Above: The Dining Area at Lothlorien Cottage

Comfortable Dining Area

A holiday cottage, like a home, benefits from a practical, user-friendly layout and design. Lothlorien Cottage has a well designed layout downstairs which encourages both relaxation and interaction. The Living Room leads into an open-plan Kitchen-Dining area so that even while someone may be preparing a meal in the kitchen they can still participate in any discussions that may have started in the living area.

The chef does not have to feel excluded. This also means that everything that may be required by the occupants of the Living Room, such as snacks and hot or cold refreshment, is easily available, so people can put all their energy into relaxing, playing boardgames, doing some serious catching-up on their reading or simply chatting and watching TV or DVDs.

The Dining Area is closest to the Living Room and is also opposite the door leading into the enclosed kitchen courtyard and out to the garden. All crockery and cutlery etc is provided and there is a conveniently placed wine rack if you make a point of sampling new wines while on holiday, or simply enjoy them as part of your meals.

For those who want their wine chilled or prefer cold drinks in summer there is a small fridge to chill things in and keep food in. There is also a small table-top freezer.

Practical All-Weather Floor

The floor in the Dining/Kitchen area has a tiled stone surface in various warm earthy colours, which is very much in keeping with the cottage character but also provides a practical area to change out of muddy boots or shoes and take off wet coats if necessary without having to worry about mud on the carpets. The rest of the cottage has wall-to-wall carpeting, except for the bathroom.

There is a washing machine and tumble drier for your use. For cyclists, hikers or someone fresh off one of the nearby golf-courses, this area is useful to climb out of muddy or damp clothing which can be washed, and dried in the tumble drier or over the radiator, even when the weather is not ideal for the clothes line outside.

There is space in the out-house for bicycles to be stored securely.

Wildlife Window

There is window seat here as well where you can sit and watch the birds at the bird feeders outside, or sit reading extracts from your travel guide books, in between offering advice on cooking to whoever is preparing the meal.

If you leave a bowl of catfood or scraps outside in the evenings you can sit quietly here and may be lucky enough to see the resident hedgehog stopping for a meal inbetween the various feline visitors. There is plenty of other wildlife around including foxes and badgers, all of whom are very welcome at the cottage.