Time to look ahead and wonder what the year 2022 will bring for us all at Lisle Combe. In our review of 2021, we can't believe the number of new and returning guests we welcomed to Lisle Combe from May onwards. It certainly helped our recovery from the disastrous 2020. Amazingly bookings for 2022 are already looking good, with every weekend from March to September with at least one guest room booked!
Due to COVID we did not hold many of our usual events, however Breakfast Day went well in December, so we are hoping to run our ever popular Breakfast Week in January and look forward to welcoming the many locals who join us during the week.  

Just look what we have to look at each day!!
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                                                                              Happy New Year!

Best laid plans..... I'll write a blog during lockdown, so our guests and local St Lawrence folk can see what's happening to the garden during the months we don't see anyone!
Sadly, almost a year since my last blog, I find that time has flown by with life at Lisle Combe. So instead I have outlined our garden year in a few photographs and comments. We hope you enjoy.

Just to let you know, we are planning a few things at Lisle Combe this winter. We're not sure when we will be back to our 'pop up pub' days but in the mean time please come and visit us knowing that we will do our best to keep you safe in a COVID world.

Thursday 2nd December - English Breakfast Day - £10 per person, please book in advance.

​Lisle Combe Country House Dining Evening - enjoy a 5 course meal in the elegant beauty of  the dining or drawing room - tables of 6  - dates to be confirmed, please email Ruth for more details (ruth@lislecombe.co.uk)

Lisle Combe Breakfast Week - January 2022 - hopefully back to our preCovid days.

Time for a Performance Review?  
Businesses, do you want to ask what went well?  How did your working life change? 
Did you positively adapt to the situation in 2020/21?  
Do you need to review performance, establish what went well in 2021 and set goals for the future?  Lisle Combe offers a gorgeous space to stop, breathe and think about your business away from it all. Do you need help asking SMART questions about your progress and to move it forward into 2022? We can offer help with framing your session, as well as brunch, lunch or just refreshments to keep you going during your time with us. Guidance, white boards and plenty of inspiring surroundings available. Speak to Ruth for more details (ruth@lislecombe.co.uk)

We are opening our doors in December for a Bed and Breakfast winter experience!
Having no central heating, we feel that only the hardy will visit us (your bedroom and bathroom have electric heaters). However, this is a great time to stay at Lisle Combe, with log fires burning and a chill in the air - it makes you move quicker along the corridors!!  It also gives you a sense of time stood still, a time before iPads, mobile phones and Netflix.
The garden is different at this time of the year, you have wonderful sea views from all bedrooms, with no leaves on the trees. The boys have cut our forest of prehistoric looking gunnera, which means that you can also glimpse the garden streams and ponds!  There are plenty of winter berries and late blooming plants to add colour to a grey December day!
We have put up the Christmas decorations...... festive trees sparkle in the drawing room and hallway, tinsel and greenery brighten up the mantle pieces and the smell of orange and cinnamon can invade your senses.
Walking in the garden, along the coastal path and up inland above the 'Undercliff" is good for the soul.

​If you want a rest from lockdown, work or home and the 21st century, then Lisle Combe is definitely the place for you. Stay on the Island and visit us from Ryde, Cowes or Totland - you won't even have to pay the ferry prices!!

Here we go again.... but this time it is different..... the kids are at school..... work continues for some (not the hospitality business)..... it's autumn and the sun is not shining!!
We have rung all our guests and asked them to transfer their bookings to another time, all of whom have asked to come in December! Do they not know we have no central heating? Staying at Lisle Combe in the Autumn/Winter really is a step back in time to an era when a constant heat was not available. Here you can experience the chill of the morning and pleasure of the woodburner within minutes of getting up!

Instead we have time to consider what we are doing at Lisle Combe. What works best for us and the house? We were lucky enough to hold a wedding here in October - just for 15 - and it was glorious. Small, micro weddings - elope to Lisle Combe - could be our new byline!  
Time to reconsider the ways in which we present ourselves to the world - time and time again our guests tell us that the website/internet doesn't do us justice! How do you get the message across?

Not the usual Bed and Breakfast!
If you want fast internet, power showers and 500 TV channels - we're not the place for you. But if you want to spend time recharging, resting and enjoying the surrounding garden and countryside then we are definitely the right place to be!

So many changes this year due to things out of our control! So we thought we would dramatically alter our approach to weddings at Lisle Combe. Why not enjoy the changes and embrace a small, micro wedding for just you and your loved ones. 
Here’s the deal.
You stay at Lisle Combe for 3 or more nights, during that time you stop, relax, get married and enjoy a moment in time with just four guests.
Day 1 - enjoy an afternoon tea with fizzy on the patio or in the drawing room on arrival, make the final plans for your wedding day at Lisle Combe. Last minute wedding. Spend the evening catching up with news and eating at a local restaurant or meal at LC.
Day 2 - over a glorious breakfast at LC plan the day ahead….. spend the day being pampered, with massages and relaxing spa treatments at the award winning local spa, 
OR…… take a walk around the local area exploring rocky coves and rugged coastline (maybe a swim, if you’re keen), 
OR ….. plan your special wedding meal and prepare for the celebration of food and love with local nutritionist LW, 
OR ……. spend the day sight seeing around the IOW, planned to your tastes by LC, 
OR….…we can help design a special event/activity for you and your guests from sailing to painting to pottery.
Evening meal at local restaurant/pub  - say good bye to your fiancé!!
Day 3 - Wedding day …. hair & make up, photography, all arranged by Lisle Combe. Enjoy the ceremony in the dining room/hallway/drawing room/outside - celebrate your wedding with a glass of champagne and then a special wedding breakfast at Lisle Combe.
Day 4 - wake up to your new life with your husband/wife and enjoy a relaxed breakfast with your guests.  Depart during the morning, back to your life as a newly married couple!

Additional ‘honeymoon’ nights are available if you with to prolong your stay!

All bed and breakfast accommodation, wedding breakfast and evening meals included. Additional charges for the wedding license, lunches, alcohol, spa treatment, hair and make up and the activity package. 

Four months of lockdown, time to get out and about. Perhaps the Great British public will take this opportunity to explore parts of the UK they have never experienced? Who knows? We hope that some will try new places, adventures and come to visit us on the Isle of Wight. In our small part of the world it's been like a ghost town, a really pleasant one - sunshine, beaches, gardening, family - we've all had time to do different things. 
How will the kids survive with guests again? They (we all have) have got used to an existence of Sunday morning breakfasts on the veranda, homeschooling in the dining room, throwing wet swimmers everywhere, Roxy our family dog wandering around and settling at the toes of one child, zooming about on their bikes. 
It's all a bit strange.
We live in a stunning house with masses of history, beauty, tranquility and in an amazing location, I think we've all fallen in love with Life at Lisle Combe during our lockdown. Perhaps now is the time to share it again!
We look forward to welcoming our guests to our home.