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We are a small family composed of myself, my partner Sarah & Herbert, the Boxer dog. We're in our late thirties (not Herbert obviously!). Sarah returns to London for half the week where she teaches Yoga and Ballet to children and adults. I live full-time in Somerset working in property renovation (which includes working on our place). I spent most of 2018 renovating The Cottage, and we finally moved in late last year. It was originally built in c1850 and has been a labour of love to restore, modernise sympathetically, and furnish it almost completely with 2nd hand/vintage furniture & fixtures. Our home is situated in a tiny, peaceful village called Limington, on the Somerset, Dorset border. This brings many benefits including the nearby Somerset Levels to the North and the rolling hills towards the Jurassic Coast to the South. We have a church and a pub in our village, and a number of friendly neighbours.
Gardening
Building
General Maintenance
Cooking / shopping
Help with Eco project
Help in the house
We would like our guests to share in the life we have begun to create for ourselves here in Somerset. Our priority above all else is to live an enriched, loving and peaceful life. Sarah and I have both explored some of the more extreme areas of spirituality, as well as therapy, and have both come to the conclusion that the answers we have been seeking are far simpler, lighter and closer to home than we previously were willing to concede. We do a little yoga, che gong and meditation in the week, and invite guests to join in as little or as much as they wish.
We love cooking and sharing food with others.
We are looking for help with the garden and work on the cottage. The garden work includes: preparing beds, planting, mowing, help making a pond & herb garden, and planting a wild meadow in the paddock. Most of this work we anticipate to be reasonably simple and I have a couple of friends who work as landscape gardeners that we can call on for guidance. Cottage work - whilst the main section of the cottage is complete and nicely habitable, there are a lot of smaller tasks/snagging we would like help with e.g. repairing cast iron guttering, installing a water butt, creating a wood work shed in the old garage etc. The 'cottage work' ideally requires someone with intermediate skills/experience in DIY, joinery.
English. Sarah also speaks some Italian & German
Our cottage has 2 spare rooms. One with a double bed and the other a cute bunk-room. There is a family sized bathroom for these 2 rooms with a large shower. Sarah and I are both veggie, so unsurprisingly we offer vegetarian meals to our guests. There is a nice pub in our village serving all the classic English meat dishes if guests need to get their meat fix. You are welcome to use the kitchen, though most meals will be provided by us. We usually have breakfast together at 8am, though guests are welcome to have it earlier if they wish. Lunch is generally at 1pm, usually a salad with sandwich/cheese/fruit. Supper is normally at 7pm, a hot meal and something sweet afterwards! If guests enjoy cooking, they are more than welcome to cook one or two suppers/lunches in the week. We invite guests to join us for some yoga or che gong after breakfast, before work. It's usually only 15mins. And sometimes a meditation at 6pm, 20mins. These practices are very much optional for our work-aways.
There is wifi and guests are welcome to log onto it and do emails and watch films etc. We have a TV and usually watch a film or two in the week, anything from a trashy romcom to one of Sarah's more avant-garde cinematic choices!
There is a resident dog at the house. He is a Boxer (medium sized dog) called Herbert. He's very good natured and loves to play. He is also a very good listener, if you need some animal therapy and unconditional love : )
Any other questions just ask.
There's lots to do, depending how adventurous you're feeling. That said, this is also a lovely place to slow down and do very little, especially if the sun is shining. In the village there is a pub serving all the classic English pub dishes with a beautiful pub garden looking out over fields. There is a pretty old church at the other end of the village which you're welcome to visit either during or outside of a service. There are lots of lovely walks from the cottage, we have an OS Map you can borrow with all the routes shown. We have bikes you are welcome to borrow to go further afield. There are a number of stunning market towns worth a visit such as Sherborne and Castle Cary. Montacute House, a large National Trust house and gardens is close by. There are also nice little foodie places serving good coffee and interesting dishes not too far away. We have some interesting friends involved in some of the more traditional jobs of this region including Cider making and specialist Joinery. There are plenty of books you are welcome to borrow during your stay and a guitar, usually in tune!
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
More than two
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week
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