Make Mother's Day - 15% discount for Devon family break

With Mother's Day fast approaching, if you're looking for the perfect venue to bring the generations together, why not take advantage of our special offer? A 3 or 7 night stay commencing Friday 16th March will enjoy a 15% discount off our usual prices of £600 and £850 respectively.

Luggs Barn is ideal for extended families, its secluded setting and large private garden appealing to all ages. Make this Mothering Sunday extra special for your loved ones and enjoy a break together, visiting the seaside or National Trust properties, exploring the stunning Blackdown Hills countryside and retreating to comfy sofas and log fires in the evenings. Please call for more details and to confirm availability.

Blackdown Hills pork roast and Countryfile fame

Early February has seen a few changes outdoors! Firstly, our much loved pigs (Sausage and Crackling) have now gone. Despite more guilt than any of us anticipated, tonight the first of our very own home reared pork roasts beat even our high expectations. The builders repairing the drive were concreting until after 8pm, so were particularly appreciative of such a superb dinner. Homemade apple sauce and stuffing made perfect accompaniments and the crackling - dare we admit it - lived up to its namesake!

Sausage and Crackling were lovely happy pigs and great characters, we all enjoyed rearing them. They spent their last days enjoying the winter sunshine, knee deep in top quality mud and happily munching extra rations including the odd doughnut! We've got a week or two to wait for the bacon and hams, but if tonight's roast is anything to go by, the sausages and other cuts will be superb. Our Spring guests can look forward to a pack of our own sausages when they arrive and we'll be interested to hear your feedback. We have a selection of Luggs lamb and pork in the new freezer (bought recently to accommodate the pigs!) and guests are welcome to buy their favourite cuts direct. Don't forget that in conjunction with our friends at Kittow Cattle, we can also arrange for boxes of top quality beef and/or pork to be waiting for you on arrival, or sent direct to anywhere in the UK, arriving fresh and ready to freeze.

As soon as the pigs vacated the vegetable garden, the diggers got to work and within a couple of days have transformed the area with gravel paths, neat beds and space for Bill's dream greenhouse. He's doodling ever more optimistic designs, but for now is just looking forward to growing veg to keep both the farmhouse and Luggs Barn supplied over the summer months.

Elsewhere in the garden, the ducks are laying well now so the cakes are even better than usual! We lost one good laying hen in mysterious circumstances - she just disappeared one day but there's no sign of any struggle so we're not sure what happened. We were all a bit sad that a young and very pretty hen was chosen over a much older one that's stopped laying, but presumably she made a tastier dinner. The other hens are laying well and enjoying pecking all the newly turned earth. Diggers and dumper trucks are frequently seen swerving wildly to avoid a troupe of hungry hens! The geese are thriving at about 9 months old - they still follow the little white hen around and squeeze themselves into the hen house with her every night.

Snowdrops are coming out all over the garden and the weather's been more seasonal, with several frosty days and plenty of walkers passing through enjoying the scenery. There are even a few brave primroses in sheltered corners, giving us hope that spring's on its way.

Sunday's Countryfile on BBC1 was enjoyed by us all as it featured many of our friends here in the Blackdown Hills. We're lucky to have numerous producers of fine food in the area and the programme showcased several of these, as well as the ancient art of hedgelaying and the many wildlife habitats this AONB supports.

More photos will follow next time - now that the hard landscaping's within a day or so of being finished, we're looking forward to the planting stage so that all of the grounds are at their best. Check back next month when hopefully spring will have sprung!