Tag: nature

A home away from home – Appuldurcombe farm Isle of Wight

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We really love making a home of a holiday house. It was no different and sort of ultra special when we spent a week in a beautiful cottage on Appuldurcombe Farm in Ventnor. How hard is it to fall in love with a house perched atop a gentle hill with sweeping views of open rolling green fields, a sunlit facade that catches the golden light from dawn to dusk?

One of the first things I do when we step is is to capture the different corners and then I continue to do so over the days as it becomes more and more personal. They are often just for us to reminisce but also for me to admire how a space becomes so many things to different people.

The day we drove here, it was quite overcast but the weather blossomed into bright, warm and golden over the week and I loved stepping out to see how it changed the way the facade looked.

I can never get over how homes are made and I always come away feeling how clever and creative people are with the little things they make of an open space. AA gallery of the different corners of our holiday home.

I have the strongest fascination for windows and views into the outer world. I cannot help but marvel at home fantastically windows are placed in cottage homes. How do they always manage to look into something spectacular!

What made this home stand out even more was the cozy, sheltered courtyard and I have had many a coffees (one too many just to savour it all in) in what really felt like a private sanctuary framed by warm stone and some emerging climbing greenery, tiny figs that started to show and where the only thing in the air is quiet and towards the end of our stay, chirping birds. Everything about this felt timeless and if you paid attention, you could smell the stillness.

We were really blessed with some fantastic sunshine and it literally brought to light, the emerging signs of spring. We would get ready and leave the house by 9:30 and be back by 3:30-4:00 PM and spend some time traipsing around and sipping hot drinks, colouring, lazing and cooking. I look back at holidays and am always touched by how it always seems like a clump of happiness, warm fuzziness that leaves you grateful, content and wanting more, all at once.

Christmas break in a tree house in Devon at Otterfalls

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Shel Silverstein knew what he was talking about when he wrote –

A treehouse, a freehouse,
A secret you and me house,
A high up in the leafy branches,
Cozy as can be house.

A street house, a neat house
Be sure and wipe your feet house
Is not my kind of house at all –
Let’s go live in a tree house.

Back when we lived in Singapore a few years ago, one of my absolute favourite walks was a treetop walk or just about anything where our feet was far off the ground. It didn’t matter much whether we were in a tree house because being up there, high up, where the world felt and sounded soft was enchanting. But those experiences have nourished the desire to live in a forest, ensconced in the leafy tree tops.

And we have inched closer to that dream of being closer to the sky and the tree top this Christmas when we spent a few days in east Devon in the beautiful Otterfalls. It is a house on stilts and the one we were lucky to be in was truly wrapped amidst trees and the kind of mystery that only wintery dusks and dawns when the world turns quiet and small in a silvery haze, bring. And if you were to go during Christmas, when the woodland is studded in fairy lights you are in wonderland.

As much as we are all forest children in the family, I have to say the experience of staying in a woodland went up a notch starting with the staff at the reception and housekeeping (we didn’t see them) who were absolutely lovely in their interactions but also followed it up with actions. When we arrived the tree house was immaculate, everything so thoughtfully done. It was spacious and cozy and the design, layout and fixtures made it extremely friendly.

One of our favourite feature/s was the window, all of them as they all brought the forest in and made sure we always remembered just how special a place and experience this was. It was so cold and also sometimes rainy when we went here but every corner of the treehouse was so toasty and the temperature so well controlled and maintained, it was these windows that reminded us we were here thick in the middle of winter!

Each child had their favourite parts of the house and K and I just shared them all.

For Ishoo, it was this bunk bed which also happened to be his first one! Many hours were spent perched up on top with us hopping on and off, refreshingly reminding us of what child-like fun is!
Mili spent all possible time out on the deck, overlooking the lake and the trees and the very many birds and squirrels that frequented in and around us. Not once did she bark, quietly taking it all in and perhaps realising what a world it must be to have birds constantly strutting around!
I started my mornings a bit earlier than the rest, soaking in the lull around me interjected with the pitter patter of raindrops or the call of the birds around. It was and felt magical.

There is so much to explore around the cabins and that is what we loved about the whole set-up. You could stay put and go no where but just around and experience the joy of being immersed in nature.

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The ducks and geese were very much used to people and perhaps people with food for them (which we unfortunately did not have!) and then followed Ishoo just about everywhere. He was only too thrilled with the prospect of being so popular while Mili wondered why they played so hard to get with her!

The doggie play park is just another experience and highlight altogether. It was such a glorious, open and fenced spot for doggies. We love such inclusive holiday spots so much – where there is something for all and enough thought has been poured into it. It was after all a woodland and doggies will be absolutely fine but to have a dedicated space with activities and ramps for them just speaks oodles of the care that has gone in.

One of my favourite parts about a holiday is how I feel when I go to bed. It is such a small thing but I hold that moment so close and someday will articulate what about it makes it so special. We’d watch episodes of Bing Bang Theory, get incredibly busy with play-doh or poke boards and sleep with a smile knowing we could do it all again the next day.