Britain is renowned for its gardens big and small, but not all of them are that good for wildlife and the Somerset Wildlife Trust, of which we are members, is trying to get those with gardens to do more to specifically  encourage and support a rich wildlife habitat: from birds to butterflies, bugs to bees, and frogs to foxes.
Their scheme is the Wildlife Garden Award Scheme, and we applied for their badge of honour, providing evidence that we met at least six of the nineteen key elements, with a minimum of one in each of the four main categories. Well we did it and now are proud award holders, with a plaque to prove it (see picture) .

For a while we've been in the process of signing up to the Green Tourism Business Scheme, the official UK stamp of approval for sustainable businesses in tourism. Not only do we want to assure guests of our claims, but also we want to support a scheme that is encouraging tourist businesses large and small to get more sustainable, and encourage those looking for tourists places and activities to be more discerning. It is a chicken-and-egg situation when the choice is still relatively small.
After several months of "Awaiting Grading" status we finally had our assessment visit. And we're thrilled it seemed to go very well. A very detailed and thorough set of around 100 separate items to be considered, covering the cottage, the garden and how we conduct our business. Whilst not all sub-sections apply to us, and some are still in our plans to tackle, we seemed to get recognition for much of what we've done.
No grade yet agreed ... but we are hoping in these Olympic weeks that just maybe we are "Going for Gold"!