It's Snowing Again!

Alton looks just beautiful again this morning with very festive weather. We watched the weather forecast yesterday and thought the snow might miss us - how wrong we were. We woke up this morning to a sprinkle of snow on the ground and plenty more snow coming down! Looks like we might be in for a white Christmas if the snow continues this week.





Even the statues in our garden at The Malthouse are trying to shelter from the snow! Thank goodness we're not expecting any guests to arrive at our B&B today. I don't think they'd get here! The snow is not too deep at the moment but it will be by the end of the day if the snow continues to fall all day.

Christmas at The Malthouse

This year were very organised (for a change) at The Malthouse and can't wait for Christmas to come. All our presents have been purchased and hopefully if we're very good Santa will deliver them to us! We've even found time to do most of our food shopping too - other than a few last minute bits and pieces.

Even our cat Smudge is getting ready for Christmas. Here he is in his Santa hat - aah very cute!

I'm sure Santa will leave a present or two for Smudge if he's a good boy.

The Malthouse is decorated inside and out (as you can see) so we're all set for the big day to arrive!

The only downside to being so organised and ready for Christmas by mid December is that we might have time to do a bit more decorating before the celebrations start. Boo!!!!

Oh well I guess we have to make the most of any spare time we have. Once the New Year starts it won't be long until Alton Towers opens for it's 2011 season. Yeah!!!!

Alton where we live is looking very festive. Most houses in the village are decorated with lights, it looks lovely at night.

Malt Tip: Hurry and get all your shopping done, only 10 days to go before Christmas Day!

Brrr It's Still Very Cold in Alton!

It hasn't snowed in Alton for a few days now but boy is it cold! The central heating systems here at The Malthouse are being tested to their limits! We don't remember it being this cold for this long for years. We don't think we've seen the daytime temperature rise above -2 for over 10 days and most nights the temperature seems to fall to -10 or even lower. Bring on the Spring!

Here is a picture we took from our front door a few days ago.

Pretty but cold.

Malt Tip: If it's cold where you are don't forget to put on you're vest!

Winter has Arrived at The Malthouse!

Like most parts of the country it's been snowing in Alton today. It's pretty chilly at The Malthouse but not as cold as it was over the weekend thankfully. It was -10 at 10am on Sunday morning - the -1 we have experienced today is very welcome!

We have been decorating inside The Stables today. For those of you who have stayed with us for Bed & Breakfast in the past perhaps you will recognise this building beside our car park. Very festive I think you'll agree!

Our pond is frozen over as you can see (or not as the case maybe!) but we have been down to check on the fish and all is well thanks to a kettle of hot water. Hanging on the pergola are some bird feeders and we've filled them to the brim so that our feathered friends won't suffer during the cold spell.

If you're feeling the cold we can recommend decorating to keep you warm!

READY FOR ANOTHER HOLIDAY!

Already exhausted from gardening AGAIN because it was a lovely sunny day here today! Too nice to be indoors (where we should be decorating!) so we decided to clear up the windfalls from under the apple trees in The Malthouse orchard and do a bit of general tidying up outside.

We have been selling apples to raise money for the County Air Ambulance and Local First Responders who are vital to us as Alton is in such a rural location. We have also been making apple pies -and eating them yum yum!

All our fruit trees look a bit sad at this time of year but the Autumn was very colourful, better than ever. Here is a picture of one of our apple trees taken this summer when they looked at their very best.

As we're not so busy doing B&B at this time of year we've had time to catch up with a few neighbours and friends at our local pub. We were all chatting about the excellent firework display at Alton Towers during early November. It appears that it was very popular and is sure to be repeated in 2011.

Anyway must go now we are BIG fans of Strictly Come Dancing and have an episode or two that we recorded to catch up on.