Somerset in Pictures: Artistic rats and sunny beach days
Cheeky cow: Fernie in Glastonbury captured a cow enjoying the blue skies this week.
Spring sunset: Minehead looked a lot like Venice this week, with the sun colouring the sky and sea orange.
Artistic rats: A veterinary nurse's pet rats have been providing some "pawsitivity" by creating mini paintings for people around the world. Steph Toogood, from Somerset, has owned rats since 2016 and they have created hundreds of mini masterpieces, as well as other rat related products including jewellery and magnets.
Colourful tulips: More than 40,000 tulip bulbs have burst into colour this April at The Bishop's Palace and Gardens in Wells. Back in November, 20,000 new tulip sylvestris bulbs were planted along the ramparts bank.
Cricket success: Tom Banton of Somerset made his way off after scoring 344 not out, the highest individual score in Somerset history, following day two of the Rothesay County Championship Division One match between Somerset and Worcestershire at The Cooper Associates County Ground.
New kit: Bath Romans wheelchair basketball team received a £24,045 donation from Omaze to cover training, coaching and tournament costs for the next three years.
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Mac and cheese tastes extra rich when you add four ingredients Anthony Bourdain loves
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Daily Mirror
6 days ago
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Celebrity super yacht holiday you could win for just £10 but you have to enter today
The rich and famous are proving that the ultimate way to holiday in 2025 is on a yacht—Jeff Bezos, Kylie Jenner, and Rihanna are all doing it, and it turns out you could do it too As we watched the stars arrive at the Cannes Film Festival and enjoy the Monaco Grand Prix from their eye-wateringly expensive superyachts, it was hard not to envy the luxury lifestyle. Although, this out-of-pocket raffle could just be the answer to the ultimate VIP treatment—the only catch is, there's just one day left to enter the first prize draw. Superyacht season is upon us, and celebrities from Rihanna to Kylie Jenner, Maya Jama, and, of course, billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos have all been gallivanting around Europe aboard their luxury boats. According to Forbes, Rihanna's sea escape for Cannes this year alone was breaking the bank at €350,000 per week, while Kylie Jenner's holiday was rumoured to cost half a million dollars. It proves this is a holiday made for the elite, and the elite only. Except, if luck is on your side, there's a chance you could live this luxury life for a week without the hefty price tag. A new charity raffle, following in the footsteps of the likes of Omaze, is now offering everyday people the chance to travel like money is no object but Time is running out for the first raffle, with final entries due by July 31. Anchord is hosting a raffle every single month that sees a lucky winner and five friends board an all-inclusive yacht for a week at sea, and tickets are a far cry away from the millions celebs are forking out. With online entries starting at just £10, this unique raffle has opened up a whole new world for the wanderlust. The experience includes flights, a week of sailing on the yacht, and a 24-hour crew waiting on your every beck and call. Not to mention, top-tier dining from a private chef and water activities, so you can get as adventurous as you like on the water. As the months go on, its winners will set sail in tune with the celebrity calendar, from the yachting season in the Mediterranean to the Caribbean for those dreamy winter escapes. This month's grand prize destination is Greece, specifically Athens, where turquoise waters and sun-drenched coastlines await. When you buy a ticket, you have the choice to buy a single entry for a mere £10, make a bulk purchase, or even get a subscription, opting you in for automatic entries each month. Offline, for future entries, there's also a free postal entry option available, with each entry helping to support Anchord's chosen charity. Through regular donations the Yacht raffle aims to support Naomi House & Jacksplace, a children's charity whose work supports life-limiting and threatening illnesses in both children and young adults. Anchord's website states: "Your entry helps guarantee a generous donation to Naomi House Hospice, where nursing and medical staff provide individualised nursing care that helps to enhance short lives and allows local families to make the most of their precious time with their children." Instead of scrolling Instagram with envy at the Kardashian superyacht vacations, it might bode well to bin off this week's lottery tickets and swap them for a raffle ticket like no other. For more information and to make your last-minute entry, visit or keep your eyes peeled for next month's surprise draw.
Times
23-07-2025
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A £4m house for £25 — are Omaze raffles too good to be true?
Hannah Drury, 42, was trying not to feel deflated as she returned in near-darkness to her Somerset home from the primary school where she works as a music teacher. It was January 3, a lovely Christmas holiday with her family had just ended, and she had just attended a staff training day before the start of term. Then, she looked at her phone to find she had several missed calls and a voicemail message purporting to be from a representative of the property raffle company Omaze, asking her to call him back. 'I told my husband and we both agreed it was probably a friend mucking around or something,' says Hannah, who, along with her husband, Rupert, 50, is an opera singer in her spare time. 'I eventually decided I'd ring him back and, if it felt like a scam, I was going to hang up.' A few days earlier, Hannah had paid £25 to enter the draw for a £4 million luxury house on the shores of Coniston Water in the Lake District, although she had given it little thought. She had really been interested in the following month's draw, which was for a grand townhouse in Bath. 'I noticed how beautiful it was. But, you know, nobody ever enters these things with an expectation of a win, do they? It just hadn't even come into my psyche that this was ever an option,' she says. After calling the number back, and being convinced it wasn't a scam, Hannah was let in on the news: she and Rupert, who is a secondary school music teacher, had beaten hundreds of thousands of other entrants to win the property — along with £250,000 in cash, tax-free, to spend on its maintenance. Within minutes, an Omaze presenter called Paul Rees was knocking on the front door of the house in Frome that they share with their children, aged three, seven and nine, to whisk them off to do an interview. Startled by their sudden arrival, she was told that the Omaze staff and crew always learn who the winner is a day before, so they have time to get there. Suddenly, the day had become very weird indeed. By Monday, after a weekend digesting the news, the family were driving up to the Lakes to see their new home, booking some emergency time off work. 'We were put up in a beautiful hotel. And then we got the big reveal on Tuesday and we got to see the house for the first time. And then stayed overnight again. Then we came home on Wednesday and it was back to work.' After taking a vow of silence, unable to tell colleagues or friends, Omaze issued a press release on the Friday and, suddenly, the Drurys were mobbed. 'The parents were all in the playground coming up and hugging me. I couldn't believe it — I still can't,' she says. When they got to the house, they were overwhelmed, describing it as 'a million times better' than the pictures on the internet, noting that it's 'not very close to anything, which is delightful'. The nearest town, Coniston, is a 40-minute walk or ten-minute drive away. The home was bought from a local seller by Omaze after a two-year hunt. It had been redeveloped, opened out and modernised by the company, including being fitted with huge windows, which provided breathtaking views of the lake, the mountains and Grizedale forest. There is also a private jetty and six acres of natural woodland with streams and a spa house. Hannah and Rupert decided to keep the house and share it with their friends, who can stay free of charge. 'The cash prize of £250,000 to support the house means that I'm able to offer it to my friends and family and say, just go and enjoy it.' For the long term they have decided to list the house with a holiday lettings agency. Similar properties can go for £15,000 a week during peak season and can 'clear £100,000 a year'. They have no intention of leaving their native Somerset and will stay in their teaching jobs. 'I think we're both very happy with our lifestyle, with our careers, with our children being happy in school. We both have jobs that we love,' she says. Hannah and Rupert's extraordinary raffle win has meant a transformational change. 'This will change my children's lives. This is a multi-generation life-changing event,' Hannah says. However, that isn't always the case. How many winners actually keep their property? Before Covid, the idea of raffling a home was almost unheard of. But this changed during the pandemic, as swathes of the country were stuck at home and dreaming of pastures new. Sensing an obsession in the making, Omaze, which was founded in Los Angeles in 2012, raffled its first British home in 2020, and has now done 39. Its model is to buy, redevelop and give away properties worth many millions of pounds in its draws. At the same time, smaller players like Raffle House (founded in 2018) and Tramway Path (2019) started growing rapidly. Anoushka Millard, the vice president for property at Omaze, emphasises that it goes big on the bling — buying 'places with real desirability and wide-ranging appeal' with features such as 'landscaped gardens, swimming pools, home gyms and saunas, an office space, striking views, high-spec kitchens, as well as nearby amenities and attractions'. Omaze winners can either take the home for themselves, rent it out or sell it, with the money raised by the ticket sales going back to the company and a charity partner, which has included Comic Relief, London's air ambulance charity, the Teenage Cancer Trust and British Heart Foundation. The company says that it has raised £93.8 million since 2020. A few questions have occasionally been raised about Omaze's buying methodology in a handful of rare, but high-profile cases. Vicky Curtis-Cresswell, a former Miss Wales finalist who won a £6 million home in Norfolk in February — in Omaze's most expensive draw that also raised millions for Comic Relief — has been unable to move in after it emerged that an extension, tennis court and swimming pool at the property do not appear to have planning permission. At the time of winning the house, the 38-year-old had said it felt like an 'enormous weight' had been lifted from her shoulders, as she had been struggling to afford to rent at the time. Omaze says it 'takes all appropriate measures to guarantee that the winner will always receive a good and marketable title' including 'comprehensive surveys and checks, such as a level three building survey, title and Land Registry search, local authority search, EPC assessment, and environmental assessments'. 'Omaze has taken every possible step to bring the issue to a swift resolution, including submitting a retrospective planning application to address the recommendations made by North Norfolk district council. Omaze is committed to achieving a successful conclusion without any further delay – and will continue working closely with the council to ensure the matter is resolved as efficiently as possible.' Omaze says Curtis-Cresswell has received her £250,000 cash prize and will incur no costs to remedy the situation. A similar example took place when a raffle winner, Glen Elmy, from Walsall, gave back the keys to the home he had won on the Devon coast after three days in October 2021 and was given a cash payout of £3 million instead. The five-bedroom home was being threatened by coastal erosion, neighbours had told him. Omaze denied this, saying: 'As with all its properties, Omaze carried out extensive professional surveys, searches and inspections prior to purchasing the house in Devon. Omaze can confirm that none of these reports raised any material concerns with the property, including in relation to coastal erosion. The property is fully insurable.' Another winner, Darren Wordon, 49, and wife Mandy, won a £2.5 million property in Radford near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, in 2021. The home, known as Willowbrook House, was sold in December 2022, with flooding affecting it just before he moved in. 'During a period of exceptionally heavy rain before the prize draw launched, a blocked culvert within the vicinity of the property referenced caused water to temporarily pool and back up towards the property,' says Omaze. 'The culvert was unblocked and bypassed, allowing water to dissipate immediately and prevent any further issues. Omaze then had a specialist engineer carry out works to further secure the property against future extreme weather.' Mercifully, these examples do, however, seem rare. Win a house, sell it on Of those who have won Omaze homes, remarkably few appear to have kept them for more than a few months. Given the size of the homes, how far away they live from them and the cost of maintaining the homes, many winners prefer to sell them and pocket the cash. However, when putting them on the market, a few winners have reported finding that their valuations are far smaller than the price advertised by Omaze. Lauren Keene, 24, a nanny from Gloucester, won a draw for a £3 million mansion on the Wirral, but put it on the market for £2.5 million after spending a few nights there. An 81-year-old Southampton widow, Patricia Moule, who won a £4 million Highland mansion in 58 acres on the banks of Loch Rannoch in April, put it on the market weeks later for £3.975 million. Meanwhile, Tom Steenson, 63, put a Devon home on the market for £2.35 million — more than its original £2 million valuation — after opting to keep his job in the car industry and stay in Maidstone, Kent. Omaze did not say how many people had chosen to keep the properties, and stressed that it was up to the winners what they did with them and most make excellent money — but it's believed that only a handful kept them. Carol and Tom Steenson also sold their £2m Omaze house in Devon MARK FIELD PHOTOGRAPHY What about raffling your own home? If you don't have Omaze's marketing clout, the problem is advertising. You have to do this yourself, putting up a sign in front of your house, using social media, or websites such as Raffall where you can advertise them. However, Raffall's draws don't always drum up enough interest — 50 home-rafflers gave up and stayed put after raffles, while 18 succeeded. If your home has the necessary amount of bling, could you get Omaze to buy it from you? Probably not. Millard says she uses a network of special buying agents to procure the perfect houses according to the company's business model. She says that even though 'people email in from time to time' with suggestions, none have made the grade. Alisa Zotimova, the chief executive of AZ Real Estate, an estate agency in Marylebone, central London, is a sceptic. 'There are so many companies running raffles now. In 90 per cent of cases they don't sell enough tickets to make it worthwhile and the seller finds themselves back at square one.'
