The Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) have commissioned Green Traveller to make a special online destination guide for this area. It includes a short film (OK so describing it as a "movie" was a bit over the top - but it alliterated) and you can see it below. It captures a lot of the beauty of the hills themselves (but of course not the wider area of the Somerset Levels, city of Wells, Glastonbury and the coast). We like it - but they asked us if they could feature Gorge View Cottage and so maybe we're a tad biased. Anyway it is a quick and lovely way to see some of what you can see here - just a short walk (or cycle or drive) from the cottage.

On Friday the first ever Green Tourism Conference took place in the UK, conveniently for us it was held in Bristol to recognise the city's flagship efforts to promote sustainability in an urban environment (and was in turn rewarded by Bristol them being chosen as the European Green Capital for 2015).
It was a very interesting conference with some very informative, inspiring and at times entertaining speakers (of which more on other blogs soon), but perhaps the climax of the conference was the award ceremony for the prestigious GoldStar awards for the very best green tourism businesses in the UK. Winners included big players like Wembley Stadium, but at the other end of the spectrum, in the self-catering category li'l ol' Gorge View Cottage came second out of the eight short-listed and was High Commended. Wow. Of course hat's off to David and Philippa at Banceithin cottages in West Wales who won the actual prize itself, but as complete newcomers to this business, just about 18 months from a green start ('green' as in 'inexperienced'), we were amazed and really pleased that what we do and care about passionately got recognised in this way.
It seems that along with the building materials and design, solar PV and rainwater harvesting, LED lighting and the other "headline" stuff, the more detailed issues (local provisions, eco-cleaning materials, ...) and the wider social efforts to promote and support green causes also helped.
Of course it doesn't stop here. The Green Tourism award scheme keeps slowly raising the bar of what is expected and we have a list of things to do to improve things, large and small. So watch this space.
Meanwhile we'll take a moment to enjoy the award.

Green Tourism Week is an initiative of the UK's Green Tourism organisation, a group we are proud to support. The week is being used to highlight the bottom-line benefits of green-mindedness to tourism businesses and to raise awareness of green issues relating to tourism. The bad news is that a relatively small fraction of the UK's tourism business is actively trying to work in a more sustainable way, but the really good news is that this is changing fast and the number is growing. Not just because it might help the planet! Going "green" almost always helps the business by reducing costs (energy for example), or attracting an increasingly more discerning public.

Here in Gorge View Cottage we're doing our bit, and we're chuffed to have been awarded our Gold level award after a very detailed and through appraisal. But big commercial concerns are also finding it a positive thing to do: one of the biggest being Wembley Stadium, and also the Jurys Inn group of hotels, which are both recipients of the highest Gold level accreditation. So our little cottage is in good company!

At the end of this Green Tourism Week the highlight is the UK's first Green Tourism Conference. It will be held at the @Bristol Science Centre (@Bristol is another fantastically committed Green Tourism destination). During the Conference the greenest businesses in the UK will be recognised by being awarded the much coveted GoldStar Award. We'll be there to find out more about how we can improve ourselves and promote Green Tourism in general. We'll let you know how it goes. 

Find out more about all of this at the Green Tourism website, and Facebook page. And you can support Green Tourism by making an informed choice about where you go and stay and how you travel using the Green Tourism mark as a trusted sign of a business's sustainable credentials.

Perhaps it is a basic fact that try as you might you don't get to know all that is lovely around you. The upside is you can still get lovely surprises and one of those happened this weekend. The Somerset Levels are famous for once being sea shallows, bogs and wetland. It all got drained (Dutch style) centuries ago and now is a flat area, criss-crosssed by the drainage ditches known as rhynes, and punctuated by small hills and ridges including of course the Isle of Avalon, with Glastonbury Tor, and which literally used to be an "isle".
The levels are rich in peat, and where the old peat works have been digging out the levels wonderful watery lakes are left and this attracts all sorts of birds and wildlife.
Somerset Wildlife Trust, Natural England and the RSPB all have reserves on the levels and perhaps most famous is Shapwick Heath, Westhay and Ham Wall a closely connected series of reserves, which recently have been made famous by the Great Crane Project (co-founded by RSPB and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust), which has over the past few years been releasing cranes back in to the wild - the first time they are back in the wild in the UK for over 400 years. The reserves have well made paths and walking them is easy, you can cycle some, and wheelchairs are welcome in many.

Originally just by these lovely nature reserves there was a visitor centre called the Peat Moors Centre. Concentrating on the history of the area (including peat working) they featured a lot of Iron Age history known about because the peat moors had preserved lots of a artefacts. They include reconstructed Iron Age roundhouses, and a section of the "Sweet Way" the world's oldest known engineered pathway, an Iron Age wooden path on stilts made to cross the bogs and only discovered by chance this last century.
Sadly the centre was closed in 2009 due to county cut backs (but plans are afoot to reopen it).
But meanwhile the buildings have not remained closed. Indeed it was this that we vaguely knew about but had not visited until this weekend following a lovely walk in the reserves. The first lovely find was Somerset Crafts, a gallery and demonstration space for local artists. Lots of arts and crafts from oil paintings, to silk paintings, glass working, pottery, sculpture and more. And when we were there it was one of their many demonstration days with the artists themselves creating their works in front of you.
We now have a plan to buy some of the lovely pieces and put them in the cottage, but sell them at cost to guests if they take a fancy to them.

And it gets better because there is also an information centre with information on the local nature reserves of the Somerset Wildlife Trust, RPSB and Natural England. And a wonderful cafe called Eco Friendly Bites. Like Somerset Arts pretty much open every day of the year except Christmas it is an outside catering unit but you can also sit at tables inside the Somerset Arts building surrounded by loveliness. Eco Friendly Bites do coffee teas and scrumptious cakes and simple hot food including soups and filled baked potatoes. Everything they do is extremely sustainable in all ways and absolutely FairTrade.
Hopefully all these good things will benefit from rather grand plans being put forward by Natural England and the Somerset Wildlife Trust for a new state-of-the-art sustainable education and crafts centre (with cafe). Watch this space.
Meanwhile, if you staying at the cottage then this is a must visit destination.