Winter in Bellingham
You might not expect much sunshine in December but actually we’ve had our share of fine weather up here (ok, not exactly continental) as you can see from these pics taken in December 2012 around Bellingham and surrounding area. You can click on the images to get larger versions with captions.
You are in a Forest
Went for a drive around the man-made Kielder Lake and surrounding forest area last night – it REALLY is VERY impressive this time of year. Indeed having travelled throughout much of Europe and the States, there are times when you’re reminded of the Black Forest in Germany and Minocqua up North in America (minus the bears). The photos were shot in 3D, sadly the technology isn’t there yet to show this to you on the web – enjoy the photos – better yet – come to Hollyberry Cottage and it’s only a short drive to Kielder from there.
Superb weather
You have just got to be here to believe this – after a RUBBISH April the weather has suddenly picked up – the last few days have been wonderful and it’s looking like an excellent weekend for walks in and around Bellingham.
Stargazing
Even though the weather is cold there is still plenty to do in Northumberland and right now the stargazing community will be out in force – indeed the Kielder observatory was fully booked for 3 days last week thanks to the Aurora Borealis and there is more to come – get in quick before they are fully booked!
Check out the Observatory here … http://www.kielderobservatory.org/
Trout Fishing
How about some amazing lake and river fishing in the beautiful Coquet Valley?
The New Hollyberry Cottage Video
Recently published – the new short widescreen video of Hollyberry Cottage
Hollyberry is UP AND RUNNING
We’ve just had our first guest – check out the comment on the front page – looks like we’ve had our first success, hopefully many more to come! The last room to go together was the bedroom – the crown jewel being the enormous four-poster bed – that took some putting together – but it was worth it – it’s absolutely excellent.
Hollyberry Cottage holiday rental in Bellingham is now open for business.
Carpet Movers
As the October launch for Hollyberry Cottage holiday rental approaches, the pace is heating up – at the start of the week, we had the carpet fitters in and had to move everything outside – thank heavens the weather was decent for the occasion – it took the fellow most of the day and we had a couple of worrying clouds but not a drop of rain.
It’s amazing watching a property develop – you spend months thinking it looks like a pit that is never going to improve then as you get to this stage you’re beginning to see an end in sight – then the carpet comes and a magical transformation takes place.
We still have some way to go, the 4-poster bed will be shipped over on Monday along with other furniture and so I can see me spending much of the week here making sure everything is just right for our first guests.
Now that we have WIFI broadband I’ve been working here on the guest book, putting together notes on how to use the equipment.
Yesterday we bought one of the newer one-for-all remote controls to see if we could put all the controls into one handset so my job last night was to learn how it works and to program it up with everything guests will need to best enjoy the facilities we’ve put together.
I have to say, the unit is absolutely amazing and we’ll be having another one of these at home – the learning handset has made 3 controllers redundant and will make life easy for guests who want to select from the many Freesat channels or play a DVD or CD from the library we provide or from their own selection.
There’s more… I’m putting the finishing touches on an outside swing-chair and the magnificent 4-poster bed. Why on EARTH they don’t supply you with the right spanners I’ll never understand. I’d planned to have photos of the bed up by now but we came unstuck at the first hurdle…most likely this evening I’ll have pictures in place.
Holiday Rental in Bellingham
Hollyberry Cottage is officially open for business as of October 2010. Phone and WIFI are up and running at long last. Everything is in place and it’s looking great – not only that but the weather has held out so we managed to get some great photos around the place as you can see elsewhere in the website. Take a look around, there’s plenty of information here. We’re looking forward to seeing our first guests at the start of the month.
The Grand Opening
We’re working very hard to get HollyBerry Cottage available for October 2010 – it’s all starting to come together, just hoping the weather stays fine for the remaining work outside. We’ve had a new gate hand-made, a private parking area constructed (enough for 2 cars), WIFI coming soon and much more.
Lots more photos of the area soon if the weather holds out.
