The Independent's 50 Best B&B's

We are delighted to have been included in The Independent Newspaper's 50 Best B&B's feature which came out yesterday, of course I had to rush out and buy a couple of copies. Click here for the link to the online version. The online picture is of the dining-room which unfortunately doesn't show my lovely new chairs, come to think of it don't think I've shown you yet. I take so many pictures of 'things' to blog about and then I never get around to doing it, catch up time I think!

Gloagburn Oats

Had a quick trip over to Gloagburn Farm Shop as my Mum had informed me that they were now growing and producing their own Oatmeal. Naturally this was music to my ears for my Perthshire Breakfast. Their oatmeal comes in Pinhead, fine and medium textures and they also have oatflakes, perfect for soda bread. They are also producing their own chicken feed which I have already tried out on the chickens, they love it. Proud to say my chickens, their house and their feed all come from Perthshire! and of course my ladies produce their delicious Perthshire eggs for your breakfast.

Little's Restaurant

Today I had the rare treat of being taken out for lunch, well we all went. We decided to try Little's Restaurant at 4 Wellmeadow, Blairgowrie which opened a few weeks ago where the Pizza Place used to be. I have had some guest's who have been and said it was excellent. The decor is lovely and fresh and simple. The menu is super and there is a blackboard with 'specials' on. To start I had scallops and risotto followed by John Dory and Red Mullet. My daughters had lemon sole for a main course and the little one had mussels. Whatever your tastes there will be a dish to suit and they have a super choice on the 'fish' side. Can't fault it and it's only 10-15 minute walk away in the Wellmeadow. So if you come to stay I have some sample menus for you to have a look at.

We are very fortunate in Blairgowrie to have a good selection of places to have a meal.

A walk to Mill Dam

We have been having several days of glorious sunny weather, certainly lifts the spirits. I decided to drive along the A923 towards Dunkeld and park up at the side of the road where a waymarked path starts for Mill Dam. The parking place is about 3/4 of the way along the A923 on the right hand side, easy to spot, about 15 minutes drive away. The path takes you through Drumbuie Wood, where you can easily spot red squirrels, then opens out onto beautiful scenery. You will walk near a house called The Glack and there is a big metal gate which takes you onwards up towards Mill Dam. The 'Dam' still had a fine coating of ice and there are couple of benches to sit and soak up the peaceful atmosphere. I have more photos on flickr. You could continue along the path to Loch Ordie, there are the upper and lower paths to choose from. The walk from the car is quite straightforward with good paths.

Snow Bunting

2 yellow and 2 white tags
Green, yellow and silver tags

Silver, yellow, black and blue tags

White tags

White, yellow, red and blue tags

With it being the children's half term break and the hubby being off work we went skiing, again! At lunch time I watched small flocks of Snow Buntings flying around the car park and landing periodically in the hunt for food. I was lucky some landed near us so got some rather nice photos of them. One of the things that really intrigued me was that a number of the birds had coloured leg rings which would suggest they are being monitored. A person on twitter directed me to this site regarding bird ringing. For more information on Snow Bunting's click here. The birds migrate here in the winter although there are some resident and breeding in this country which may suggest the ringing is their migrating habits and where they come from, but I'm no expert, I shall have to delve further as it is fascinating me.

Social Media

Yesterday evening I attended a free workshop in Perth called 'Social Media Tourism Networking Evening'. We are very lucky around here that Perth and Kinross Council organises several events/workshops in the winter months that are beneficial to people in the tourism industry. The speaker was a gentleman called Rene Looper who has vast hospitality experience and is now involved in social media workshops. The presentation was about all the media channels now available like twitter, facebook, you tube etc and how they can benefit your business and help you interact with your potential guests. I like to think I am quite 'with it' in technology terms as I already do these things, but as always I picked up a huge amount of new ideas.
We are now going into our 15th season here and it amazes me how technology has changed since we started out here and how guests booking patterns have changed. When we moved here in 1997 I never had a computer and the world wide web was just in it's infancy and only a handful of people used e-mail. I am fortunate in that I have a 'techy' little brother who set me up with a .co.uk address and basic website in 1998. I took the initiative to learn about websites and have the software that enables me to 'do' my own site now.
In the early days all my bookings came in by telephone, people passing by or using the local information office. How things have changed now the telephone is replaced by e-mail, passing trade has been replaced by mobile phones and obtaining information about my b&b is accessed using the internet. People can now plan and book their whole holiday with a click of the mouse and know they have somewhere to stay instead of having to cut their day short to stop and look for accommodation. An informative website is essential now, as is the ability for potential guests to book online. I can interact with potential/past guests on Facebook and Twitter and they can read about my 'going's on' here on my blog. Another powerful tool is Trip Advisor and I know a lot of my guests check me out on trip advisor before booking with me, luckily I have positive reviews, 'touch wood'.
It will be interesting to know what the next 'big thing' will be.

Bread Making Course

Schiacciata Con Uva (good with blue cheese)
Focaccia
Aberdeen Butteries
Plain White Loaf

Cinnamon Rolls

Today I spent the day at Let's Cook Scotland, just down the road at Abernethy, where I attended the Perthshire Breakfast Course in 2009

The day commenced at 10.00am. All the recipes were based around a white bread dough and how versatile it can be. We started by making a big batch of basic white bread dough all by hand. Whilst this was proving we made a quick and easy and delicious Irish Soda Bread. Sarah the owner of the cookery school then showed us how to make a basic tomato sauce for the topping on pizza's. Once the dough had proved it was knocked back and split in two. With one half we made a basic white loaf in any shape you fancied and the other half was used to make cinnamon rolls. For lunch we made our own pizza. Sarah showed us how to make Moroccan Flat Bread and Aberdeen Butteries. Butteries are a similar taste to croissants and originate from Aberdeen, I attempted to make them years ago and they were a disaster, so it was great to see them demonstrated as really quick and easy. We then made up a dough for Focaccia and once it was ready I topped mine with red onion,sun dried tomato, olives, blue cheese and some rosemary. The focaccia dough can also be used to make Schiacciata Con Uva which has grapes and fennel seed in it and is very tasty on a cheeseboard with blue cheese. The day finished at about 4.00pm and we all left happy with all our goodies and a nice selection of recipes to try out. A very enjoyable day and have picked up lots of tips I can use in the kitchen, and now I hope my brown bread will hit the mark as well, as it has been a bit hit and miss in the past.

Tiling Finished

The tiler has been in this week and finished grouting the en-suite this morning all ready for I hope some installation action tomorrow. Have to say it is an excellent piece of tiling and I am very pleased with the finished result, much cleaner and up to date looking now.

RRS Discovery Dundee

A busy day for photographs. My eldest daughter went with the school today to Dundee to visit the ship RRS Discovery which sailed to Antarctica with Captain Scott. She came back delighted with her visit and lots of photographs of the indoor displays and the ship itself. One for your visit list when in the area.

X-treme Off Road Driving

Last year it was Mr Gilmore House's 40th birthday, so it was a difficult decision on what to get him as a present, I eventually decided on a gift voucher for some off-road driving. Today he finally got around to taking the challenge up and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. The 'experience' I bought him was a 3 hour off road session going up and down hills, through water etc. Shame he couldn't video as he drove, but he took a few pictures for me. The off-road driving place is based just outside of Strathmiglo which is no more than a 40 minute drive from Blairgowrie.

Opening of the Fishing Season

Saturday 15th January was the official opening day of the 2011 salmon fishing season on the Tay. The pictures above were taken on behalf of my husband who was given the task of 'blessing' the river/boats with a dram of whisky. The river beat in the pictures is the Ballathie beat. As far as I am aware the majority of the big salmon rivers in Scotland now operate a catch and release system and certainly no female salmon are allowed to be kept. If fishing is of no interest to you, it is still lovely to wander along the many accessible river banks we have in Perthshire, wildlife is everywhere and you may be lucky to spot an otter or even a beaver, yes there are wild beavers in these parts, but that's another story.

More from Room 2

Since work started on Tuesday the en-suite is slowly but surely taking shape. After everything was ripped out, the plumber put in all the new pipework and a joiner has been on sight re- plaster boarding all the walls, which has involved a lot of new woodwork as a lot of the existing framing was in bad order. An electrician arrived yesterday to do the necessary wiring and cut out the holes in the ceiling for the spotlights.

Room 2's En-suite

Today was the start of the refurbishment of Room 2's en-suite, above is how it was. It is a good sized room, not clear on the photos. When we originally moved here there was no en-suite to this room, but the bathroom was private to the room accessed from a door in the corridor just a couple of steps away, so it was a fairly straightforward task to make it en-suite which we did in 1998 or 1999, can't quite remember now. So here we are in 2011 doing it up again. There will be a new bigger shower, a new toilet and a new basin and the whole room will be fully tiled. I will be keeping the old basin and panelling for use somewhere else in the house. It was quite a big decision for me as to whether or not I should remove the panelling as I rather like it, but quite a bit of it is damaged and it is not really fresh and clean looking for a guest en-suite. I am also rather attached to the basin, but it was never very 'clean' looking with cracks and pitting and an ill fitting waste etc. The toilet has an old style 'S' ceramic waste which goes into an old cast iron pipe and despite being cleaned on a daily basis also looked a bit murky around the join. We will also be installing new recessed spotlights and a new towel rail/radiator. I know many people enjoy to have a bath, but we decided just to stick with a shower as many of my guests are not as 'able' as they once were for getting into a bath and also so many of my guests are literally just 'in and out' when staying with me they are happy for a quick shower. Room 1 has a lovely big bath and separate shower if you were particularly wanting a room with a bath, however I have noticed since we did Room 1's en-suite up the bath is hardly ever used, which also assisted me in my decision about omitting a bath from Room 2. I looked out some photos of the bedrooms and how they were when we first moved here, so I shall scan them in and share with you the evolving rooms at Gilmore House.