Our winter work is going well and we will soon be able to offer dining accommodation for larger groups in Manesty Band, when booked with either Manesty or High Seat, for up to (hopefully – we haven’t bought a table yet!) 14 people. It is really exciting for us to be able to offer even more flexible accommodation, and make Manesty available for a wider range of visitors.

The winter so far has been rather warm, pretty windy and a little bit wet… (have a look at the weather station records). Despite this, some of our regular guests who were here for 3 weeks over Christmas and New Year managed to walk on every one but three of their days here, a testament that the Lakes can be enjoyed to the full whatever the weather!

We would like to thank everyone who visited us in 2011, and hope to see many of you again over the next 12 months. If you are planning your holidays now then have a look at our prices and availability page to see if we have anything that will suit you.

Despite the cooler end to August and beginning of September this year there are only a few early signs of Autumn around. The bracken covered fells have turned a rusty red and the red squirrels are busy with the nuts, but the leaves are still green, the grass is growing at an alarming rate and bizarrely some confused rhododendrons have actually poked a flower out or two! Regardless, the weather is definitely reminiscent of the summer and we are enjoying walks and barbeques while we can.

We are also looking ahead to our winter renovations. In addition to the usual painting and redecorating, kitchen and bathroom refurbs and general maintenance, we are also looking at an exciting project to help accommodate larger groups at Manesty.

In the past we have been unable to accommodate parties of more than 7/8 people who want to socialise and dine together because we do not have a place that can accommodate more than 8 people dining at once. By increasing the dining area in Manesty Band (rearranging the kitchen/dining room and adding an extending dining table) we aim to create a dining area that can accommodate up to 14 people. Manesty Band will then be available to let with either High Seat or Manesty or Manesty Dairy for larger groups for short breaks in the low season and full weeks in the peak season. During the peak season also we hope to accommodate larger groups of up to 10/11 people for short breaks by offering Cocklety How Stable Loft, Cocklety How Byre and Cocklety How Studio together, with an area to dine in either the Byre or the Stable Loft.

We will let you know as soon as we have finalised our plans so you can start thinking about your holidays!

As mentioned in our previous post, after the popularity of the short breaks in our newest cottage, Cocklety How Byre, we are now offering short breaks (Fri – Mon & Mon – Fri) all year round for up to 5 people in Cocklety How Stable Loft. The Stable Loft operates on a sliding scale of prices depending on party size, so smaller groups are accommodated without having to pay for accommodation they don’t need. We have also introduced the sliding scale of prices to High Seat for weekly lets from Saturday – Saturday. We are now able to accommodate a wider range of holiday options, so should have something to suit everyone! Up to date prices and availability for the next 52 weeks are available on our dedicated interactive webpage.

For those of you looking for a weekend away in the Lakes we have written a leaflet for a perfect weekend at Manesty, specially orientated to those of you wanting to leave the car at home. We will publish this on our home page soon, so watch that space! If you’ve booked a weekend with us already and would like to see this then drop us an email and we will send you a copy of the current draft.

We still have a few summer breaks (short breaks and full weeks) available this August and into early September, so there is still a chance to come and enjoy the summer yourselves. If you want to miss the busier summer season, then why not consider an Autumn break and see the Lakes at their most colourful. Visit our prices and availability page to find a time that suits you.

Finally, for all of our guests, past and future, who are in London, we hope that you remain safe during the current unrest and that the situation gets back under control soon. Our thoughts are with everyone in the affected areas of the capital.

With a long period of warm dry weather about a month ago, we were battered with some strong winds and rather a lot of water last weekend. Happily, the sun has come out in force for the end of the school half term week and we are basking in glorious temperatures today (the thermomoter is currently reading 27 deg celsius). Blissful. The ash trees (always the last to green up) have finally put their leaves out and the bracken has poked new green shoots up over last years brown, so we know that it really is time to say goodbye to the spring.

We have got demanding baby blue tits being fed on the bird table by frazzled looking adult birds and the wagtail nest in the jasmine outside the bedroom window is getting a bit noisy for 5am in the morning. There have been casulaties: two tiny new born chicks were respectfully disposed of after (we can only assume) they were stolen from their nest and dropped mid flight on the gravel. We are keeping an eye on the slightly dopey blackbird that has chosen to nest practically on top of the tap we attach the hose to. It seems to be going strong!

The azaleas have finished their colourful blaze of glory but there are still rhododendrons keeping the gardens colourful. Have a look at our facebook album for photos of them in their prime. We have taken use of the good weather to assess the damage of the winter freeze on the more frost tender plants (we don’t really have any, but the winter was pretty exceptional!) and the good news is that more of them are recovering that we had initially hoped. We are giving them a chance to recover and will reassess in the autumn.

Our favourite thing about this time of year has to be the long light evenings and bright early mornings. With the longest day under 3 weeks away, it is barely getting fully dark at night anymore. It’s a great time for getting out and about, and we are trying to make the most of it by going for a walk after work has finished for the day. We had a lovely walk from Whinlatter above Bass Lake to Barf and Lord’s Seat last weekend, albeit a bit windy! We are toying with the idea of a new set of leaflets to complement our Walks from the Door. The idea is Secret Walks from Further Afield. Any ideas would be welcome, of course.

Things have not stood still over the past few months. We have painted all of the exterior of the cottages (tricky – not only is it a huge area, but the paint can’t go on if it is too cold or too hot or too wet…) and have also chosen new carpets for Manesty and Manesty Band, which will be fitted in the next few weeks. Our new leaflet for the gate with a summary of the accommodation we offer should arrive next week, and we are working now on updating our brochure. We also have a new initiative to encourage you to recommend us to your friends: departing guests are given a voucher which they can pass on to friends and family. When they book friends and family who present the voucher are entitled to a free hot tub, as are the guests who passed on the voucher when they come back.

We have fixed the weather station which was experiencing increasingly intermittent faults. We couldn’t pin down the exact problem, but replacing the hardwear that stores and uploads the data to the website has thankfully done the trick. We have also installed a second broadband line for our Manesty Holiday Cottages network, which should increase the speed of the broadband available. We are still somewhat limited by our rural location, but hopefully speeds should be more reliable now.

And finally, we are fairly confident that we will turn another of our cottages over to the popular Mon – Fri, Fri – Mon short break scheme that we trialled this year in Cocklety How Byre. We think that it will be Cocklety How Stable Loft, which will allow us to accommodate larger groups for short breaks, but we welcome your idea about this if you have any. Just drop us an email or put a wall post on our facebook page. We have last minute breaks and summer holidays available, so if you are looking for some time away have a look at our availabilities page and get in touch.

Our winter work went well: the work in Cocklety How Stable is now finished and the first guests to stay in it have been and gone. Its new layout and sliding scale of prices for different sized parties is proving popular with families and couples alike, and we hope that the added flexability this gives will mean we can help more people find that special time in the Lakes, away from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

With the better weather on its way and the longer days providing more time for outdoor work, we are now turning our thoughts not only to the annual calls of the garden, but also to the rather mammoth task of pressure washing the exterior of the buildings in preparation for a paint job. We will of course be staying with the original warm apricot colour that Manesty has been for a long time now, and even better, we have been delighted to finally source the Snowcem paint that gives Manesty its charactieristic darker hue in the rain, brightening the sometimes grey weather that the rain can bring.

Our lower season prices this Spring are as favourable as ever, and as well as the usual part week availability in the Studio and the Byre, we are also happy to be able offer part weeks for larger parties (and for smaller parties if the Studio and the Byre are booked) in some of the larger cottages. Prices and dates for these breaks are available on request and reflect demand and the proximity of the desired period.

If you would prefer to see the Lakes in the peace and quiet, awakening from its Winter slumber with daffodils, lambs, fresh Spring growth and all the other wonders of the new season, get in touch (by phone or email) and we will do our best to find you that perfect ‘get away’ break.

Our alterations in Cocklety How Stable Loft have gone well, and the photos of the new bedroom and sitting room are now up on its webpage. We are now refitting the kitchen, which will be completed in the next few weeks. As ever, photos will be up on the website soon after.

We have also finished and trialled our new interactive prices and availability page which is now totally integrated on the website. It shows day by day availability and should make searching for your ideal break more intuative and informative. Let us now what you think: drop us an email, give us a bell, or join us on facebook or twitter and make a post.

Finally, it only remains to say that the new year has brought us the usual flurry of booking so we are as busy as ever! Our new cottage, Cocklety How Byre, is proving popular and we hope it will become a favourite get away place for some of you, as so many of our other cottages are. We hope you will consider Manesty Holiday Cottages for whatever holidays you are planning at the moment: get in touch and we will do our best to help you.

Our winter work continues well: alterations in Cocklety How Stable are on schedule. Electrics, joinery and plastering are finished and we are now decorating and about to put in the new flooring. We have also developed a new interactive prices and availabiliy page for our website, which is this week to be intergrated in to the website and should be going live within the next week. It will make finding and enquiring about your ideal break away more intuitive and informative, dispaying night by night availability as well as specific prices for each week for different party sizes. We’d love some feedback, so will definitely be letting you all know when its ready for action!

We can only emphasize now what a wonderful wintery period we are having in the Lakes at the moment, and what a special time it would be to take a break here and experience the beauties and splendor of a snowy Lakeland. Before last year we had not had weather like this for years, so make the most of it: escape the fesitve build up and make time for a few idyllic days away.

With the Byre completed, we are now turning our attention to the Stable Loft. Yesterday we started the conversion of the room adjacent to the entrance hall downstairs into a sitting room, and our builder is currently busy taking walls down in the entrance area to provide access to the sitting room and downstairs shower room. The electrician is disconnecting wires and working out how to rewire switches to more convenient places. The glass double doors that will go from the entrance area to the sitting room have been ordered, and the joiner is on call to come and fit them as soon as the opening is ready! We are hoping to add a heated tiled floor to the entrance hall (to warm those cold wet feet) and a porch to the front door, but whether these will be jobs for after Christmas remains to be seen: it’s early days at the moment.

We have had the first snowfall of the season (albeit just on the tops) and the current northerly wind is a nippy reminder that the excitment of winter is on its way. We still have some availability for Christmas and New Year, so if you are looking to spend part of the festive season away from home, either to celebrate with friends and family or just get away from it all for a while then do get in touch. As ever, our prices and availabilities are on the website and we are always here to help at the end of the phone or by email. We look forward to hearing from you!

This November/December we plan to incorporate a downstairs shower room and spacious sitting room into Cocklety How Stable Loft underneath the kitchen, bathroom and small bedroom. We will turn the old sitting room back into a 3rd bedroom and the small bedroom back into a single room. The Stable Loft will then be able to accommodate up to 5 people in 3 bedrooms, and will operate on a sliding scale of prices depending on occupancy: the current price will remain for parties of up to 3 people, and the price will increase incrementally for parties of 4 and 5. We hope that this will increase the flexibility of our accommodation, yet not discourage our valued regular guests who have been visiting the Stable Loft for many years!

Margaret’s house will be renamed Cocklety How Byre, as is it sited on the location of the old tin sheds and in the part of the original barn where the cows lived when the working farm buildings of Manesty Farm were here at Manesty (they are now located about 400m away on the road to Grange). It will be let as a luxury one bedroomed cottage for 2, with the option of sleeping another 2 persons on a sofa bed in the spacious lounge. It will be available for part weeks all year round, probably on a Monday – Friday, Friday – Monday basis, and is thus likely to be let on a Friday – Friday cycle, with later arrival and departure times than currently to allow people to come up after work and make the most of their last day here at the end of their stay.

We hope you are excited by the changes we plan to make in Cocklety How in the near future. We would love to hear your comments: drop us an email , give us a bell, or join our facebook page and comment on our wall or directly on our notes where our news items are posted as a blog. Don’t forget you can keep up to date with our lasted offers and availability there as well!