Well we're coming to the end of our summer season now, and what a time it's been!

The combination of our recent liaison with 'Radio H-P'; and a reduction in international travel, has changed things a bit this year, meaning that running Wydemeet has become even more fun than ever! 

The less advertising we do, the nicer the guests we get, and the better their understanding of what we offer.  What we most treasure is when people take a real grasp of life at Wydemeet and immerse themselves in the countryside and our various local pursuits, including arduous walking; riding, fishing, Ebikes, wild swimming etc.

Oddly enough, this summer - around a third of our guests have turned out to be Oxford graduates! Where were the Cambridge ones??!

Minibreaks now seem to be becoming 'the thing' - where, over a couple or more nights, you have a completely private, indulgent experience of Wydemeet, with the whole house to yourselves, are spoiled rotten with vast breakfasts and endless tea and home-made cake, and a gourmet 4-course candle-lit dinner in our elegant dining room. 

Increasing numbers of people are suffering from mental health problems during these difficult days, and maybe I'm becoming one of them.  I seem to be becoming a bit OCD, if I wasnt already.

I cant bear sitting doing nothing watching 'A Place In The Sun' all day, while my coffers dry up as no one is allowed to come to stay, so I've been turning myself into an entrepreneur, to keep myself vaguely solvent and occupied.

I have graduated from selling designer scarves and sunglasses, as well as Ford Fiestas to people with children learning to drive, to focus on one niche area:  Hermes Scarves (www.hermesscarf.co.uk).

I have surprised myself by my fascination in these glorious works of art, rather proud that probably I, alone, can tell the difference between etriers and an eperon d'or, and can explain to you what mors a jouets are for.  I can also identify how old a racing yacht might be, by its style of rigging.

My next journey will be identifying musical instruments illustrated by Hermes' esteemed coteries of artists and designers, but scarves featuring those seem to be harder to find, and financially a bit out of my reach at the moment!

In case you were interested:
etriers = stirrups
eperon d'or = golden spur
mors a jouets = mouthing bits useful in helping break in young horses

While I don't really need to market Wydemeet anymore, as we're plenty busy enough already, I'm now finding it rather fun to hone and refine the actual audience we're reaching out to, so that the people who come here particularly appreciate and enjoy the very special, probably unique, things that we have to offer, which in turn makes us enjoy our role even more than ever!

Wydemeet is the perfect retreat for serious walkers, who want to yomp from Wydemeet's back door for several hours, in any old weather, across the bleakest terrain, and don't care that there are no paths nor signposts to speak of.

We are also perfect for wild swimming enthusiasts.  There is a pool that is always being featured in the press and broadcast media.  I can direct you there, but I know of a lot more, several of them less than a 15 minute walk away!

Having lived here for 26 years I'm quite good at recommending different routes suited to our various guests, rather than leaving you going round and round in circles, with 100 other people who've bought the same guide book as yours.

Soon after the easing of Lockdown, when bookings went absolutely completely ballistic; the hot tub let me down for the first time ever, impossible to repair or replace, as the whole world had gone nuts for them.  I thought it only polite to advise everybody who'd booked of the fact.  I was unutterably stressed and saddened that the whole lot cancelled.  Then some rebooked.  Then cancelled again. Each booking I take is personal and takes me ages to organise as I'm so unautomated and unstreamlined. My diary is now three inches deep in tippex for late July and the whole of August.

But my end conclusion is "Good!". This is absolutely and entirely the wrong destination for people who are only interested in hot tubs, and actually to be honest, I'm glad these people didn't come.  Instead we've had the most unbelievably wonderful guests ever - more and more and more simply fantastic people; who entirely 'get' and appreciate the special things that we offer, as is attested in their Airbnb reviews which simply make me melt!

Since the Fox Hunting Act of 2004, all the Dartmoor hunts have always acted within the law. They conduct what's called Trail Hunting, or Exempt Hunting. Sometimes it involves an owl; and always a couple of loyal hunt members are out laying trails across the most interesting and spectacular parts of the moor, while everybody else is happily knocking back a port or two at the meet.

It means that there are now more foxes living happily on the moor than ever, and you're bound to see one or two, if you come to Wydemeet to stay for a hunting break.

After my success with Horse & Hound Magazine, I've now been invited to write a feature for www.Foxhuntinglife.com, which is the leading specialist foxhunting website in the States. 

Did you know that there are more than 150 foxhunts in America? They are more English than English, with all the same turnout, including the tweed, the requisite collars and numbers of buttons on their hunt coats etc, the meets, the hunting calls...  And you really wouldn't know that their photos weren't taken over here!

I was chatting to a guest visiting from New Jersey last Tuesday,  and she said there will never be a ban in the States, because hunting and guns are such a part of their culture.  Apparently they hunt coyotes, as well as several different kinds of foxes, but, certainly in the case of my new friend's hunt, not far from New York, their country is much smaller.

They certainly had the day of a lifetime, out in the sunshine with the Dartmoor!