Latest news with #TheLodge
Daily Mirror
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Chart topping musician 'gate-crashes wedding' and bride and groom are thrilled
A surprise for a wedding party led to the appearance of a chart-topping musician, who just happened to be in the building and joined the group for a performance of a hit song A chart topping musician was seen gate crashing a wedding, much to the delight of the bride and groom. A happenstance encounter between the hitmaker and her impromptu audience has since gone viral on TikTok, with footage of the event thrilling members of the public. The upload called the star the "best wedding crasher ever". Praise came not just for the star's sudden performance but her singing voice. People who watched the video surprised to hear how brilliant the Murder on the Dancefloor singer still sounds. The Lodge at Ashford Castle party was kicked up a notch when Sophie Ellis-Bextor appeared for a performance of her 2001 hit. The songwriter, who releases new album Perimenopop later this year, made for a surprise appearance at the wedding. A post from Jennifer Gillespie captured the moment Ellis-Bextor showed up for the wedding. Jennifer would go on to say it took a "serious bit of wedding luck" to get Ellis-Bextor, who just happened to be performing at another wedding in County Mayo, Ireland, at the time. One TikTok user asked: "How does one get their wedding to be crashed by Sophie Ellis-Bextor?" Jennifer replied: "Right place, right time and a serious bit of wedding luck." Jennifer went on to say Ellis-Bextor was "such good fun" and her "kind" gesture has gone down well with members of the public. She added: "Sophie topped off the most perfect day. Huge thank you to everyone at The Lodge for helping make my sisters day so magical!" Fans of the singer have since praised her for appearing and performing at a wedding out of the blue. One user wrote: "Every time I see any clips of Sophie Ellis-Bextor singing live she sounds phenomenal. "She has a beautiful, pure voice. I'm not what you'd call a big fan but I guess I am now as every time I hear her I think she's fantastic! It's so effortless. Congratulations to you guys too!!" Another wrote: "She's amazing live I've been lucky enough to see her a few times. Faultless. Met her Saturday at Newbury." A third asked: "Currently planning a wedding. I want to know how exactly to plan the Sophie Ellis-Bextor surprise gig segment of the evening." Jennifer shared a bit more information on who Ellis-Bextor ended up at the wedding, saying a separate party at the venue was being attended by the singer. She wrote: "She was staying in the hotel and had just played at another wedding in the castle! She had also played Galway International Arts Festival during the week." In a separate reply, Jennifer added: "Sophie was playing at another wedding in Ashford Castle that night and staying in The Lodge, one of the guests spotted her in the lobby singing along when her song came on and asked her to come out and sing which she was kind enough to do. She made the bride and grooms night."
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Inside Ree Drummond's $200 Million Oklahoma Ranch—Just Like 'Yellowstone'
It's no secret that Ree Drummond—a.k.a The Pioneer Woman—loves her Oklahoma-based ranch. Not only does it serve as the background for her shows, The Pioneer Woman and Drummond Ranch, but it is also where the mom of four raised her children and now her grandchildren as well! But what exactly does the ranch look like? And does the Drummond family really have a wide variety of animals that they take care of? We look into all of that and more below! Where is the Drummond ranch? Despite the fact that Ree is one of the people heavily associated with the ranch, the land itself belongs to her husband Ladd's family. Spanning back five generations, the Pawhuska, Oklahoma-based ranch is home to Drummond Land & Cattle Co., which Ladd and his brother Tim run. It also houses a number of their extended family members and even has a small cemetery where several generations of past Drummmonds have been buried. Additionally, the ranch serves as the backdrop for her new YouTube show, Drummond Ranch. which highlights what working on the ranch is like. 'We have always wanted to show more ranching and agricultural moments in my cooking show, but because it's a cooking show (obviously!), we were always limited in the amount of time we could spend on the non-food component,' Ree wrote on her website in June. 'You'll see cowboys, weather, the dynamic between Ladd and his brother Tim, and you'll hear about the different kinds of cattle operations, markets and what it's like in a family where all the kids are growing up and trying to figure out what role they will play in the ranch's future.' How much is the ranch worth? The ranch is estimated to make $2 million annually and is valued to be worth around $200 million. Along with the ranch, Ree also has The Lodge, which is where family dinners and filming for her Food Network show The Pioneer Woman are held. 'The Lodge is 18 miles out of town on an unpaved road. I thought somebody would get a flat tire,' Ree said via her website. 'But Ladd pointed out that people are coming all the way to Pawhuska to visit our store and restaurant. He wanted to expand their experience.' Ree also explained that while The Lodge is a very homey place, it's not her home even though she films there. "I decided to do it there because I often used The Lodge kitchen for events and gatherings... and because my house was full of kids at the time!" she said on her website. The Lodge is available for free public tours, and you can find out more information on how to go on one here! Another part of the house that Ree loves is her backyard gardens, which she always posts videos about her Instagram, one of which you can watch below! And finally, what's a multimillion-dollar home without a gym? And in true Ree fashion, hers is both lavish and understated at the exact same time. We just wonder which machine is her favorite! A look at the animals on The Drummond Ranch One thing Ree loves is animals, and her ranch is home to a variety of them. Her most talked-about animals are, of course, her seven dogs, which she loves more than anything. 'They [her dogs] set up shop on the front porch,' Drummond said in 2022. 'They each have their own little bed on the front porch. They're outdoor dogs mostly anyway, and they have a whole barn to themselves if they want to go sleep in the barn sometimes, but they hardly ever leave the porch if we're home. It's really funny.' The family also has several different types of cattle as well as other, less talked about farm animals. 'When it comes to working cattle, my philosophy is this: if they need me, I'll jump right in and start working. But if they don't, I really don't have any desire to symbolically 'be in the pen,' Ree wrote on her website in 2008. 'I will be there if I'm needed. But if I'm not contributing anything to the overall progress, I'd just as soon sit on the sidelines on my keister and do what I do best: be utterly and unabashedly worthless. But I'm OKAY with that! I really am. Don't cry for me. I am at one with my worthlessness?' For more Ree Drummond content, keep scrolling! Ree Drummond's New Show 'Drummond Ranch' Offers a Rare Look at Her Life Off the Pioneer Path 7 Life Highlights From Ree Drummond's Journey As The Pioneer Woman Warning: Ree Drummond's Broccoli Rice Casserole May Cause Seconds (and Thirds) Solve the daily Crossword
Euronews
12-07-2025
- Business
- Euronews
How one Irish hotel is rewriting the rules on food waste
At The Lodge at Ashford Castle, a 19th-century villa in the wild green of western Ireland's County Mayo, dinner scraps don't go in the bin. They go into cocktails, canapés or compost. Over the past year, the hotel has slashed its food waste by nearly 60 per cent by weight and its food trimmings by 90 per cent. That amounts to 11.5 tonnes of food waste, nearly 50 tonnes of carbon and more than €16,000 saved annually. Much of it is thanks to a chef who was empowered to swap sustainability gestures for serious change. 'Instead of hundreds of tiny little initiatives, we decided to go after the stuff that would actually make a difference,' says executive chef Jonathan Keane, a sustainability advocate who leads the kitchen at the 64-room sister hotel to the magnificent, medieval Ashford Castle. Those initiatives have been quite an undertaking. On any given day, Keane and his colleagues can serve 500-plus meals and go through piles of produce. 'At this property, I have 650 kilogrammes of watermelon rind. What can I do with that?' From trimmings to transformation The answer, it turns out, is a lot – especially when you have dataon your side. Over the past three years, The Lodge's parent group – Red Carnation Hotels – has worked with UK-based food waste analytics firm Winnow to get a clearer read on their waste. The company's AI-powered tools and image recognition help Keane to measure and categorise what is being thrown away each day and why. 'I get an email every morning that tells me exactly what food went into the bin,' says Keane. 'If two kilos of onion skins went into the bin, I'll see a picture of that. Then I can investigate why that happened instead of [the skins] going into stock or treacle.' Armed with these insights, the kitchen team has learned to upcycle ingredients like trimmings, peels and offcuts into syrups, muffins, canapés and even welcome drinks. What little waste remains goes into a biodigester, which produces nutrient-rich fertiliser for the estate's sprawling garden – a pandemic project that Keane and his employers instituted to be more self-sustaining and environmentally-conscious. 'The garden became such a big project that it became phase one [of greater change],' says Keane, whose vision for The Lodge includes a tunnel greenhouse, a future distillery with its own orchard and aquaponics, a system that couples raising fish with hydroponic vegetable gardening. 'The long-term goal is to be fully self-sufficient.' Hospitality's hidden problem The hospitality sector has long accounted for a hefty portion of the world's waste. Restaurants, hotels and other venues generated more than 25 per cent of the world's 1.3 billion tonnes of food waste in 2019, according to the UN Environment Programme. Most ends up in landfills, releasing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. 'Much of it goes uncounted, so we don't even know the real scale,' says Vojtech Végh, Winnow's zero-waste culinary advisor who worked closely with Keane on The Lodge's transformation. 'Speaking from experience, it tends to be more than we would expect.' The first step toward addressing this murky problem, he explains, is to arm chefs and hotels with information. 'If we don't know what is in our bins, then everything else is just guesswork, which isn't effective or sustainable,' Végh says. 'Once we start to measure our food waste, we can then focus on what exactly we need to reduce. A growing shift across the industry Across the industry, hotels are slowly waking up to the environmental and economic costs that this failure to measure has created. At the Hilton Tokyo, chefs have begun reusing vegetable trimmings and fruit peels in soups, desserts and drinks. Novotel London Excel has also used Winnow's AI tools to cut waste by around 50 per cent in recent years. Other solutions have also started to take shape. In Southeast Asia, startups like Yindii have stepped in to connect hotels, restaurants and bakeries with local diners. Surplus food is sold at a discount through its app. The model has expanded across Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore, where users can rescue meals for a fraction of the cost and prevent perfectly good food from being binned. Efforts like these are just the beginning. For food waste prevention to stick, Végh argues that kitchens must rethink how they operate at a systemic level. 'Zero-waste cooking is more about how we think when we cook rather than how we cook,' he says. 'If we embed food waste prevention into our processes – rather than build it on top – then step by step it becomes the new standard in any kitchen.' A culture shift from the kitchen out If you ask Keane, the real change starts even one level beyond processes. Sustainability, he says, has a lot to do with people, 'which isn't always high on the agenda in kitchens.' Keane has tried to create 'a fun place to work. We're nice to each other. We treat each other like adults, and we have the same approach with the ingredients and the produce.' Part of creating a more open – and open-minded – culture has involved getting his team of 18 kitchen workers out into nature more often. An avid forager, Keane regularly brings his colleagues into the forest to search for wild vegetables and mushrooms. He believes it builds morale while reinforcing the practices he wants The Lodge to embrace. He also brings hotel guests out on foraging tours, ever so subtly transmitting a message that he hopes will stick long after they check out. He says that these steps might help his hotel, and others like it, have a greater impact in the future. 'We're not preaching. We're bringing the customer along with us [at their own pace],' Keane explains. 'We want to leave a legacy.'
Daily Record
29-06-2025
- Daily Record
'Fall from boat' on Loch Lomond as search underway for Scots ex-hotel boss
Alan Colquhoun, 83, is believed to have been with members of his family when he fell overboard. Divers are searching for the founder of a popular hotel after he fell from a boat on Loch Lomond. Alan Colquhoun, 83, is believed to have been with members of his family when he fell overboard on Thursday afternoon. Police and Coastguard have also been involved in the search for Mr Colquhoun, the dad-of-three who is the former owner of The Lodge on Loch Lomond Hotel. A source said the area has been swarming with police and search teams since the alarm was raised. They said: 'Divers have been out constantly every day since Thursday. There's police everywhere. 'They've never left the loch since the man went missing. 'It seems like they've been all over the place constantly since Thursday but still haven't been able to find him. 'A helicopter was also flying above the loch at one point. 'We haven't heard much about it but the search is still very much ongoing. 'We've also heard they're meant to be bringing in some kind of submarine in the morning to try and locate the man if he hasn't been found by then.' Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. The four-star Lodge on the Loch Lomond Hotel was built by Mr Colquhoun and his wife Elizabeth on the site of a derelict farm and opened on his 50th birthday in 1992. It is now owned and run by his son Niall and his wife Ann. The hotel was still open for business yesterday despite the ongoing search. A member of staff who answered the phone at the hotel refused to comment when called by the Record. The Colquhoun family is believed to have gone out on the loch on a boat from Freedom Boat Club at nearby Ardlui Marina. A spokesman there said: 'We can't comment as an investigation is still ongoing. 'Nobody has been found yet.' A Police Scotland spokesperson said: 'Around 12.35pm on Thursday, 26 June, we received a report of an 83-year-old man entering the water in Loch Lomond near Isle of Inchlonaig. 'Police and partner agencies attended and extensive searches are ongoing. 'Local officers have been assisted by our Dive and Marine Unit and Air Support Unit. 'Officers are continuing to keep the man's family updated.'
Scoop
28-06-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Wellness Industry's Dark Side: Experts Warn Of Dangers In RNZ Podcast The Lodge
The global wellness industry, valued at approximately $5 trillion, harbours a dangerous underbelly, according to a new RNZ podcast. Unproven therapies and charismatic gurus can lead vulnerable individuals away from life-saving medical treatments, the investigation reveals. " The Lodge", an eight-part series by journalist Phil Vine, examines the rise of wellness culture through the story of Aiping Wang. Wang, a Chinese-born guru established a following first in Eastern Europe, then in New Zealand's remote Fiordland. She offered her followers the possibility of healing without medicine. Several experts featured in the podcast warn that social media has supercharged problematic wellness claims, creating an environment where influencers can reach millions with unproven health advice. "What's new is the rise of social media and many digital technologies that enable ordinary individuals to build a brand online and to reach a vast global audience," explains Dr Stephanie Baker from City University in London. She's the author of Wellness Culture: How the Wellness Movement Has Been Used to Empower, Profit and Misinform. The podcast explores how wellness movements often exploit legitimate distrust in conventional healthcare systems, what Dr Baker calls the "low trust society." Dr Jon-Patrick Allem, Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences from Rutgers University, New Jersey, notes this dynamic in his research. "The wellness industry is so appealing to people because there's a lot of problems with medicine," Allem explains. "There's a lot of problems with how one interacts with their physician, when they see their physician, what their physician is versed in to communicate." The podcast documents real-world consequences through the stories of Wang's followers who rejected conventional treatment for conditions including: breast cancer, melanoma, and HIV after hoping for cures through "energy healing". Allem highlights a particularly concerning wellness trend: "What I am seeing in the social media space is individuals claiming to have alternative ways to not just prevent a cancer diagnosis, but to cure a cancer diagnosis." Dr Emily Yang from Western Sydney University, who has trained in traditional Chinese medicine, warns against using unproven therapies as substitutes for evidence-based treatments: "For example I would never claim Tai Chi can treat cancer," she says, advocating instead for complementary approaches alongside conventional medicine. The podcast examines the psychological appeal of wellness gurus, with Baker noting that people often turn to such figures during tough times - an aspect she calls "situational vulnerability". "It could be the situation involving the death of a loved one or possibly divorce. A moment when one feels less stable. They're often searching for answers, for meaning." New Zealand cult expert Anke Richter identifies a clear warning sign in wellness practices: exclusivity. When practitioners insist their method is the only acceptable approach and discourage conventional medical treatment, it can have fatal consequences. "There's a quiet death toll," Richter explains. The podcast connects these modern wellness trends to the rise of figures such as Dr Joe Dispenza, who claims to cure cancer through "coherence healing" and has amassed 3.6 million Instagram followers. Allem warns listeners to be sceptical of practitioners who make expansive claims: "The wellness industry, broadly defined, is so appealing to people because there's a lot of problems with medicine. But that doesn't mean that wellness practices should replace proven treatments." Baker offers advice for those concerned about loved ones who may be falling under the influence of questionable wellness practitioners: "Don't cut them off. It's the worst thing you can do. Through maintaining a sense of common ground with these people, rather than just dismissing their belief system, you can help them see contradictions." For consumers navigating the wellness landscape, experts recommend maintaining open communication with conventional healthcare providers and being wary of any practitioner who suggests abandoning proven medical treatments entirely.
