Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone we know a very

We hope that 2016 is a happy, healthy and prosperous year. 

Best wishes from Owen, Sandra, Ian & Melissa xxx

Merry Christmas from Everyone at The Malthouse

We're busy getting ready for Christmas and hope you are too.

If you've still got lots to do and you're reading this stop right now and get back to work!

In about 48 hours Santa will be starting to make his deliveries so, hurry along and get ready. 

Everyone at The Malthouse B&B would like to wish all our guests, family and friends a very merry Christmas.

Christmas Starts at The Malthouse

We love this time of year and always put up lots of Christmas decorations inside and out.
As it's only three weeks until the big day we planned to spend most of the weekend putting up decorations.

Yesterday we made a start by finding out the tree, lights and many boxes of bits and pieces so that we could make a start today.  However, our plans have fallen apart!  It's so windy in Alton today that we decided putting up a ladder to arrange the outside lights was not a good idea.  Then someone pointed out that the fridge was looking pretty empty so we nipped out to do a bit of shopping.  A few items turned into a big shop and four hours later we made it home.

So far this is all the Christmas decorating that we've done 

A very poor effort we know.  Never mind hopefully we'll get more done tomorrow!

Fantastic Fireworks This Weekend at Alton Towers

From experience we can tell you that the fireworks displays at Alton Towers are fantastic!
We are sure that their fireworks event this weekend 6, 7 & 8 November 2015 will be wonderful.

The fireworks at the theme park are spectacular and as we live so close to Alton Towers we can see the high level part of the display from our house. 
However, to get the best view you really need to be at the theme park so that you can see all the fireworks and listen to the music that accompanies them.

Above is a photo that we took a couple of years ago when we had chance to go to Alton Towers and watch the fireworks ourselves.  All being well we hope to go along to the theme park to see this years display.  If you've got nothing planned this weekend why not come along yourselves!

Trick OR Treat?

Even if Halloween is not your cup of tea, we thought you would like to see this picture of our dog Poppy wearing her Trick or Treat bandana.  

We know we are biased but are sure that if there was a competition for cutest Trick and Treater Poppy would win.

Poppy loves treats and will be hoping for a biscuit (or two!) if anyone sees her out and about in her bandana.  From experience we know that she can produce some pretty smelly tricks, let's hope no one gets one of these!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN x

Half Term & Halloween Events in North Staffordshire

In just 4 weeks most schools will start their October Half Term Holidays, followed by Halloween on Saturday 31 October 2015.  

If you're looking for a short break why not come and stay with us at The Malthouse B&B? 

Here are a few of the Halloween events taking place near us:

- Scarefest, Alton Towers (starts 17 October)

- Hallowe'en Creepy Crafts, Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood 

- Ghost Train Express, Churnet Valley Railway

- More Treat than Trick, Drayton Manor (starts 17 October)

- Halloween Spooktacular, Shugborough Estate

- Halloween Ghost Tours, The National Brewery Museum

 

To check our bed and breakfast availability email enquiries@the-malthouse.com, telephone 01538 703273 or visit our website www.the-malthouse.com where you can book online.



Summer at The Malthouse

The Summer months always seem to go by really quickly.  In between doing B&B there are lawns to mow, plants to water and a million other jobs to do!
We're really pleased with our bedding plants this year.  Here is a picture of the planter that's near our back door.  

We wonder if the cooler weather that we've sometimes been having might be suiting the plants.
We've had plenty of bright days but also a few days when the skies over Alton have looked very odd as you'll see in this picture that we took of our pond.

Hope you're making the most of any fine weather you're getting this Summer. 

Poppy is a Top Dog

Most Monday evenings we take our dog Poppy along to Waggietails Dog Club.  If you've looked at our blog before you'll know that we've been taking Poppy to the clubs training sessions since she was a small puppy.  Poppy loves to see the other dogs (especially Hamish the love of her life and Ruby another little girl dog that she adores!) and seems to really enjoy the training sessions as do we.  Each week at home we go over what we've learned at the club and try to put the training into practice, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't!   Over the last couple of years Poppy has been presented with a Bronze and Silver Award and has been working towards getting Gold.  To be honest Poppy is pretty good but not infallible so we were surprised and absolutely delighted when Waggietails gave her a Gold Award last week.  To prove it, here it is.    

Here is a snap of the "Top Dog" herself with one of her favourite toys Foxy - not a very original name we know!

Stone Wall Repair

For a few years we've been concerned about one of our stone walls, it had started to belly out and we were worried it might fall down.   The wall is located near the entrance to our Malting Cellars just off Horse Road.  We tackle most jobs ourselves but this was just too big a task for us to take on.  So, along came Jason to take the job on and here is the finished result.  

Now if you've been to stay at our B&B before you might recognise this area and think that nothing has changed and the wall looks the same.  However, we can assure you that the wall has indeed been rebuilt.  Jason took down the wall stone by stone and rebuilt it carefully the idea being that you wouldn't know anything had been done.  Clever or what!  Needless to say we are delighted with the finished result.

Sunbathing Pets at The Malthouse

Here at The Malthouse we've been enjoying plenty of sunny days so far during June.  We are loving the weather and so are our cat Smudge and our dog Poppy.  Couldn't resist sharing these two photos - the lazy pair!

Hope the weather is fine in your part of the world!

Lots of Little Ones Visiting

We are getting plenty of couples and families with teenagers staying with us this season.  However, the number of families with young children visiting us is on the up.  Most of these little ones are here to visit Cbeebies Land at Alton Towers. 

These young guests and their families are giving us great feedback about their experience at the theme park.  Cbeebies Land seems to be a big hit!  

Time is Whizzing By!

Where does the time go? 
Here at The Malthouse we just don't know where the time goes!
March has flown by and now the middle of April is just around the corner, we can't believe it!
If we're not careful we'll blink and the Summer will be here!

Here is a photo we took yesterday of our cat Smudge, he seems to be enjoying the warmer weather.

We've had a great start to the 2015 season at our B&B.  Good weather, reports of short queues for rides at Alton Towers and to top it all the guests staying with us have been really lovely.  We couldn't ask for more!

Our Walk at Tittersworth Reservoir

We took a few hours off yesterday to spend with our dog Poppy.  The weather was warmer than it has been lately so we decided on a ride out in the car and a walk.  As Tittersworth Reservoir has good paths we went there so that we could walk without getting caked in mud.  What a good choice we made, the weather was sunny and the paths were pretty mud free. 

Here is a photo that we took during our walk, just beautiful! 

Tittersworth near Leek is operated by Severn Trent Water and well worth a visit if like us you love to be outdoors.  There are two marked walks, a short route that is suitable for most people including wheelchair users, pushchairs etc and a long route (approximately 5 miles) that goes around the reservoir.  As well as walks the site has an outdoor play park for young children, a place where you can have a barbecue, a visitor centre that serves refreshments, toilets, lots of seats/benches that are perfect for a picnic and the biggest plus for us is that dogs on leads are welcomed.  There is a charge to park at the reservoir but we feel that this is justified considering the facilities on offer.  We went on the long walk route and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Poppy seemed to have a great time too!

Alton Towers Opens in 4 Weeks!

On 21 March 2015 Alton Towers Theme Park opens for it's main season.  

So all you adrenaline junkies out there make a note on your calendar!      

It's all systems go here at our B&B getting ready for the start of what we hope will be a busy season.  We've been decorating but now it's time to start spring cleaning so that we're ready to start receiving guests.

Thinking about taking a trip to Alton Towers?
Why not contact us to check accommodation availability and prices?
Telephone us 01538 703273 we love to chat!
Email us enquiries@the-malthouse.com
Book Online http://www.the-malthouse.com/onlinebooking.htm

Roll on Spring

Not sure what the weathers like where you are but here in Alton it's been really cold for the last couple of weeks and it seems set to continue that way for a while.  Right now Spring feels a very long way off, we hope that when it arrives it brings warmer weather.

If it's cold where you are we thought these typical Spring scenes might help warm you up!

Before Spring does get here though we've got lots of work to do at our B&B getting ready for what we hope will be a busy season.  The good news is that at the moment they're all indoor jobs so keeping warm is no problem.  Thank goodness for central heating!