With bird feeders in the trees, we get a lot of birds visiting us – one of our favorites is a pair of woodpeckers who nest in the woods by the river and can often be heard making a racket knocking on the trees!
With dippers in the Teign Valley, king fishers, woodpeckers, lots of blue tits and nuthatchs, this is a lovely place to sit and admire these colourful active birds. You’d never believe that you are only 7 miles from Exeter….
Who's making all that noise!!
Anyone for hot tar?
On Nov 5th we all went to watch the incredible sight of boys and girls as young as 7 running through the streets with flaming barrels of tar on their backs!! Using gloves, they run in teams sharing the barrel until it falls apart…
It takes real guts to do this when the heat from the barrels was apparent to the crowd!!
The tar barrels attract big crowds – it starts at 4pm and goes on until midnight!! A fun fair, huge bonfire complete with Guy Fawkes and lots of good value food on offer including a new fishmonger selling dressed crab in little pots – not all burgers, then!!
View towards Dartmoor from our garden
It’s not much like Tobago but it’s still really beautiful! After a fabulous 2 week holiday loafing in the sunshine (our only responsibility being the supplies of gin, limes and tonic….) we have returned to find Autumn has arrived!! Devon is cloaked in gold, red and yellow…. simply beautiful.
The famous stepping stones over the River Teign!
If you’re brave, it’s a hop and a skip into National Trust woodlands and up onto Dartmoor for a bracing walk onto Heltor Tor with amazing views across Dartmoor and towards the coast.
It's Renee in the Teign Valley
Watch out, bootnecks dressed as Renee in the Devon countryside – it’s extraordinary what you can find in Devon!!
Charles (on the right) Parry’s 50th Birthday Celebratory Weekend at Orchard Barn B&B was a fun and energetic 5 day extravaganza – he and his wife Sue organised a get together of their friends and family to mark their double 50th and 25th wedding anniversary.
They hired the village cricket ground and played numerous games (wellie throwing, cricket, etc) before congregating for a wonderful feast at their house and garden.
The next day everyone went for a long walk and finished up with a Cider Sampling at Orchard Barn and children were offered a T20 Fergie Tractor drive around the croquet lawn.
Ian and his T20 Fergie and link-box with children circuiting the garden.
Welcome to the first Orchard Barn Blog and the launch of my new business web page.
The Bed & Breakfast at Orchard Barn is run from my home here and started as an idea nearly 2 years ago following my retirement from the Royal Marines after some 33 years service……at first I was planning a ‘gap year’ (an expression that hadn’t been invented as I left school and joined up as a young officer in 1972) and after a pretty full on career as a commando I was keen to just enjoy the freedom of filling my diary however I liked for the first time. However after 3 months of no haircuts nor donning ‘boots-n-beret’ I decided that rather than wait another 9 months to then re-enter the world of employment in an hitherto unknown capacity I hit on the idea of running something from home without the requirement to commute and to work for someone else…….I thus proceeded to furnish, decorate and equip the house to receive paying guests and to run a Bed & Breakfast from this my comfortable new home.
Living inside the Dartmoor National Park and owning a beautiful recently converted old 4 bedroom stone and cob beamed character Farmhouse overlooking the River Teign and the famous Dunsford Stepping Stones, it wasn’t difficult to imagine guests really appreciating the many features of distinction that Orchard Barn had to offer – for a start the house is warm and attractive with an Aga kitchen, oak, elm and teak furniture in all rooms, large granite fire place in the splendid drawing room with 3 comfortable matching sofas, wood floors and lovely rugs throughout the downstairs with numerous old prints, antiques, photos and original pictures in abundance. The front stable part glazed doorway made of local English Oak as well as the matching French doors lead in from a cobbled drive and old flag stone patio; on entry there is an immediate sense of antiquity and soul as well as welcome and character………..this double sensation is attributed to both the splendour of the homely surroundings and matched by the warm and genuine welcome from the host on arrival.
The property itself is the larger half of an old Devon Longhouse – its original function was simple, my neighbours own and live in the old farmhouse portion known now as Mill Barn as their property is closest to the Old Dunsford Mill, and I own the portion where cows were cubicled for milking below and hay was stored above next to an old orchard hence being accorded the name Orchard Barn. The concurrent conversion of both properties took just over 2 years from a rundown, and derelict farm dwelling with associated outbuildings unused for about 30 years, to two tastefully and sympathetically modernised 4 bed roomed properties and was the work of a good friend and old drinking pal called Toby Wright……he must take due credit for the many fine features and retained character seen in abundance throughout both dwellings, so often lost and removed by most developers.
So with nothing but an old slate sign placed out on the road with an arrow pointing would be guests this-a-way I launched the business in Jul 06 and welcomed my first PG’s touring from Holland that very same day…….23 months later and having met, hosted and fed many further guests since, with several returning again (always a good sign that I’m getting something right!!) I now find myself exploring the wwweb medium of advancing the business by advertising globally.
Ian Corner
Orchard Barn B&B
