Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Beginning of the Blog

A warm welcome to everyone who visits this site. My name is Nikki and I, along with my husband David, manage this wonderful home. Newholme is owned by Hazel Sangster, who grew up in Stirling and spent her childhood in the house but now resides in Canada. David has lived in the flat that is adjacent to the house for the last twenty or so years and has taken care of the property since the day he moved in. I, however, am a newer addition having moved here in January of 2007. I met David while I was staying at Newholme when I came to see the British Open in 2005. After many flights back and forth between San Francisco and Scotland it was time one of us moved and so here I am and I've loved every minute of it...and we got married in June of 2009 so you can see that's it's worked out quite well for me!

To a person who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, this is living in the country. I get in my car and drive 4 minutes down the road and I'm surrounded by green fields. There are cows and sheep everywhere, 2 Highland cows just down the road, and I pass a castle everyday on my way to work.  Stunning.  Stirling is a beautiful place to live and a great place to visit.  I've been both a visitor and a resident.

Newholme House is a unique rental home.  It can accommodate up to 12 people and I can say from my own personal experience that you can come here with 12 people and still find a space all to yourself as Newholme is large and spacious.  We've had people here for family reunions, to celebrate anniversaries and special birthdays, there's been ceilidhs here and we will be having our first wedding here in August.

The gardens here are spectacular and we've been working hard to get it sorted for the upcoming summer season.  We had a pretty bad winter with storms that damaged most of the trees in the garden and we are still dealing with the aftermath.  While most of the trees have been cleared we are still working on a small area that has proven to be quite difficult and we hope to get this cleared in the next several weeks.

The blooms haven't quite come out yet...it's been a really rough year weatherise (although the last few days have been GLORIOUS) and everything is taking it's own sweet time coming out of the ground but I'm hopeful that the colours will be abounding by the end of June.

Anyway, that's our story for now.  We look forward to meeting some you and hearing from you and I hope that you enjoy our blog.

Signing off for now,  Nikki

Just in case you were curious, this is what we look like!  The champagne is because we were on our way to France to celebrate David's 50th birthday this year!

The First Post

Hello everyone!  I thought it would be an interesting idea for those of you who have stayed here and for those of you yet to come, to see what we do here and what goes on at Newholme and in Stirling.  There's no better time than the present to begin posting as we are currently experiencing a 'Scottish heatwave' of sorts and there's lots going on!

Yesterday I managed to get the hanging baskets sorted and they are residing in the mini green house until they 'beautify' a bit.  Also, planted the sweet peas which will be fragrant and fantastic in a few months if the bunnies don't manage to get to them first!

For those of you who have been here before, you might remember seeing a fairly big bloke on a Saturday morning tooting around in the garden...that's Willie (whose real name is Billy) and he's been a gardener here at Newholme forever.  if you get into a conversation with him you'll realise that you won't be able to understand most of what he's saying...I've been here just over five years now and I thought I would be able to, at some point, decipher his thick Scottish brogue, but it hasn't happened yet.  Still love him and can't believe the amount of work he gets done in such a short period of time and I think he's nearing 70!  Willie has just dug up the veggie patch and I'm in discussions with the main man (my husband David) as to what we will be planting this year....my suggestions are courgettes, peppers, lots of herbs, onions ,garlic and squash of various sorts.  I think we're going to try the all year round garden planning and see how we manage!  With me quitting my job to work with David on the Links Club, we may not be able to afford groceries so here's hoping it goes well!

Until next time!  Nikki

The baskets...each one a different colour scheme.


The sweet peas...grow, grow, grow!!!


Part of the garden...beautiful day!


This is where I'm posting from.


The veggie plot newly turned over by Willie!  Thanks Willie!