I love this job! What a busy week I have had. I started by accompanying our Spanish local expert concierge, Eduardo , as he taught Susan to make her own paella on the terrace of our Rustic Escape, Partida de la Mar in Almassera, Valencia. The next day saw me jetting off to Spring Cottage in Amberley, West Sussex, where I concierged our first ´I love Antiques´Escape. We visited all sorts of local antique and vintage shops along with Katie...
Rustic Escapes`guests joined our expert local concierge, Eduardo, for a trip to see the rice being harvested around the Albufera lagoon, 10 minutes from our alquería, Partida de la Mar in Almassera. It was fascinating. Tractors came and went, piling high the enormous mountains of rice while our guests were invited to join farmers as they inspected their crops. The ´Senia´, ´Bomba´and `Albufera´rices are all harvested locally and the guests were invited to walk amongst the rice mountains and to...
Here in Valencia , every September, we can expect a day of rain, as the cold air flows down from the north, rolling over the hot land, resulting in a morning of clashing thunder and lightening, accompanied by a downpouring of rain, which usually lasts for a morning, or at most a day. It is a refreshing and generally welcome event; I love watching the rain , from the terrace in Partida de la Mar, cleansing the atmosphere and signifying...
School is ready and thriving so now I can start developing my Rustic Escapes project. I worked hard all summer to redevelop and design the gardens of our lovely school in Valencia, along with several classes that needed refreshing and now I can get back to preparing my next Rustic Escape in Finestrat, Alicante and carry on enjoying seeing guests arrive in Spring cottage and Partida de la Mar
https://youtu.be/9o_Z4thAhN8 Having worked for over 35 years, founding my own British school here in Spain, which now has 1700 students, from all over the world , on roll, and is acknowledged as one of the best educational institutions in Europe ( in 2014 we were awarded the category ´Best International School´by the British Independent Schools´Association) I am embarking on a new project to fulfill an interest in social history, agricultural history and rural culture , by founding Rustic Escapes. Naturally my...
I´m so proud of my first harvest!. You can´t believe the excitement I felt when, arriving on a glorious summer morning at our Rustic Escapes´alquería, Partida de la Mar, in Almassera I saw an enormous courgette sticking out from the undergrowth! Now the vegetables won´t stop coming. Our guests last week had fresh tomatoes, courgettes,aubergines, red and green peppers, spicy ´padrón´peppers, picked from their garden and straight onto the bar-b-que. They had all that lovely basil and rosemary Il´d planted to...
