Last week in March - read our guest feedback @ http://www.no678guestfeedback.blogspot.com

For the past two weeks we’d been hoping to bring some golfing news but adverse conditions have put a stop to this; the first week there were transport problems and then of course this week snow and ice prevented our ‘fairweather’ golfers (Tom, Paul and Matt) from donning their waterproofs. Hopefully next week transport and weather will be kind and there’ll be some news to bring.

St. Andrew’s Children’s Hospice is our chosen charity for this year. http://www.standrewshospice.com/children_index.asp

A weekend for two at No678 Guest House at any chosen time is up for auction at their forthcoming Charity Ball.

St Andrews Childrens Hospice cares for children and young people up to the age of 21 years who all have been diagnosed with a progressive life limiting illness and require palliative care. The hospice also gives support to the family members of these children and all of the services are provided free of charge. The hospice takes children from a wide geographical area and offer both day therapy and in-patient care.

Our nephew's wife is a midwife in Grimsby and, together with five of her colleagues, will be 'walking the walk' by visiting The Great Wall of China to undertake a 6 day trek. There will be 22 other trekkers joining us from various places in the UK all walking for their own chosen charities. Good luck, Amanda. With four children of her own who will be staying at home I’m not sure who will be working the hardest; grandma or Amanda!!!! We’ll keep you informed as progress is made.

The Hargreaves Arms once again received the best accolade from our guests for their warm welcome, beer selection and tasty food.

The Black Pudding Hashers (drinkers with a walking problem) go hashing every four weeks. Our last hash was from The Hargreaves Arms with fourteen of us joining in the fun. It's always good fun, a great way to enjoy the countryside and a relaxing social event. I'm pleased to say that we don't have many 'runners' amongst us so the pace is always 'manageable'.

Next week's hash, 6 April, starts at The Buck Inn at Cowpe and we'll be meeting at the usual time, 11:30.

Easter Weekend - read our guest feedback @ www.no678guestfeedback.blogspot.com

Another multicultural week for us, with guests from Iraq and Spain. In the short time we’ve been open we’ve had visitors from Kuwait, USA, Greece, Cyprus, Isle of Man, Isle of Scilly, and from the very north of the UK in Scotland to the very south in Newquay; all such interesting people.

Easter has crept up on this time, obviously because it is so early, and it hasn’t brought the promising spring weather with it; far from it, we’ve actually had snow! My six year old grandson asked if it was Christmas!!

Nevertheless, the cold weather hasn’t stopped us getting into the spirit of things and we joined in the bunny hunt at Rawtenstall market. The stall holders all joined in; some wearing their home made bonnets, some floating balloons and of course those stall holders who joined in by having Mrs Bunny’s hidden shopping held on their stall.

Rossendale is the only place that has an annual clog cobbing competition during the Easter bank holiday weekend, as usual it will be held at The Roebuck pub which is half way between No678 Guest House and Waterfoot. It’s definitely a quirky competition where an old clog is tossed with both hands from the front and over yer ‘ed. Obviously the clog thrown the furthest is the winner. It’s a good family day with lots of other activities too, the event normally gets a visit from the Mayor/ess so let’s see if this year sees them there too, I’ll let you know in next week’s blog.

The Hargreaves Arms in Lumb also have their annual mini beer festival, this year they have over 20 guest beers, and as you can imagine it’s usually a well attended event. We’ve directed a few of our guests up there and not had a bad word yet, ha ha I doubt very much there would be any bad words this weekend, though, lol.

Until next week……………….

March is here

Number 678 Guest House - read our guest feedback @ www.no678guestfeedback.blogspot.com

As we move in March the split Easter holidays play havoc with peoples’ short break plans; do they take a break during the long weekend or wait till the official school holidays???? Who knows!!
Keeping our website up to date and interesting is proving challenging. However, attending the various short courses can prove to be both mindblowing and interesting.
For those of you that know us well you will know that I also wear another hat with another business completely different in all aspect to Number 678. Harwill Energy Systems Ltd www.harwill.co.uk could not be further apart from the tourism industry, trading mainly in steam raising for process heating, marine engineering and supplying international engineering products and services to the oil and gas field industries swopping hats at the blink of an eye can haddle the brain, honest!!!! Nevertheless, we are always kept on our toes and as I continue to work on Number 678 website I am also flicking through Harwill’s too as this is also in need of a complete re-vamp and update.

It’s Saturday night for heaven’s sake, I’ve been on this machine since 1pm and I am now going for a chilled, well earned g & t!!!! Till next time…………….

Leaving February behind .....

After eight months of trading Visit Britain has accredited us with four stars. One would say a pat on the back for both of us but it’s really a pat on the back for Tom; he’s chief cook and bottle washer, always ensures the guests the very best he can offer and as his biggest fan I say he deserves every one of his stars. Well done, darlin’.

We're back again after a short break. We’ve both had a well earned break in the Canaries. Leaving the guest house for the first time in somebody else’s hands wasn’t easy; would they be as keen as us, will they clean as well as us, will our regulars like them, will they prepare breakfast ok, the list of doubts went on and on. Our ‘man in charge’ was actually our nephew, Craig Doble, whose family have a hotel in Blackpool: www.thevillahotel-blackpool.co.uk . In fairness he was well practiced but in fairness, not with us!!!! Being a part-time comedian on the club circuit in Blackpool, raig kept our guests well entertained, ah thanks, Craig.
I’m pleased to say that Craig looked after the place well; no complaints from our regulars and he even took some advanced bookings. Ha, ha it didn’t stop Tom going through the place with a fine tooth comb at the first opportunity “Just in case”!!!!