We wish all our friends peace, happiness and prosperity for 2012.

Thanks to Katie Hallett and photographer Rachel Whiting for showing off Catsheys in such a lovely light!

The article was in the September issue of Homes and Antiques.

"The reason why we love Linda is that she has been passionate about organic holidays for the last 12 years - working her socks off to produce a wonderful guide and website and never giving up - despite difficulties along the way. The outcome is a wonderful guide with truly wonderful organic places to stay" say the people at Greenhouse PR.

We wholeheartely agree with this statement and are delighted to see her efforts being recognised.

Check out her website which lists hundreds of fantastic places to stay in the UK and further afield, ranging from putting your own tent up in a field on a certified organic permaculture farm to a boutique hotel with an organic restaurant, the many options in between include an amazing variety of bed and breakfast and self catering accommodation too.

We're proud to be listed on Organic Holidays' website.

The fruit will be ripe at the end of July so if you book the whole house for your summer holidays you will have the intense pleasure of sampling the sweet warm nectarines straight off the tree.

If you would like more information about our self catering accommodation, or to find out our summer house letting rates, please go to our agent Unique Home Stays website, phone Bethany on 01637 882012 or email her at bethanylewis@uniquehomestays.com.

PLEASE NOTE: The house is called Romansleigh when you view it on the Unique Home Stays website.

The buds are bursting, the chickens are laying, the snowdrops are almost over but we have daffodils galore and the bluebells and tulips won't be long. We already have chives to liven up our lunch and mint for the freshest mint tea.

Walking on the beach by the sea in the glorious sunshine has to be experienced to be believed and the wind doesn't blow over Exmoor quite so boisterously. Book a long weekend of three nights in spring and you'll get the third night at half price - why wait?

See you soon...

The house and all its facilities, including your own exclusive swimming pool, woodland, veg patch and flower garden can be exclusively yours for you and your family - children will be welcome too.

The house sleeps eight people so there's plenty of room for you, the kids and the dog. There are two king size bedrooms, both with en suite bathrooms, one with a bath and one with a large shower; two twin bedrooms, a separate bathroom with large shower and another separate toilet.

There's a huge kitchen with all mod cons so you can take advantage of all the lovely Devon produce and rustle up some feasts or just kick back and BBQ on the the sunny patio. The utility/boot room has a washing machine and tumble dryer plus loads of room for muddy boots and coats if the weather is wet.

There's plenty of room for you and your extended family to spread out, kick back and enjoy some lazy summer days by the pool or walking in the woods and enjoying the deep Devon countryside with no near neighbours.

If you would like more information about our self catering accommodation, or to find out our summer house letting rates, please go to our agent Unique Home Stays website, phone Bethany on 01637 882012 or email her at bethanylewis@uniquehomestays.com

PLEASE NOTE: The house is called Romansleigh when you view it on the Unique Home Stays website.

Rent yourself a contemporary luxury holiday home from home nestled in the North Devon countryside for as long as you like.

The house and all its facilities, including your own exclusive solar heated swimming pool, woodland, veg patch and flower garden can be exclusively yours for you and your family - children and dogs are welcome too.

The house sleeps eight people so there's plenty of room for you, the kids and the dog. There are two king size bedrooms, both with en suite bathrooms, one with a bath and one with a large shower; two twin bedrooms, a separate bathroom with large shower and another separate toilet.

There's a huge kitchen with all mod cons so you can take advantage of all the lovely Devon produce and rustle up some feasts or just kick back and BBQ on the the sunny patio. The utility/boot room has a washing machine and tumble dryer plus loads of room for muddy boots and coats if the weather is wet.

There's plenty of room for you and your extended family to spread out, kick back and enjoy some lazy summer days by the pool or walking in the woods and enjoying the deep Devon countryside with no near neighbours.

If you would like more information about our self catering accommodation, or to find out our summer house letting rates, please go to our agent Unique Home Stays website, phone them on 01637 882012 or email info@uniquehomestays.com

PLEASE NOTE: The house is called Romansleigh when you view it on the Unique Home Stays website.

But we would like to think that, far from loosing our passion, we are all discovering a new passion for making the stuff for ourselves causing the noticeable decline in sales of that commercial stuff you get in supermarkets. It's really an indication that we're all rolling our up sleeves and cooking up the real thing in our own kitchens!

So now that you've gone out and bought those lovely golden Seville oranges, and even if you are a marmalade novice, with the 2011 Marmalade Festival fast approaching this is the perfect time for you to get out the preserving pan and pot up some winter sunshine. I've made my first batch of 12 jars and on to the second batch, just to make sure that we won't disappoint any of our bed and breakfast guests during the year - there'll be enough for breakfasts galore and some left over to sell to guests!

And if you're particularly proud of your batch of wonderful breakfast marmalade then you could even take a crack at the The World's Original Marmalade Awards.

Everyone's in with a fighting chance to win!!

This new website aims to find the best places to stay throughout the UK, places that offer not only great comfort in beautiful surroundings but also personality and a genuinely warm welcome. Quintessentially British bed and breakfasts. The internet provides a wealth of choice but we, and many of our guests, have found that there is often a lack of consistency of quality, and ‘character’ does not always denote comfort.

Our standards are high and we know our guests love what we do so we are delighted to discover that, at last, there is a website whose sole aim is to showcase only the very best of luxury bed and breakfasts which are still that - bed and breakfast establishments personally run by the property owners. A far cry from those B & B's that are run by housekeepers and lack any personality, or the bed and breakfasts that are really boutique hotels and run by hired help with no owner in sight.

We are excited to be recognised by and be a part of this new luxury market.

And we can think of no better way to chase away the snow and embrace the short, cold days of January than to spend a few steamy hours in the kitchen turning a pan full of oranges into pots of sticky, bittersweet Seville orange marmalade for those lazy summer breakfasts. We so can't wait to fill the house with that bright, clean, fresh smell of orange blossom which slowly turns to warm honey as the jewel-like mixture transforms into golden pots of happiness.

If you're thinking of trying your hand at making a batch of the golden shreds so beloved of our Devon bed and breakfast guests, who always ask if they can buy and jar of the sunny stuff to take home, I hesitantly offer up my own recipe for you to try. It originates from the Kenya Cookery Book, handed down to me by my mother and grandmother.

Don’t delay though, the Seville Orange season is short and sweet - buy them when you see them. And even if you're a marmalade novice, there's a lot to be said for beginners luck and there's nothing more satisfying than getting out the preserving pan and potting up some winter sunshine.

Seville Orange Marmalade Recipe

You will need 9 Seville oranges, 2 sweet oranges and 2 lemons, Unbleached granulated sugar, a preserving pan or large heavy bottom pan, a piece of muslin, seven to nine 500 ml capacity sterilised jam jars and a preserving funnel.

To sterilise the jars, wash them in warm soapy water, rinse and dry them and place in a medium oven for five minutes.

Wipe fruit carefully with a damp cloth.

With a sharp knife, cut fruit, saving all the pips (which are important in helping the marmalade to jell), into very thin slices and put into a large basin.

Put the pips into a piece of muslin, tie into a bag and add to the basin. Cover the fruit and pip bag with cold water and leave to soak for 24 hours.

Next, bring the mixture to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer gently until you can squeeze the peel to a pulp between your fingers. This could take up to one and a half hours. Leave the cooked mixture to stand overnight.

Next day add the sugar at a ratio of 600g to 550ml of pulp.

Slowly heat the mixture, stirring well with a wooden spoon, until all the sugar has dissolved - you can check this by looking at the back of the spoon, when there are no crystals the sugar is completely dissolved.

Once the sugar is dissolved, bring the mixture up to the boil, skim froth off the top and continue to let it boil gently for as long as it take to get a set.

Then to test for a set, take the pan off the heat and spoon a teaspoonful of marmalade on to a plate that has been chilled in the freezer. Allow it to cool for a minute back in the freezer, then push it with your finger – if a crinkly skin forms, it has reached setting point. If not, return the pan to the heat and continue cooking - do more testing every 15 minutes or so.

When the marmalade has set, leave it to cool for 30 minutes – this prevents the fruit rising to the top of the jar – then ladle (using a preserving funnel) into the warm sterilised jars. Seal the jars while they are hot, label when cold. Store in a cool, dry place.

But this won't stop us making sure that your Devon bed and breakfast experience isn't the very best. We grow our own fruit and these very apples are destined for your breakfast. If we can defrost them in time and if the blackbirds don't eat them first they will be part of a delicious breakfast feast - probably apple compote with sultanas and cinnamon to have with Devon clotted cream, if you're feeling indulgent, or the more healthy option of organic West Country yoghurt.

Our breakfast menu includes:

Homemade Granola and Meusli, Organic yoghurt, home grown (seasonal) fruit or fruit compote
Home laid eggs (scrambled, fried, poached or omelette)
Locally reared bacon and sausages
Organic mushrooms and home grown (seasonal) tomatoes
Toast (made with our homemade bread)
Homemade muffins
Homemade organic Seville Orange marmalade and jam made with our own fruit, local honey

Come and try it for yourself!

The ground has hardly had time to defrost after our last bout of icy weather and now we hear there's more chilly weather on the way! But don't let that deter you, the Devon countryside is absolutely spectacular in the cold frost winter. And we will make your stay snug and cosy at our bed and breakfast in North Devon. Hot water bottle in your bed, down duvets and wooly rugs all make your room especially luxurious.

After a delicious breakfast of home made cereals, local bacon and sausages and fresh laid eggs from our own chickens, you can take long walks in the frosty morning and come back for tea and homemade cake in the snug sitting room beside a roaring fire built with the logs in the picture above!

The Women's Institute, famous for cooking up an amazing array of preserves, is encouraging people to get into their kitchens and cook up their best jar of jam for the competition.

So if you have a fantastic jam recipe that you think is worth an outing, you could be the one to win the WI's highest accolade at their very first Real Jam Festival taking place later this month. Apparently there are jam jars arriving at Denman College from all over the British Isles as I write.

Not to be left behind, we are definitely going to give it a go and send in our gorgeously tasty blackcurrant and loganberry jams which we serve at the breakfast table for our guests every morning.

Everyone loves it so much that I thought it would be nice to give you the recipe so here goes ...

JO'S DELICIOUS APPLE CAKE RECIPE

For cake:
1 lb - 1 1/2 lb cooking apples
4 1/2 oz butter
4 1/2 oz soft brown sugar
2 eggs
7 oz self raising flour

For topping:
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 180C and grease and line a square or round cake tin.
Peel and core the apples, cutting them into wedges - quarters or even eighths if they are huge.
Cream the butter and sugar together and beat in the eggs.
Sift the flour into the butter and eggs mixture and fold it in. You will end up with quite a stiff mixture. Don't be alarmed, this is because the apples will give more moisture to the cake when it is baked.
Spoon the mixture into the tin and spread it to the sides evenly.
Now push the apple wedges deep into the batter packing them in tightly.
For the topping, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle it over the top of the cake.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 40 to 45 minutes.

Easy peasy and quite seasonally delicious!!

The Two Moors Festival was originally set up 10 years ago in the wake of the Foot and Mouth crisis, which affected our area so profoundly. The need to bring cheer to people’s lives and to help regenerate the local economy provided the inspiration behind the festival. The organisers felt that a week of stunning music-making in churches across Exmoor and Dartmoor would be suitable for marking the end of this devastating outbreak.

Out of the ashes of Foot and Mouth Disease came the Two Moors Festival. Initially it was intended as a one-off classical music festival but it was so successful that it became an annual event bringing musicians at the highest level to these very rural communities. And boy have they done a good job!

To give you a taste of what's in store for this year's Festival, they have Paul Lewis and Mark Padmore enchanting with a delicious recital on 4th October, 7.30pm in Okehampton, a celebratory performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Exeter Cathedral on 30th September, the opportunity of walking up Dunkery Beacon, Exmoor's highest point, accompanied by bagpipes on 2nd October and much more besides. See their list of events for further concerts and information.