Gardening
Our wonderful gardener has been busy at Rhydd Barn refreshing our flower pots, tubs, and baskets around the barn patio—the cyclamen look good now. And the small flower bed at the entrance to the barn has been tidied up: some unsuitable shrubs were removed in favour of smaller flowering plants (eg small roses from the local nursery in Guarlford) with a backing of slate to keep it tidy. The edging along our entrance drive has been repaired or replaced where necessary so it all looks much neater, giving a positive first impression to our visitors.
New items for Rhydd Barn
During, on our own recent (August 2019) stay in Rhydd Barn, we took the opportunity to add or update some of the items in the Barn.
The current fridge is rather small so we purchased another, second, fridge for the Barn which is located in the pigsty next to the freezer.
We replaced some smaller kitchen items which were worn or not working so well. There is now a new kettle, toaster, omelette pan, tin opener, and a new set of downstairs drinks’ coasters.
We have ordered a small ‘compost caddy’ to place on the kitchen work surface for easier disposal of waste food for organic recycling. We hope to have this in place within a week or so.
We purchased a couple of USB charging plugs and recently replaced the carbon monoxide detectors.
We also now have two plug-in night lights which switch on automatically when it is dark.
Outside we modified the flower bed by the entrance gate to the Barn, replacing some plants and using Malvern stone to make it more like a small rockery.
FOUR STAR GOLD AWARD FOR 2019
We are extremely pleased to announce that Rhydd Barn has (again) attained the Four Star Gold Award standard in its annual assessment carried out on 17 April 2019.
Highlights from the assessment are listed on the 2019 Assessment web page of this site. Here is a quote from the summary:
Rhydd Barn continues to offer a high standard of comfortable well maintained accommodation for its market. Mrs Boaz, the Proprietor is very much to be commended on the continued investment and maintaining of standards helping ensure that the high standards continue to be maintained. It is therefore a pleasure to once again reconfirm the Four Star Self catering rating with Gold Award for the coming year reflecting the care and attention afforded by the Proprietor.
A well-deserved award (and reward) for Rosemary (owner of Rhydd Barn, shown below) and her team for all their hard work.
Ironwork painted
The ironwork around Rhydd Barn has all been re-painted. This includes the gutters and downpipes of the barn and converted pigsty and the metal handrail on the outside steps of the barn. Our decorator took the photographs below of the completed work.
Rhydd Barn update
IN RESPONSE to guest requests we have installed two USB charging sockets in the Barn for your phones, tablets, etc—one downstairs in the kitchen/dining area and the other in the upstairs living room.
There is a new suitcase stand stored at the bottom of the bedroom wardrobe and spare blankets are now stored in a protective bag (as recommended at our last inspection). A second shoe and boot tray has been added downstairs.
Outside, we have filled the flower tubs and baskets with completely fresh compost and replanted them. We think something in the soil was negatively affecting their growth last year.
All gutters and down-pipes are being re-painted with Hammerite metal paint, as is the handrail of the Barn’s outside steps.
Guests have already expressed their appreciation of the new mattress on the bed and the champagne flutes.
New toilet installed
IN our ensuite bathroom a crack developed in the toilet seat. Unfortunately it was not possible to just replace the seat itself (‘no longer manufactured…’, ‘odd size toilet…’, etc) so a whole new and attractive toilet was installed. Since the photo was taken the floorboards have been improved around the base by sanding down and varnishing.
