Further Afield: rooms with a view

Simon and Andrew of Further Afield

The Peren

Herefordshire countryside

Looking into Wales

The Peren front garden

The Peren  back garden

The Peren kitchen

The Peren furnishings

The Peren country sink

The Peren sitting room

Beautiful English flowers

Lavender in the garden

Local sign

When I started looking for a unique place to stay in England I discovered a beautiful converted barn off the beaten track near Wales.

I didn't realize that I had also just discovered a fantastic resource for special vacation rentals.

Owners Simon and Andrew run Further Afield; a rental service which features hand picked properties with a focus on personality, style and warm welcomes.

They target the affluent gay professional audience and are also popular with the straight audience that likes the inclusive and stylish approach; all the properties welcome everyone. From their website: "While many of our properties are gay owned, no property is exclusively for gay travellers - they welcome everyone and this, we believe, is their appeal. A place to stay which is friendly and non-judgemental; a place to unwind and relax without fear of prejudice. Our aim is to create a collection of gay friendly boutique hotels, B&B’s and houses to rent. Carefully selected for quality, personality and a genuine welcome for everyone."

Upon arrival you see a beautifully designed 19th-century restored barn sitting in a large meadow. The location is private, peaceful and quiet except for the birds and the occasional horses across the road! The barn has under-floor heating, 2 bedrooms each with a bathroom, a log-burning fireplace and WiFi. The owners have filled it with all the comforts of home such as sheepskin rugs, robes and a welcome pack of locally sourced goodies including homemade cake, bread, and butter. I'm still missing that butter! The gardens are filled with native wildflowers, herbs and bird feeders and have areas for sitting and grilling. The local countryside has many villages, pubs and historic places to explore. The nearby Brecon Beacons National Park is especially beautiful. Simon and Andrew did everything to make our stay memorable, including showing us pre-renovation barn photographs and we felt like we were visiting friends. We left reluctantly but were happy to discover this new resource and can't wait for our next vacation!

Please check out their websites: http://www.furtherafield.com, http://www.theperen.com

The local area: http://www.breconbeacons.org, http://www.hay-on-wye.co.uk, http://visitherefordshire.co.uk

Instagram collection/England

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” - John Muir

    In keeping with the recent English theme here's our collection of Instagram photos: seaside, countryside and villages.

    http://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org, http://www.english-heritage.org.uk, http://www.flickr.com/photos/naturalengland

England in July

England is having a very wet July! But before and after the storms we were rewarded with these amazing clouds!

"How sweet and beautiful is every place & I visit my old haunts with renewed delight…nothing can exceed the beautiful green of the meadows which are beginning to fill with buttercups & various flowers – the birds are singing from morning trill night but most of all the skylarks – How delightful is the Country."

- John Constable, in a letter to his wife, 20 April 1821

http://britishlandscapesphotography.co.uk

(Check out this blog by photographer Derek Fogg based in North West England.)

the beauty of england