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.

Pretty much anyone in the UK, or indeed Europe, has been experiencing some of the most wintery weather we've experienced in many years. To start with, here in Somerset, we were just suffering the cold temperatures, and in particular the biting wind.

And then suddenly Somerset was in first an amber and then a red weather warning area as storm Emma drove moist air up in to the cold air mass over Britain, and the two weather systems colliding whipped up the winds even more.


In fact because of the winds the snow was not "deep and crisp and even", but much more variable. Birch Hill outside the cottage was pretty much clear of snow whilst in the garden and anywhere, the winds eddied around, the snow piled up in deep drifts. All in all we probably got 6 to 8 inches on average. And certainly it all looked lovely.

For possibly a day on the Thursday/Friday we were snowed in as far as vehicles went (no 4-wheel drive available). Birch Hill at the one end has a short steep bit that was too much for normal cars. But there are two flatter routes in that work fine if taken gently. But why drive if you can walk? So we did enjoy walking down to the village a few times with the roads largely to ourselves as most people heeded the advice to not go out if they did not need to.

And now on Saturday it is all thawing quite fast. The worst is over and life around us is returning to normal.

The snow itself has been rather wonderful as it drapes across the gorge slopes and the trees and the cottages. The nastier thing has been the easterly winds, and whilst the cottage has been solid throughout, and snug with underfloor heating and the log stove if wanted, our house has had two tiles ripped off and we're getting them fixed ASAP (but not for a few days  - so no rain, please). That is the first time in 15 years here that we have experienced any storm damage and it says a lot about the strength of the gusts. Not that we are complaining. Despite the dire predictions we have not suffered in any serious way and we know further afield many have.

Must stop now and finish the snowman!

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.

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. 
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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).

So anyone following the cottage blog will have noticed a slight pause. We generally hope to maintain roughly monthly updates but late 2016 was always going to be a bit hectic with the main house having a fair bit of work done on the kitchen. And then in September a guest mentioned there was a small drip from the ceiling in the cottage living room. It seems the wet-room design of the shower room was not working. Luckily our builder was around immediately and we patched things up.

​Clearly a much fuller investigation was needed but we had pretty much nose-to-tail bookings through until late October when we were able to block out some weeks for whatever work was needed. We really didn't want to cancel anyone - that's the worst nightmare for us. In a further brief 2-day gap our builder did a more substantial patching job and with fingers crossed we got through to the following five weeks to the break.

​Then our lovely shower room floor had to be broken up, and we found that what must have been a tiny seeping leak for years, had slowly soften and swelled the board supporting the tiling, and as that happened more subtle cracks formed, ending up with the drain beginning to give a little and then the whole thing spiraled downwards fast. But at least we now knew about it and were able to fix it - this time choosing to move away from a wet-room approach and installing a more conventional low-profile shower tray, and therefore a shower curtain with quality stainless steel fittings.
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The new setup was tested by the next guests, a lovely couple from Australia, and with their feedback we made a few tweaks to the shower curtain, and that has now been properly adapted by a local seamstress. Now all is good and Gorge View Cottage is back to perfect operation. 
If you are reading this then just mabe you'll get a chance to try it this coming year.

I don't often mention guests specifically in this blog but I am making an exception. This last week our guests were Lucille (Lucy) Campeanu and her partner Gino from Australia. They were here for 9 days and managed to pack in a lot in that time including two separate circuits of the Gorge Walk, visits to Wells, Glastonbury and Bath Spa where they literally enjoyed the spa - the new-ish Thermae Bath Spa facility which includes a rooftop pool where you can gaze at Bath Abbey nearby.

They also made it to Stonehenge and took part in one of the special groups allowed in to the stones themselves (normally off-limits) for sunrise. Pretty special but made the more-so by them being in the area when a magical crop circle appeared overnight. A huge 7-pointed star: you can see the images here.

Anyway they also managed some quiet time back at the cottage and because Lucy is amongst other things a creative coach and artist she had chosen to document their travels in England and afterwards in France with an "art journal", images of which she has been posting and "vlogging" on her Facebook page as she goes along. We were particularly taken by the two paintings she did in her journal of the cottage and the patio view to the garden. They are below and you can get a lot more of this by checking out Lucy's FB page here:

                                                           www.facebook.com/artshedangel 

​Another lovely idea of lucy's was bringing with her some painted "Peace Rocks", and then leaving them in various places along their travels. Each has simple instructions on the back encouraging the finders to adopt the rocks for the next part of their own travels and then to leave the rock in turn for others to find - but not before photographing them in their new location and posting this up on Lucy's FB page for her to track their slow migration.

So a different take on how to capture your journey. And do keep you eyes open for a Peace Rock as you travel around.

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'.

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.

Now just beginning of our fourth year renting out Gorge View Cottage as a self-catering property, we're really pelted to once again hit Gold in both our Green Tourism rating and our Visit England rating. 
We easily meet the 4-star rating with parts of the cottage getting 5-star scores. We were very happy with that (to reach 5-stars you need some facilities we just cannot provide such as a bath tub). However within the 4-star category the highest scoring properties can achieve a Gold Award, and for the first two years we dropped short by just one or two points. We do though keep improving aspects of the cottage and last year we were delighted to pass the Gold mark. We didn't take that for granted, the bar is high and can get higher. So we kept improving things and that has helped secure a second gold. Hopefully this simply reflects the care we take and the ethos we work by and that makes the stay for our guests that much more enjoyable and predictable.
You can find out more about the English Quality mark here: Quality in Tourism