Fab Review from Dog Friendly Magazine

We had the great pleasure to meet Tilly the Westie and her owners Richard & Angie Aspinall a few weeks ago. They stayed in Curlew Cottage and really enjoyed the 'wow' factor this cottage offers, they enjoyed their get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, were blown away by the style and size of the cottage and, very kindly, commented that 'it was like something from a glossy magazine on stylish living'.

Angie and Richard have written a wonderful article in the current issue of Dog Friendly magazine so, if you subscribe to and are lucky enough to see a copy of that, do enjoy the story of their stay.

We welcome up to two dogs in each cottage, there are some superb walks from the front door as well as the fun of exploring all that Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park has to offer. We certainly have enjoyed many 'dogs with well behaved owners' staying and enjoying their time here. As the ground floors of both cottages are slate and wood they are very easy to keep clean so dog owners can manage muddy paws and our subsequent guests know that they will arrive to thoroughly clean accommodation.

The 'scruffy mongrel' pictured is our special four legged friend, rehomed with us from the SSPCA, a great companion and perfect excuse for enjoying a walk down to the Loch or up The Dumpling.

Gold Award for Green Tourism

Earlier this year, here at East Cambusmoon Holiday Cottages, we successfully retained our Gold Award from Green Tourism UK, their highest assessment standard. There are 60 rigorous criteria used to assess businesses in this international award scheme and Steve and I perused, studied and fretted over all of them!

No greenwash permitted, the organisation and their assessors really know their stuff. We have always aimed for the highest environmental and sustainable standards for the cottages and we are chuffed to bits to have received the Gold Award (we managed to secure a score of over 90%!) Categories for assessment include energy and water management, transport and travel, nature and culture. Since our assessment we have installed electric vehicle charging points so continuing our endeavours and offering even more to guests.

Thoughts for the garden

Not the day for sitting outside but not so bad a day for planning what to be growing in the garden this year.

My main focus is always vegetables and fruit, we are not self sufficient but make a fair contribution from our own patch to the kitchen and thoroughly enjoy the prospect of harvesting some of the food we eat.

As a parent one of my favourite times is when the children get home from school on a sunny day, fling their bags towards the door and dash into the veggie garden to eat peas and mange touts from the plants followed by a helping of raspberries from the canes. I dream of this as I look out of the window at the falling snow!

Geilston Gardens

The National Trust for Scotland's Geilston Gardens is about 8 miles away from us and there are many things I really like about this place. Essentially its a very small NTS property compared to many but there is such a wonderful variety of garden landscapes in a relatively small space that there is always a delight around the next corner.

We last visited a few weeks ago as the apple blossom was starting to show its beauty, I love the orchard and am always inspired to come home and when we planted our own (does 13 apple trees equal an orchard? - I'm hoping so) I came to Geilston for inspiration. Actually whenever I visit a National Trust or similar type property the kitchen garden and orchard are my favourite places. Aside from inspiration you can often buy great quality and good value plants; in summer months you can also buy surplus veg from Geilston, all the better for knowing the proceeds go to the charity.
 I also love these gardens because they have something to appeal to all members of the family. The children loved the Giant Wellingtonia tree, we speculated whether the folk of Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway Tree might live in something like this? Was there a slippery slip through the middle of the trunk?! There's a great variety of planting, when we visited much was just waiting to burst into life.