Our Founder shares her idea of downtime in her latest blog.
“Downtime & work life balance for me is mainly a coastal walk with my beloved dog who I refer to as the #furfounder. Her name is Cadi (a traditional Welsh name) and she is the baby of the house.
She has a lovely personality and has fitted in well in our household. Our twin girls were in secondary school when we decided to have a pet and she’s been spoilt rotten with attention from us all.
As we marked Mental Health Awareness Week in May, it’s important to take some time out for reflection and self care. Work and life balance can be challenging and I don’t always get it right. We are all so busy we don’t spend enough quality time together as a couple or as a family. In fact we were guilt ridden as we’d missed our beloved Fur Founder’s 3rd birthday, but we did celebrate it at the end of the month as you can see pictured, and yes – we are barking mad!
I try my best to get to the beach with her at some point during the day as it clears my head, sets me up, releases any tensions and generally feels therapeutic.
So downtime when it happens can be a nice meal, a few drinks or a last minute night away if we are lucky. We were recently very lucky and stayed at the awesome and totally instagramable Cheshire Boutique Barns. These shabby chic converted retreats are on the outskirts of Nantwich – a really pretty English town up North with Tudor and Georgian architecture, and more listed buildings than you could shake a stick at!
The barns are nestled between a few country pubs. Until recently, one pub, The Cholmondeley Arms, had the late Clarrissa Dickson Wright of ‘Two Fat Ladies’ as a regular sight sitting at the bar, and she would occasionally cook there too.
So we arrived at the barns for a midweek break with two teenagers. I know it doesn’t shout out “me time” or “self care” but it certainly didn’t disappoint.
We checked into The Cowshed; a beautiful, luxurious, rustic, ingeniously up-cycled, retro, uber comfortable two double bed barnlette with an attached and covered glass outdoor area. The outdoor area featured a chill out zone, eating area and a double ended bath so we could relax under bubbles and gaze at the stars!
Inside had another double ended bath, log burner, fully equipped kitchen, sitting room, ground floor king size bedroom, wet room and mezzanine king size bedroom looking down on to an open plan kitchen/diner/sitting room below.
I didn’t think we would ever get to bed from this heavenly retreat and I wanted to make the most of every feature including the designer bathroom with it’s pebble floor power shower and underfloor heating.
Complimentary White Company toiletries, robes and towels screamed luxury and it’s no wonder they were voted one of the top ten 5 star accommodations in Cheshire in 2019 by Travelmyth.
Our family of four made the most of our time at The Cowshed. We had so much planned here that we realised we were never going to do it all in 24 hours, so we made a decision that we would be back.
This is not your standard accommodation and we just wanted to explore more so we made a family decision that we were mainly going to chill out during our stay.
However we arrived mid morning and decided to drive to the beautiful Higher Burwardsley, and took a hike around Bulkeley Hill ending up at the Pheasant Inn for lunch to enjoy the most magnificent panoramic views in the area. After a well deserved beverage and gastro meal we headed back to our home for the night.
If you are looking for the perfect country bolthole then this is the place for you. The well-chosen finishing touches has transformed these old barns into a 5 star luxury retreat and you can’t help but feel inspired by it all.
If you’d like to experience luxury accommodation, here is the booking link: http://www.cheshireboutiquebarns.co.uk/prices-availability-and-booking-online
For a complimentary bottle of Champagne on arrival, enter code “tanyavip” when booking direct with Cheshire Boutique Barns. We couldn’t recommend it enough.”
S x
