Stepping out from Newbarn Farm this spring!

Here are just a few events taking place this April........Visit the tiger cubs at Paignton Zoo, this is a rare chance indeed to see such a truly moving sight. All four cubs have survived and thrived over the last six weeks although it was expected one could die. Their antics will be able to be viewed by a remote-control webcam which will cover the large public tiger enclosure plus a second installed in one of the dens can be viewed on a flat screen monitor set up by the tiger enclosure window showing live pictures from the cameras.

This system will go live at Easter when the cubs are due to make their first public appearance. Newbarn Farm offers discounted tickets for entrance to Paignton Zoo and her sister company Living Coasts in Torquay where a huge Golden Easter Egg Hunt will take place ove the Easter weekend. Children will be able to take part in this egg hunt with a difference; each day guests will have the opportunity to find ten silver eggs and one golden egg. Everyone who finds a silver egg will win chocolate mini eggs - however the lucky person who finds the golden egg will win the chance to feed the penguins on that day.

Over a Occombe Farm on Sunday 26th April there is rare chance to see the innermost planet Mercury and the ringed planet Saturn through a telescope with expert Chris Proctor. You will also explore the craters of a crescent moon and see the subtle but beautiful earthshine on the moon's dark side with a hot drink in hand!

If cloudy on the night you will have the alternative of exploring the Occombe Farn nature trail on a dusk safari with bat detectors! Meet at the entrance to Occombe Farm Cafe at 7.45pm. Adult;£3.50 Children £2.50 - includes a tea, coffee or hot chocolate. Back in Torquay at the Princess Theatre, The Top of The Tots will be performing; ten years after bursting onto the scence, The Tweenies are back with their chart-busting new show!

'Top of the Tots' is packed with tot-tastic tunes. Their live performances have vowed over a million Tweenie boppers worldwide and, with a platnium selling single under their belts, get ready for the fab four to entertain you once again in their spectacular new theatre show. Get set to reach for the stars, sing along, dance in the aisles and find out why the Tweenies are still the ultimate Number One! Performances start at 11am or 2pm. Tickets form £12. Box Office:0844 847 2315.

Finally for early start this spring join the Dawn Chorus Walk & Breakfast in Haldon Park Wood on 2nd May - 5am - 9am. This will definitely be worth setting the alarm clock for! A two and a half mile walk around the forest (involving steep hills) will take you into the best areas for songbirds and you will also have a great chance to see many of the forest's shyer creatures such as the black fallow deer. Tickets: £11 per person includes a traditional English or vegetarian breakfast a the Forest's new cafe. Booking essentail: Forestry Commission: 0845 36 73787. And remember every day and every night if you wish you can fish on the banks of Newbarn Farm's lakes to your heart's content.

Newbarn Farm probably the best Fishing in Devon; Devon Fishing Holiday; Fishing Holidays Devon; Holiday Cottages & Fishing and Self-catering Cottage & Fishing.

Fishing in Devon

Where in the World?

Where in the world can you glimpse the metallic blue shaft of a dragonfly hovering for their prey amongst the golden hue of gaint yellow water iris' adorning the perimeters of a succesful fishing in Devon lake surrounded by green pasture with the undulating rolling hills of the South Hams before you - countryside designated as an area of outstanding beauty?

Where in the world can you watch from afar the summer sun set behind eleven majestic granite tors of Dartmoor home to the Hound of the Baskervilles with peaceful early evening hot air balloonists floating efortlessly past as you sip your chilled wine drinking in the evenings promise of another lazy day ahead?

Where in the world can you fish for carp, roach, rudd, bream, tench and perch a stone's throw from your luxury self-catering cottage & fishing with every tackle and bait essential at hand should you need it and plenty of hot and cold drinks and snacks to keep the hunger pangs at bay?

Where in the world?

Newbarn Farm that's where. Newbarn Farm probably the best Fishing in Devon; Devon Fishing Holiday, Fishing Holidays Devon, Holiday Cottages & Fishing and Self-catering Cottage and fishing.

That's where!

Jeremy Fisher is Fishing in Devon!

Nature at its Best

This morning Richard and I decided to take Verity and Imogen our 6 and 3 year old daughters for a walk through the copse here at Newbarn Farm. Richard has been supervising and working with a group of children and their carers from the YMCA every Friday morning since the beginning of January. He has set them a project of clearing a path through a wildly overgrown copse inhabitited by all types of wildlife. The intention is to finish with a clearly marked pathway through a beautiful copse literally bursting at the seams with nature's beauty, birdife nesting in the boxes which will be put up with even ones for owls, bat boxes, bumblebee dens, the list goes on but the wildlife I cannot wait to spot are the resident badgers. This copse is riddled with badger sets, this morning we saw their paw prints clearly and found a newly dug opening to one of the sets, the air nearby punctured by the smell of freshly turned earth. Marvellous.

Naturally the walk encouraged a mountain of questions from the girls about the birds and animals who lived in this magical place. Why have the woodpeckers made big holes in the trees? How do they do it? Where are all the badgers now? Is that a pond over there does it have frogs in it? Frogs I thought, early spring I thought, tadpoles I thought. Last year I was too late to collect frogspawn for the children to watch the egg morph into tadpole and eventually to a tailess frog. So after the walk through the copse we made our way down to Mirror Lake where a couple of local anglers were fishing in Devon.

We made our way to the far corner to the stream and sure enough there we found some frogspawn using a fishing net we harvested a little into a bucket for the girls and then meandered on around the edge of this great Devon fishing lake. It was here I spotted at first just one frog and then another and then so many more. The four of us spent ages watching these frogs and trying to find more. Many were sitting on the silty bottom by the fast growing bullrushes. And then Richard pulled a few out for the girls to take a proper look. It was when he did this that he saw an unfamiliar sight in the water. He asked me what I thought it was and I was pretty sure it was spawn not frogspawn but toadspawn - long stripes of about 8 inches long with eggs inside, almost like a string of black pearls.

So it would appear that Mirror Lake is home to hundreds and hundreds of toads, great apparently for keeping slugs down!

Richard has since taken the girls swimming, I chose to stay behind to write this blog (tomorrow I have such a huge work schedule to get through so doing this today will help), a few minutes ago I received a phone call from one of the anglers on Mirror Lake he had hired his tackle today and was ready to return it. Saving my unfinished article, I ventured down the steps from the Holiday Cottages down towards the Fishing in Devon Lakes. On my way I bumped into a gentleman staying in Oakrest (the largest of the self-catering cottages & fishing at Newbarn Farm) with his daughter and husband and his grandchildren. 'Out for an evening stroll' I greeted him with. 'Marvellous, absoultely marvellous' he said, 'the children have been catching frogs down there' he said pointing to Mirror Lake, 'they are so excited!'. 'Toads' I corrected him, 'We did the same this morning'. I agreed with him 'Marvellous'
Let's hope they don't see too many toads in this compromising position as our two did this morning. Some questions are harder to answer then others. Just ask the birds and the bees!

Those Yellow Flowers!

Why are those Yellow Flowers There?

I had just picked my 6 year old daughter up from School the other day, we were driving back along the Totnes Road towards Newbarn Farm. The hedgrows for this time of year are typically flourishing with a golden glow - countless bulbs having survivied a harsh winter are majestically on show with a crowning glory of hundreds of tubular yellow flowers. My daughter found this a little odd as the trees are still in their winter state, barren and bare. Hence the question, " Why are those yellow flowers there?".

I explained that daffodils are a sure indication that spring is on it's way (at long last!); Snowdrops in January and early February often fight with the winter snow to capture the sun; catkins are a sign that the early spring lambs will be born soon and then the daffodils start to emerge as the temperature warms up and Easter is fast approaching. She was satsified with my answer.

Yesterday we saw blossom buds on the Oriental Damson tree and on the Apple tree on the banks just above Island Pool, another sure sign that spring is indeed on its way!

The mole activity in some of the fields is quite alarming - every morning fresh mounds in evidence of their growing numbers. Birds having paired up collecting twigs and grasses to line their nests and the fish are beginning to feed after a long cold winter.

Anglers on the banks at Newbarn Farm, an ever popular Devon Fishing Holiday site, have reported catches of up to 25lb (a 25lb Common was caught over the weekend one evening).

With the sun emerging and postive signs that spring is truly on its way - where better to watch nature adapt to the coming summer than on a self-catering holiday with fishing here at Newbarn Farm.

We are lucky! Living on site my daughter and her younger sister will continue to watch spring emerge and develop into summer in these beautiful surroundings. And they can ask as many questions as they wish on the changing scene unfolding infront of them!

Newbarn Farm: probably one of the best Fishing Holidays in Devon; Devon Fishing Holiday; Self-catering cottages & fishing; Holiday Cottages & Fsihing and Fishing in Devon

Courting Pink Wellies!

Fashion over comfort!

Victoria Beckham never far from the front pages of the celebrity glossies or indeed the higher ranking fashion journals has successfully managed to ridicule herself in the full glare of the Paparazzi. Sporting a highly fashionable expensive pair of Christian Louboutin 'pumps', Posh clearly thought she looked the business. How wrong she was! Oh Dear, Oh Dear! Wearing the shoes at least two sizes too big, the outer arches of her feet were falling infront of her toe line, I'm very surprised she managed to walk at all! Now some may say that in the face of fashion this is acceptable - well just possibly on the red carpet but surely not on a day out with three young boisterious sons running around the Universal Studios in Los Angeles. Yep! The woman has clearly lost it! She should have been in casual shoes and a casual outfit, she obviously selfishly thinks far more of herself than those poor sons of hers. Flipflops, trainers or even a pair of pink wellies would have done.

Goodness knows what she would adorn on her feet should she ever grace the paths at Newbarn Farm, with gravelled pathways and the occassional muddy footpath. I'm sure a pair of Louboutin 'pumps' would soon loose their face value! A good pair of wellies or walking boots are needed on wetter days and a pair of flip flops fine for the hotter months. But maybe those here on a Devon fishing holiday would find flipflops a little flimsy on the banks of the Fishing in Devon lakes.

Actually we're not sure we would like the likes of Victoria Beckham visiting, we cater for those who appreciate their surroundings and know how to have a good time whether on a self-catering cottage & fishing holiday or not!

So don those pink wellies and let's be seeing you!

Newbarn Farm probably the best Fishing in Devon; Devon Fishing Holiday; Fishing Holidays Devon; Holiday Cottages & Fishing; Self-catering Cottage & Fishing

Fishing In Devon - Bucking the Trend!

The snows gone! The Anglers are here!

I reported towards later end of January that at long last after a slow cold start to the year I had seen some decent catches to report from the banks of Newbarn Farm a lovely picturesque Devon Fishing Holiday Location. And I had:

"Oliver Denison from Newton Abbot graced the banks of Mirror on the Sunday, making his base Hut 5 he had a great session for this time of year. His first two Mirrors, 6lb and 8lb were each caught on a single boilie cast to the middle of the lake. Throughout the day he went on to catch another 7 Mirror carp - 19lb, 19lb, 18lb, 15lb, 11lb and 9lb - he certainly has bucked the trend of late - he is pictured here fishing again on Mirror at the later end of last year.

Two personal bests from Sam Blackman made for a happy man especially when he also won our catch report lottery for a free day ticket. From Newton Abbot, Sam's luck is certainly in at the moment; his personal bests were a first Ghost carp of 10lb and a 13lb Common, he also teased in a 12lb Mirror. He can collect his ticket from the office anytime!

Dan Woodward from Torquay caught a 18lb 8oz form Hut 9 on Mirror on good old sweetcorn! Rob Pebfold form Brixham caught a 13lb Common using Pineapple Pop-Up on a Zig Rig and Kevin Lock also from Torquay had two fair size Mirrors from Hut 8.

So maybe the fish are getting hungry now so come and try us out for some good carp and silver fishing."

Little did I know what was to come, I had packed my bags for two weeks in the sun on the shores of the Red Sea as fishing is not my only hobby - I love to dive too! Whilst I was basking in the sun the whole England was engulfed in an arctic flurry of snow and came to a grinding halt which included my much beloved Newbarn Farm, with it's inviting Holiday Cottages & Fishing.

But now with my return the snow dispersed and the sun shone once again over the banks of Newbarn Farm for some glorious fishing in Devon and once again I am able to report some great catches:

"During some extreme arctic weather conditions I oddly enough had very little to report on the fishing here at Newbarn Farm, however now that the temperature has increased drastically so too has the fishing news on the banks of our lakes.

I am often asked which is the best flavoured boilie to use on Mirror Lake and I will invariably say Pineapple and White Chocolate. Why? Because I see these two mentioned on catch reports so many times. And as the latest reports from the fishing on the banks here in Paignton this has proven to be good advice.

Mr Evans from Paignton fished from Hut 11 last week he caught a 10lb Common using a Pineapple boilie and Oliver Denison a regular from Newton Abbot gained a slightly heavier Mirror at 19lb 13oz from Hut 5 using a Pineapple Pop-up. John Taylor fished Hut 5 the following day and using the same bait successfully reeled in a 10lb Common. Based in Hut 6 next door, Richard Ward from Torquay followed suit and coaxed in a 9lb 5oz Common.

White Chocolate Boilies were Mr Evans from Totnes prefered choice, he managed a Common of 14lb and a Mirror of 16lb from Hut 8 and Elliot Fay from Paignton caught a 10lb 4oz Ghostie from the middle of the pond using boilies, folowed by a 11lb Common.

Nick Truscott had a lovely day towards the later end of the week, his best reward being this 17lb 5oz Mirror (pictured).

Up on Island Pool, Myk from Atherstone fished fro a mixed bag. His comment was, 'What a bag! Had a very enjoyable day!'. Not a surprising comment after catching a 3lb 8oz Barbel, 7 carp totalling 42lbs 11oz and 12 Roach tipping the scales at 8lb."

Richard Soley, Manager of Newbarn Farm

(probably the best Fishing in Devon; Devon Fishing Holiday; Fishing Holidays Devon; Holiday Cottages & Fishing; Self-catering & Fishing)

The Crafty Star of Fables living at Newbarn Farm

A symbol of European literature for centuries, the Red Fox has appeared in countless Aesop's fables as the crafty and sly fox who always outwits everyone. To this extent this is true. The fox is very crafty; it has been hunted down mercilessly in English fox hunts, and shot just for its fur, and yet its numbers are not affected. It has managed to survive quite well in its country and town homes.

Here at Newbarn Farm we have a resident red fox who often appears during daylight hours bold as brass ambling around one of our neighbours field which not only do we overlook but a large percentage of our lane runs alongside it! This fox we believe to be a dog fox because of his size - dog foxes tend to be a good 20% larger than the vixens. So regular are these sightings we have now named the field mentioned 'Foxes Field'. Many an angler on the banks of our ponds here on a Devon Fishing Holiday have caught delighted glimpses of our bushy friend. Guests staying in our self-catering cottages & fishing have also seen him taking a mid morning stroll across the field.

Foxes can potentially live up to 12 years of age, but few live longer than 3-4 years, especially in areas of high hunting presures. Hopefully our friend will then possibly surpass this as hunting is not a sport pursued in our locality - thankfully!

Red foxes will eat anything, as they are very versatile when it comes to diet. It is this reason that they are such successful predators. They are true omnivores, and will eat rodents, fruit, vegetatain, insects, human garbage and even young deer. Rodents and rabbits form the bulk of their diet - both of which are in high abundance here at Newbarn Farm, a popular Devon Fishing Holiday location. In the more urban areas of their habitat, they will scavenge on human refuse, and even eat out of pet food bowls left outside. Foxes hunt game by stalking and pouncing like a cat. They usually hunt in meadows, where their main prey, mice and voles live. With their incredible sense of hearing, they can locate voles and mice through the thick grass and even in their underground burrows. They wait until the mouse or vole comes above ground, then the fox jumps high in the air and pounces on its prey. To kill its prey, the fox severs the spinal cord with its teeth.They typically eat 1-2lbs of food a day. They will cache any surplus food near their denning area, to be eaten later. Here at Newbarn Farm, home of Holiday Cottages & Fishing in a tranquil oasis, we only know too well how the fox will cache food. Last year in early spring we unfortunately failed to lock in our free range chickens one night (all 9 of them!) - the following morning the coop was empty bar countless of feathers. Later that morning I saw twice a fox, probably the same one walking proudly by with one of our feathered friends in his mouth carrying it of to his den for a future feast!

But in recent months especially through the artic conditions we have had of late, my husband and I have forgiven our red friend for the massacre last spring. He has given us so much delight allowing us to watch him from afar and on a few lucky occasions from very near - staring each other out until he decides it time to trot off into the distance.

So next time you are considering a Fishing Holidays in Devon why not give Newbarn Farm a go you just may get a little more than you bargained for!!!!