Maybe it was that prolonged and unseasonal cold spell through April and in to May, but the pent up energy of nature seems to have finally burst forth this year. The Gorge View garden seems bursting with blooms. And the bees are loving it!

At first we were very worried to not see that many bees around and were concerned that the extended cold spell had hit their populations. But, at least here, the bee business has got back to normal albeit belatedly.

So as we wander the garden there are places where the noise of the bees if remarkable. Looking closely at flowering shrubs like the deep purple-blue Ceanothus (I had to ask Mary for the name!) you see it is covered in bees of all sort: honey bees of course, but a range of bumblebees (I love their Latin genus name of 'Bombus' - so appropriate), and solitary bees such as the Red Mason Bee.

Another amazing flower is the Passion Flower (see top photo). Mary planted ours on the front corner of the house years ago and it did nothing. We thought it was dying. But then, a few years back, it finally started to grow. And grow and grow. And now it is ballooning out and overtaking the thrusting Wisteria and the long-established Virgina Creeper. The flowers are extraordinarily complex, delicate and beautiful, and the knot of twisting green stems have amazingly tangly tendrils to help catch on to any support available. The bees love the flowers. Often you find a clustered mix of bees all feeding of one flower (and with no fighting). And whilst the 25 foot high tangle of the plant is covered in buds, at any one time only a few flowers pop out for a short but wondrous few days. After the late hard freeze in April the plant suffered badly, was brown leaved and looked very poorly. But within a month the health is back and the bees are tucking in to the nectar again.

They work so hard those bees - busily working before we are up and still going late in to the evening. Phew. We get so much value from these little workers and so it was a relief to hear that the EU has (after long deliberations and lots of lobbying from the agri-chemical industries) outlawed the use of neonicotinoid pesticides that have a hugely detrimental affect on the pollinator populations. They all still face other huge challenges, but at least one step has been taken to help them. Care for nature aside their contribution (for free) has massive economic value, but of course big business cannot grab that effort for profit.

​Anyway this was not meant to be a rant, more a celebration of the beauty of the blooms in our garden. Enjoy the photos.

Last weekend, as we have done for many of the last years, we were able to pop down to South Somerset for one of the loveliest day festivals we know: The Green Scythe Fair. Even the 50 minute cross-country run to it is beautiful, across the levels and up over High Ham to Langport, the wonderfully named Huish Episcopi and through the village Muchelney to Thorney Lakes. The last miles of lanes via Mulchelney were made famous during the heavy flooding of the Somerset Levels back in 2014 - the tiny village was cut off with boats needed to ferry people in and out of the village for over a week.

The fair itself is set in one large grass meadowy field where the grass has been allowed to grow nice and long. The centre of the field is set aside for scything competitions and the wide edge is lined with all sorts of stalls selling green crafts, local foods, almost all of it with an environmental or ethical foundation. A couple of tiny stages host small fun bands, and they usually have a afternoon debate tackling subjects with strong emotions on both sides. Power is all solar generated, loos are composting toilets (and very nicely kept).

This year, for the first time, the success of the fair led to it being closed to entry for a couple of hours after midday as the visitors hit maximum (5,000!) and the car queuing in the approaching lanes got dangerous. Next year they'll think this through better. Of course the preferred option is to get there by environmental means and in the past we've part-cycled. This year we went electric vehicle of course and they even had solar car charging available!

Luckily every time we've been it has been warm, usually sunny and (critically for the scything) dry! And the scything lies at the heart of it all. Lots of competitions to scythe a fixed area in races, heats and finals. Semi-professionals and complete amateurs; men, women and even children having a go (but safely). Education and workshops on the different types of scythe, and of course you can buy them and the bits to maintain them at some stalls). In competition points are given not just for speed, but style and quality of cut.

This of course generates a lot of freshly cut grass and hay. So there are pitchforking competitions, hay stacking, hay sculptures, and the many kids have a  great deal of fun building hay dens or just throwing the stuff around. Probably the one type of person who might hate all of this is anyone with bad hay fever!

We'll be going next year, and if you wanted to go then you can camp at the site (there is a very tidy permanent camping site right beside the fair), or of course you could stay at Gorge View Cottage and pootle down yourself.

We are delighted to announce that the cottage is now fully enabled for electric vehicles. We have just today had a new electric charging point fitted that can deliver 32A AC charging on a Type 2 connector. Most electric vehicles (EVs), and indeed newer "plug-in hybrid" vehicles, can use a Type 2 connector. The 32A charge rate will mean most EVs can charge from empty to full in 3-4 hours. Of course in practise most vehicle journeys are around 20-40 mile in range and so would only use around 12% to 25% of a battery's capacity, and a top-up charge would take less than an hour.
Our system is smarter still and will use the power coming from the solar panels on the cottage roof whenever they are exporting power. This means charging will be partly or wholly locally solar powered. The panels are not enough even on the sunniest of days to support the full fast 32A charging, but as our electricity supply has been 100% Green tariff since that was available years ago, a recharge will always be 100% from renewable energy. And if you do not want your car in a hurry then it can charge slowly and purely from the solar power available on the roof.
We will be offering EV charging for free to cottage guests and that means local travel will be completely free and green. All very exciting especially as the uptake of EVs and plug-in hybrids is accelerating, and now we hear news that the UK Government will ban sales of pure internal combustion (petrol/diesel) cars from 2040, and manufacturers like Volvo, and now BMW, are working to move their entire offering to electric, or electric assist, in a much shorter time span.

We're really pleased that the wildlife in the garden keeps growing. Lots of birds & bees of a wide variety, the badgers, foxes and hedgehogs, the frogs and toads and insects that love our ponds, the ladybirds eating the aphids on the veg, and even the slow worms. Now we have a new arrival on the block. Mary was just about to chuck some cuttings on top of one of our compost heaps when she jumped back with surprise. Basking in the sun was a beautiful Grass Snake (see picture). We got a photo or two as (s)he stayed perfectly still (playing dead?) yet keeping a beady eye on us. Finally enough was enough and the snake slid away. One more sighting a few days later this time in the weedy edges of the pathways through our veg plot.

We did have to check this was not an Adder (they're the one venomous native snake in the UK but rarely seen (very shy) and even more rarely in gardens. In all my life I have only glimpsed three Adders and then briefly as they quickly slide off. But no, this was definitely a Grass Snake, which is non-venomous. Apparently they can grow to two meters long. We reckon this one was about 2-3 feet in length, so maybe still youngish. Their one defence, a last resort as they prefer to keep away, is to excrete a smelly garlic-like fluid from their bottoms. Hmmm, something to avoid!

So - happy as we are to have this newcomer, we are also a bit concerned because the main thing Grass Snakes like to dine out on is frogs and toads. We have a very healthy population in our big pond, small pond and polytunnel pond, all helping to keep the slugs at bay. We'd be pretty unhappy if they all got gobbled up but hopefully the whole food chain should keep in some form of balance.

If you're expecting some reference to fossil-fuel-burning soot-belching locomotives, or 4-6-2 wheel configurations, or heritage railway lines, the sorry but this article is not for you. That's not to say I am not an enthusiast for this old and wonderful way of travel despite its less than great eco credentials.

No. This article is about the rise of steam cleaning. For the cottage we have always used eco products, including EM (effective microorganism) cleaners. But of course better still is to use no products at all. And that is possible using steam cleaning. A pretty old technology brought up to date, and for some years now it is something we use on every turn-around of the cottage. It not only sanitises using the heat of the steam, but also loosens dirt for easy mopping up with a micro-fibre cloth.

Whilst no chemicals are involved, it does of course use energy to heat, and then keep hot, the pressurised water container. Given that we clean during the day when no other power is being used in the cottage, the steam cleaner is pretty much fully powered by our solar panels if sunny. If not sunny then the PV contributes and our green import electricity does the rest. And we're not talking much electricity anyway for a hour or so's use.
 
We use our Karcher Steam Cleaner (pictured) to clean the oak floors, the bathroom (floor, wall tiles, grout, glass and ceramics), and the kitchen area including if needed the oven. We still use eco-products on kitchen and other surfaces, and the toilet, but steam is king otherwise. We also see that this has over the years helped enormously with maintaining the condition of the wood floors and tiles - for example almost no little black mould forming on grout and sealant in the bathroom.

So we're converts and are very happy to strongly recommend this way of eco-cleaning.

Toot, toot.

It has been a while in coming but we were excited to have our first electric vehicle (EV) at the cottage this week. Our guests had checked ahead to ensure there is a charging option, and whilst we don't (yet - but see further on) have a proper fast charging point, we do have an outside power point on the cottage. It is right beside the car parking area and so it means a 13am (3kW) charge can take place which is more than enough to "refill" a empty EV overnight (6 or so hours).

This also meant we had to decide on policy for the cost of that, and we have decided that, in the same spirit as our 10% discount to encourage car-free travel, we will provide the EV charging for free as part of the rental. Refilling a small EV should only cost around £3 a day if completely empty and charged to full. And for this particular EV that gives around 75 to 100 miles range, plenty enough to explore the area, completely emissions-free. We feel that seems reasonable. 
​
Of course if the charging is done during the day then solar power on the cottage roof will be used, reducing cost. And as far as the green credentials go, as the cottage uses an entirely "green" electricity supplier (Ecotricity) all the electricity pumped in to the car will have come from renewable energy sources (hydro, wind, solar PV ...).

​We ourselves would love to get an EV. We have a Prius hybrid that is now 13 years old and with almost 200,000 miles on the clock. Still going and in good condition and the great mpg is holding up - the all-important battery seems fine. Mary has her tiny IQ too which does as good mpg as the Prius.

Whether or not we ever get an EV we have resolved this year to install a proper fast charge point on the cottage for our cottage guests, and that will mean a full recharge in a few hours. There is no doubt that EVs seem to have come of age, and yet as the technology is improving fast it makes it difficult to know when to jump and maybe buy. And of course there is the whole issue of embodied energy costs by just getting a new (or newer car). We typically have owned cars until they literally cannot be repaired for anything like a sensible cost. End of life. Yet it does seem that EVs have become practical and not just exotic: the charging network is good and growing, petrol is going up in cost (irrespective of the climate change argument, this is inevitably over time as sources run out and get harder to find). EV range has grown to the point of safe practicality for many people's usage. And running costs are ridiculously low: fuel, servicing (with no complicated engine) and tax. So getting an EV now starts to make sense but one question has to be will it be good for the next 10-12 years? The Prius Hybrid has proved spectacularly good and yet hybrid drive was a new, exotic and uncertain technology in its time. So I am hopeful.

We must give honourable mention our longest serving vehicle, our VW camper van, bought in Holland second-hand over 30 years ago. Still going strong, but needing some degree of TLC every year even though we only use it modestly. It seems it is now becoming a classic vehicle, our daughters have grown up knowing it, are now borrowing it themselves! It really seems part of the family. So that's one vehicle that is not going to be sold (unless maybe EV campers become available).

A few days ago we heard about a new initiative in Frome, not that far away from us, that has a very strong and green-minded community. They've opened a "community fridge": a large fridge in an outdoor kiosk by the library. Anyone can deposit perishable food that they will not use before the use-by date and anyone is free to help themselves. It helps to reduce food waste, which is a massive issue for our society, with waste in all parts of the production chain including those who buy more than they need and it most often ends up in the bin and off to landfill. Hopefully it will be a success.
In the cottage we have had a similar problem. Many guests leave small amounts of excess food they don;t need or want to take home. If it is perishable we try and use it ourselves. But if it is non-perishable we have taken to leaving it on a shelf in the cottage labelled for further guests to use. So salt, pepper and herbs, condiments, and teas and sugar. That sort of thing. All good.
​The conundrum comes with the provenance of the food stuffs. We obviously like to promote that everything we provide in the cottage comes from local, ethical and ideally organic sources. But the bits and bobs left are often not so carefully selected. And that is fair enough, we're not trying to be green police, making people feel awkward or guilty. We prefer the subtle approach of 'by example'. A recent example was some body wash left in the bathroom; a good but not ethical brand. We would not use it ourselves, and body-wash is not something we normally provide as part of the self-catering cottage deal. Should we throw it away which is a waste given that it has been produced and is perfectly viable? Or should we leave it for guests to use if they have, for example, forgotten some shower gel of their own?
We have chosen to leave it there, as we do with the condiments in the kitchen which are not the sort we'd normally buy or supply. In doing so we risk people seeing us as lax in our green standards, not practising what we (gently) preach - we cannot put signs everywhere explaining what is, or is not, 'left-over'. We hope the risk is small and people will understand what we are doing and why.
Ultimately another example that trying to be green, sustainable and ethical, is never as black and white as we'd all like to think. Or should that be 'green and white'.

This is to celebrate Mary's up-cycling passion, applied to her even bigger passion for growing things. Firstly you need to know that Mary drinks a lot of water. Whilst at home she now drinks our own rainwater (quality filtered), however if we are away for a weekend she will not just buy a normal bottle of water but a big five litre job. They don't go to waste, they come home with us.
Now turn to the the garden and at this time of year Mary is planting out the baby veg plants she has grown from seed in the safety of the polytunnel. But it can be cold, and it can be windy. Not good for little delicate things like her small broad bean plants. So out come the water containers, bottoms already cut off, and they get well dug down in to the mulch layer. One pot over each plant giving them in effect their own little greenhouse. Of course if the sun shines a lot then off they have to come in case the plants fry, and back on for the night. But that's all in a days work for someone tuned in to all things growing, unlike Huw who seems to have a little blind spot at times!
[This blog updated as I struggle to get  auto-stare to Facebook]

It so happens that one of my favourite colour combinations is green and gold. Something soft, yet rich erring on the sophisticated. Maybe it is something that captures that turn in to Autumn when gold leaves fall on to green grass.

Whatever it gives a rather tenuous segue in to the fact that this last month we had our next Green Tourism inspection. We get inspected by the Visit England tourist board people to check our quality is up to snuff, and they are sticklers for detail and cleanliness. With the Green Tourism crowd they also have an eye to quality but the real detail they dig in to are the fact and stats around our environmental and sustainable operation, something that also extends to social impact and fair trade. This a standard we have from the start cared most about and we were surprised and proud to get gold on first attempt - something we were told is pretty unusual.

But the trouble with hitting a high mark is the only way to go is down ... or at least (and hopefully) stay put. SO it is a vaguely anxious time, even though the people doing the assessment are very friendly, full of good advice and very professional. You don't realise you are actually being interrogated.

This time around the green Tourism people have launched a new tool to log all key utility usage ahead of the visit, and we duly complied. And it has proved very useful - partly because by way of a minor panic it helped us resolve on ongoing and nagging question. Namely - why do our guests use so much gas?

Being a bit of a nerd when it comes to all things technical, when the cottage was converted we were careful to ensure all main utilities were sub-metered. Water, Gas and electricity, including electricity imported and exported by the PV panels, is metered and I read and log these after every stay. As they say if you cannot measure something you cannot know what to improve on, and in particular what to focus on.

I checked and double checked the figures on several occasions before - they were always correct. The calculation to go from a gas meter reading to kWh and on to £, is remarkable complex and arcane. But the calculation is there for us to see on our main gas meter bill and from that I can calculate cottage use in my wonderful spreadsheet. Everything looked good.

But the Green Tourism tool prompted me one more time. And this time I did a test to run gas usage for  30 minutes only in the cottage, and took readings from both meters. Instead of them showing identical amounts, the cottage meter was showing 3 times the amount. what was going on?

Finally I twigged it. Older gas meters measure units that are imperial, and our cottage has a new meter which already reads in metric. The difference is - you guessed it - is a factor of 3. Problem solved, historic logs corrected, and our rating for energy use with Green Tourism hit excellent levels for what is still a solid walled old building, and not one of the super efficient Passivehaus type dwellings.

Anyway - that boring but nerdy story leads us to the good news that we got our Gold Award again. So as and when you come to Gorge View Cottage you will know it really is a very environmental stay.

Back in May I blogged about a new initiative in Cheddar that Gorge View Cottage had got behind and helped set up. Well on Friday 4th September it was formally launched. Cheddar Walking is the name of the organisation that will be developing and promoting a quality walking experience in and around Cheddar for visitors and residents alike. Most importantly we have satisfied the tough requirements to achieve full Walkers are Welcome accreditation, a quality mark for over 100 destinations across the UK where walkers are assured of a warm welcome by businesses and community alike, and with plenty of maintained paths and walking guides to help people explore the well-known and not-so-well-known walks around the area. 
The very active steering group have checked and tested seven walks for the launch  - everything from a short 30 minute walk near the gorge and caves, to the iconic 2.5 hour gorge walk, and including a wheelchair/buggy friendly walk around the reservoir. All of these are downloadable and printable from the website, but for all Gorge View Cottage guests these walks are all ready in the special folder that includes lots and lots of take-and-use sheets for enjoying the area.
Next year we'll be co-organising a 3-day walking festival in Cheddar over the August Bank Holiday so if you want to stay for all three days and make the most of it then better think about booking early.