News at Woodlands

Greetings from the New Forest,

Well that was a lovely summer- and it seems to be continuing into September making the Forest incredibly enticing and I need to get back to work! I have had a wonderful summer enjoying the Forest, and exploring new parts too. I think my favourite bits have been cycling in the Forest- amazing now the children can cycle without stabilisers!! And also, we went walking through the stream near the hotel and walking on the fallen tree stumps- such a wonderful afternoon thoroughly enjoyed by all. Intermingled with the exploratory pursuits we have had a successful summer at the hotel and met a lot of fabulous guests and dogs! As well as had some great weddings too.

We are now looking forward to the Autumn and Winter and putting together our Christmas packages and Winter deals. I know it seems early but it’s never too early if you’re the planner 🙂

We are having 2 party nights this year, as well as festive afternoon teas, and a big 3 day package for the actual Christmas Day and finishing with a wonderful New Years gala dinner and live music to dance to welcome the 2017.

We are also looking to bring back our very popular 3 nights for £300 deal from November- February.

Our Head Chef Andy Smith is still whipping up a storm in the kitchen and I am really excited to see what he is creating for the Autumn menu. You may have seen some photos on social media this week. Looks and tastes amazing and last night in the restaurant one of our diners said it was the best meal she had ever eaten, which really fills us all with such pride and satisfaction throughout our whole team.

Now all are back to school I will back to the hotel in full force and bringing lots of enthusiasm as well as a welcome return to Charlotte who will be coming back at the end of this month, as we say goodbye to Ed as he returns to university and so good luck for your second year.

We hope to welcome you soon

Take care

Imogene Anglaret

Owner

Greetings from the New Forest

Well, as we enter July I start to think and get excited about the school holidays, 6 weeks to do fun things as a family. Don’t worry Rob and I will still be at the hotel, although I want all my days off to count, and I am nothing if not a planner, and I thought it would be great to share my plan ideas with everyone. As literally there is no place we would rather be this summer and so hopefully you will come and enjoy the summer with us and hopefully this gives you some ideas too!

Here is what I plan to do this Summer-

1)      Paultons Park- this is number one on the kids list every year! To those who don’t know this is a family owned theme park and the home of Peppa Pig World. It is also only 10 minutes away from the Hotel. My children are now 6 & 4 yrs and after many fun trips they are now a bit too grown up for Peppa and so luckily Paultons have just opened a new Dinosaur world – The Lost Kingdom! This picks up nicely where PPW leaves off and the kids LOVE it, enough adrenalin to make them feel brave (and me!) and enough placid rides for the 4 yo. There is some lovely gardens there too and so no doubt we will picnic. Top tip, bring a towel and  change of clothes as there is a great splash zone and some water rides too.

2)      Winchester Science Centre– just 25/30 mins away we have an interactive Science and technology centre and home of the largest planetarium cinema in the UK.  A great wet weather option and fun day out. There is a challenge to build an Earthquake proof structure… the Underwriter in me is all in!! So much to do from the Website the kids will love it.

3)      Portsmouth Historic Dockyard & Southsea Sea Front- The Mary Rose attraction is re opening on the 20^th July and also a chance to see HMS Victory, my son loves ships and I’m keen too and so we will definitely be doing this. Picnics feature heavily in our household and so we will combine this with lunch on Southsea sea front. A great prom to walk/ scoot down and also a fun fair and arcades – and bad parent moment but everyone loves the 2p machines in our family- slots of fun!!

4)      Furzey Gardens, Minstead- only a few miles away from the hotel is this informal Woodlands Gardens that has a great range of beautiful plants from around the world. However, what the kids really enjoy is the fairy door trail! This is a firm favourite with us, a lovely trail around the gardens finding the fairy doors that lay nestled within the trees. There is also a great coffee shop so we can finish off with tea and cake or rolling down the hill….. perfect afternoon

5)      Bolderwood- This is another great Forest outing – half a day easily spent here! You firstly have the deer viewing platform,  who can spot those deer???? And there are several trails, we are ‘Jubilee’ trail folk which is a 1 mile round walk through the woods. Although there are more challenging walks for those with longer legs. Again we will be finishing up with either a picnic or an ice cream (who can spot the trend). There is an ice cream van stationed most of the year here and also there are toilet facilities.

6)      Lyndhurst– whereas I try and avoid the one way system in the height of summer…  we will be going to the New Forest Landmark of Bolton’s Bench, which is on the outskirts of Lyndhurst and can be accessed from the hotel without going around the one way system. It is great to let off steam and run up the hill, and play in the sand at Park Pale (next door car park name) and you pretty much always see ponies grazing on the grassy lawns surrounding. Of course…. We may pop into a tea shop on the way home.

7)      Itchen Country Park – this is a Country Park near Eastleigh that is situated by the river Itchen, there is a forest trail, picnic areas J, café,  2 parks for the kids and most importantly a little zip wire. My children love it. There is also a Go Ape here but we have not yet done this….

It’s really near a Haskins and Hobby craft as well, so we can never resist stopping and having a wander round!!

8)      Say Hello to the Gruffalo – Sea City Museum (16^th August) you get to hear the Gruffalo tale and then create your own monsters using clay…. We might combine this with the regulation trip to Southampton to buy School shoes. We are only 15 minutes by car from the City and as well as Sea City Museum, there are lots of other attractions and a great John Lewis in the West Quay shopping centre.

9)      Milford on Sea- now no holiday is complete without a trip to the beach, and we are quite spoilt, as within 30 mins of the hotel we have Christchurch, Bournemouth and Lepe beach, but I think we will go to Milford on Sea because my Son loves stones and rocks, and this beach has both in abundance….it also has good parking, a great promenade so again good biking and scooting and for the grown ups great views over the Isle of Wight….

10)   Exploring in the Forest- living in such a great place we spend a lot of time exploring in the Forest around the hotel, we find Enchanted Far away trees, Gruffalo swings, horses, bug houses, log bridges, pooh stick bridge and lots of other things our imaginations have yet to find.

If I manage to do all this, I will let you know in September when I will next write and am on my gym mission after all those picnics and coffee shop stops!  I hope you find this useful and have a lovely summer. We hope to welcome you all soon to enjoy some of the New Forest delights.

Best wishes

Take care

Imogene Anglaret

Owner

Greetings from the New Forest

May is here! The weather is warming up- well I have thought about leaving my coat at home once or twice and the weather man is promising good things to come. Also I had a fabulous walk in the Forest last weekend-  a lot less mud about and everything is budding and not going to be long before the garden is full of colour!

We have had a good month, with the restaurant going from strength to strength.  The menu is delicious, the produce is pretty much all sourced from the Hampshire apart from some of our fish, which is a smidge further west of us.  It really has added such amazing freshness I want to eat there all the time- and in fact have done so 3 times this month 🙂

We have been busy cleaning and prepping for the impending wedding season, and our master piece has been ripping the carpet out of the lounge and have a wonderful oak effect flooring put down. It makes the room look huge, and elegant. I also purchased a cream aisle runner for weddings- it is beautiful and really makes the lounge room look like a stunning ceremony room. I think Tracy with TCS training will also appreciate the new floor!!

It has been lovely meeting some lovely new guests and welcoming back some old faces. We hope that you will all be back soon.  We have some great offers in May too, only £79 B&B so no excuses not to pay us a visit soon.

Take care

Best wishes

Imogene Anglaret

Owner

Greetings from the New Forest!

Spring has sprung! Woodlands Lodge has been busy bees in the last 2 months.

Firstly, we finished room 5 and I think it is a real triumph. Nice and bright, clean looking and in the somewhat adventurous colour ‘babouche’ or bright yellow!! It is a happy  room and Gary has been busy tidying up the hotel painting doors and corridors so we look fresh and ready for Summer.

Our kitchen team has to be the biggest change in the last 6 weeks. It has literally transformed. Our new head chef the talented Andy Smith has started and already made over the kitchen, with his modern take on British food and he is focussed on the seasonality and keeping all our produce as local as possible. I am so excited for everyone to taste and see his food!! It looks and tastes divine. The afternoon tea menu has also been revamped and now incorporates a wonderful children’s tea as well as the ‘Gentleman’s’ Cream tea that incorporates all the savoury favourites such as pork pies and steak and stilton sandwiches along with the usual sweet treats… makes me hungry just writing about it. In our menu shake up we have been able to redesign our bar menu too… we hope to offer snacks faster to our guests and all day! Next week is the turn of the breakfast to be transformed, and we have some glorious new bowls to put in our granolas, yoghurts and fruit on the continental and we have added Robert’s breakfast favourite Eggs Benedict to the repertoire too…

We also welcome Mark to the position of sous chef, and Declan as an Apprentice join Nick to finish our Kitchen team.

We have not limited change to the kitchen and promoted Gina to front of House Manager- well done Gina, we also wave a very fond goodbye to Charlotte who is leaving us to run a Campsite in France for the Summer!

We had a very successful Mother’s Day and really enjoyed seeing so many happy families- and the first chance we had to showcase Andy. Easter was lovely too with us finally feeling the winter is behind us, and looking forward to get the summer underway and wedding season up and running.

March saw us have our bi annual wedding showcase and the hotel looked absolutely stunning with a bit of help from our lovely supplier friends. We were able to show off the hotel in all its wedding glory.

This week I am starting to embark on our Christmas party and Christmas package. It seems early but we want to be nice and prepared!!

We hope to welcome you to the hotel very soon, as the walks are clearing from Mud and the smell of springtime is upon us. We still have some cracking deals with Dinner, bed and breakfast from £139 per couple.

Best wishes

Take care

Imogene Anglaret

Owner

Greetings from the New Forest

Well, that’s a relief January is over!! The detox can finish, and we are one month nearer to Spring!! So good news all round.

Make a date with us this month, and enjoy a wonderful Valentine’s break or a sneak away from work for a mid week retreat! Our 3 nights for £300 per couple dinner, bed and breakfast is still on throughout February too (Sunday- Thursday).

We have taken time this month to tackle some maintenance issues, and also redecorate room 7. It now looks lovely and bright, so very happy with the result. Room 5 is next on our hit list and this is planned for later this month- can’t wait although not sure if we have gone a little too bold with the colour… although you will have to wait until my next blog to find out what it is!!!

We have been surprisingly busy for January and crazily Sunday has become the new Friday- I wonder if it’s a January thing!!

We also have put together an amazing (and I mean our best yet) Mother’s Day lunch menu by new Head chef Andy Smith and taking bookings now, so please book early.

Hoping the mild weather continues and the rain stays away…

Take care

Imogene Anglaret

Owner