13/01/17
It's been a while since I updated this blog and I have no excuse really other than we have been mega busy! Last year was the first in our foray into holiday letting and I think it's fair to say we had some success. Our bookings mainly came through AirBnB rather than direct but that has worked fine for both us and our guests. In fact, it worked so well that because of the 100% 5 Star reviews we had, I attained the heady heights of a Super Host. What really matters to us here at Blaengawney is that our guests feel like it's a home from home and enjoy the cosy atmosphere of the farmhouse in a wonderful setting. Most of our guests also enjoyed our lovely cider with many taking it home with them. On the cider front, we did well last year winning the BBC Food and Farming Award for the Best Drinks Producer in the UK! Andy is always happy to show guests around the cider shed and explain how it's made. We already have a few bookings in the diary for this year, despite it still being winter and early in the year so we are looking forward to hopefully increasing our visitor numbers in 2017. Another exciting development this year is the completion of a 12 bed bunk house. Andy and Andrew are working hard on that and we hope it will be ready by April/May, ready for the summer mountain bikers. We are also investing in the communication infrastructure at the farm by installing a leased line. This will give us super fast internet access and all our guests will be able to take advantage of that. I promise to write updates more often and will keep you posted on the bunk house progress!
01/4/16
Spring is beginning to raise her head here on the farm with many daffodils popping up. As we are 1000ft above sea level our daffs flower a bit later than those down in the valley but they will shortly be in full bloom. We had a great birthday party here last weekend which was a great success and all our guests seems to enjoy themselves. There's lots of photos on Facebook!
26/4/16
The farmhouse has had a new roof! During the recent winter storms we had some problems with the roof as it's pretty old. So we took the plunge and have put a brand new one on so it's looking very smart! The daffs are starting to go over now but other plants are starting to push through. There are so many different birds here at the moment, it's quite amazing. The other day I saw a heron down by the large pond obviously looking for some dinner. It flew off when I appeared. It's annoying to think it's eating the fish in the pond but they are only doing what's natural!
We have been building up a lot of cider stock recently so we can get on with completing the renovation of another building which will be a bunkhouse, suitable for cyclists etc. I'll keep you posted on progress over the next few weeks.
01/05/2015
Latest news here at Blaengawney Farm relates to the Cider production which takes place on site. Andy makes cider using apples grown on the farm and you can have a wander round those orchards if you come and stay. In early March we were told by BBC Radio 4 that we had been shortlisted in the Food and Farming Awards, something we were both shocked and delighted to hear. The awards ceremony was held on Thursday of last week and a few of us went along to hear who the winner was. Much to our total astonishment, we won! Best Drinks Producer in the UK! We are just letting this sink in and we are fascinated to see what happens now! If you book a break in the farmhouse, Andy will be happy to show you round the cider shed.