby shrew hovering a few inches away so I'm sure she has now taken them off somewhere safe. They were almost as big as her so probably not long off leaving home anyway.

Hopton House Granola

This is a lovely healthy homemade cereal. Most mornings I make myself what the Americans call a Granola Parfait with natural yoghurt and strawberries and blueberries. In the winter, when fresh fruit is not in season, I swap the berries for tinned peaches.

 It tastes far better than any packet cereals and you know exactly what is in it. You can make a batch then keep it for a while in an airtight container.

Customise it by adding different mixtures of nuts, seeds and dry fruits

( add the dry fruits after it has cooked and cooled ).

I personally don’t like coconut but can’t taste it in the granola and prefer the granola when it is added!

Dry Ingredients

3 cups jumbo rolled oats

1/2 cup flaked almonds

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/2 cup each of sunflower and pumpkin seed ( optional )

¼ cup of sesame seeds

½ cup unsweetened desiccated coconut ( optional )

¼ cup plain wholemeal flour

¼ cup of oat bran

4 tablespoons soft brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Wet Ingredients

1/2 cup unsweetened apple juice

4 tablespoons of warmed honey or maple syrup

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of sunflower oil

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C or Fan oven 140 degrees C.

Mix together all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Whisk together the wet ingredients until thoroughly mixed together.

Pour the wet onto the dry and mix really well till all of the dry ingredients are coated.

Spread onto a baking sheet and cook for about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to break up any very big lumps. You're looking for a golden brown colour.

Leave till completely cool and then put in an airtight container.When it is cool you can add your favourite combination of raisins, sultanas or other chopped dried fruit such as read to eat apricots, dried cranberries, prunes and figs. I prefer it with no dried fruit.

Having run the B&B for 4 years I know that one of the reasons people come to an English B&B is to indulge in a full english cooked breakfast. Hardly a day goes by without guests commenting on how different proper local bacon tastes and how the eggs are like nothing you can buy from a shop.

But is it healthy? Well my philosophy in life is everything in moderation and that you shouldn't deny yourself the occasional treat - especially when on holiday.

However if you really do want to try and eat healthily at Hopton House and still have a delicious breakfast I'd recommend the following.

Start with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice or local apple juice.

Then have one of our Hopton House Parfaits - fresh summer berries with natural yoghurt topped with our homemade granola ( oats, local honey, seeds, almonds and lots of other healthy stuff ).

Finally indulge in 2 slices of grilled bacon, a grilled fresh tomato and a poached egg.

Finish off with a slice of toasted granary bread and you'll be set for the day!

I've been considering online booking for a while. I did trial it last year and  I decided not to continue for various reasons.

But now I feel it would be useful to potential guests, alongside our more traditional booking methods, so I've decided to trial the online booking system that's included with my availability package. It's a system that is used by the majority of B&Bs in the USA so I am confident that it is secure.

The downside is that it is an american system so you are asked to put in cell phone number and your state or territory rather than county.

It's a great way of booking your room especially if it's late at night, you're booking from abroad or I'm not answering the phone for some reason - our phones stopped ringing for 2 days last week due to a fault at the telephone exchange.

The availability is 99% up to date. I aim to update it at soon as I take a booking but this isn't always possible - we had a powercut last week for 4 hours ( trees on the line apparently ) and sometimes, being at the end of the exchange, our broadband isn't that reliable.

Of course we continue to welcome bookings by phone or email.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.