Category: People

Mmmm, we’re enjoying some glorious days at the moment.  Bright, hot and hazy.  The sweet peas are finally in enough quantity to start using them inside the house, despite our rather delayed planting out.  Many other shrubs and plants are flowering and there are some lovely things to look at and enjoy around the garden.  We’re having to water quite heavily in the evenings to prevent our crops going to seed and to prolong the flowering of the borders.  Such a nice job though, the watering.  Time to just be, whilst pointing the hose at something!  Time to watch the swallows and martins wheeling about catching insects for their young, and to enjoy the cattle ambling up and down the meadow and to enjoy the scents and the feeling of the garden.  As dusk finally falls, the bats also join us for their raggedy flight paths across the darkening sky.  Our last group (Bristol College of Massage & Bodywork) included Jojo, a bat enthusiast complete with bat meter (!) so we now know we have Soprano and Common Pipistrelles.

They are apparently identifiable by the frequency of the sounds they make.  There was also an exciting unidentifiable frequency which may mean we have a less common species in our midst too…!

We now have the British School of Shiastsu-Do (http://britishschoolofshiatsu.co.uk/) with us who arrived yesterday evening.  BSS-Do have been coming to Poulstone for many years and we always enjoy their friendly and focussed energy in the house.  This morning saw a number of people up early doing their meditation and movement practices outside before their pre-breakfast session – impressive!  The morning was lovely and still and perfect for practising outside.  They’re hoping to maybe be able to do some of their shiatsu sessions outside during the week.

Well, time for us to get out there now!

Much love

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

It’s that time of year when the poppies which have self-seeded all around the garden start to flower and they look so lovely (even if they drive Gail a bit mad in the vegetable garden!!).  We let them flower each year and then remove most of them, leaving a few to go to seed.  They freely interbreed so we’re getting some wonderful new shades of purple and pink this year.

The veg garden is pretty much there in terms of planting out and sowing.  As June got busier with groups and quick changeovers between them, Mel needed to turn her attention back indoors and Gail has been continuing to get everything ready.  Our home-made micro tunnels are now up protecting the brassicas and salad greens from the prolific cabbage white caterpillar and other munchers.  We ate the first of the new potatoes today at lunchtime – such a delicious taste straight from the ground, adorned with nothing but a little bit of salty butter.  Even if you only have a small back yard, we highly recommend just growing a couple of potato plants in a large tub.  Very different to anything you might encounter in the supermarket.

The weather’s good today so Mel is washing blankets. Only another 20 to go!!!  Gail’s continuing to spend time adjusting any recipes we have which are over-generous and tend to lead to wastage.  We recently heard horrific statistics about the amount of food that’s thrown away every day in Britain.  For example, according to the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, every day in Britain we throw away 1.3 million yoghurts and yoghurt drinks, 7 million slices of bread, 5.1 million potatoes, 1.6 million bananas, 4.4 million apples and 2.8 million tomatoes.  We’re reading the excellent Book of Rubbish Ideas by Tracy Smith (http://www.bookofrubbishideas.co.uk/) and have been further spurred on to make sure we are not wasting food unnecessarily.

Steve and (the camera-shy) Dave have been putting down the foundations of the new stone garden under the cherry tree by the potting shed.  Influenced by Japanese Zen gardens, the area features some beautiful old lichen covered stone which Steve managed to find and grasses and bamboos whose movement and sound in the breeze should be pleasantly relaxing.  Eventually we’ll be adding two wooden seats so it can be used for small group work as well as just sitting, listening to the bamboos and the fountain. 

Since last writing, we have had Christian Pankhurst’s lively Accelerated Awakening group (http://www.christianpankhurst.com), a Heart Essence meditation silent retreat with Burgs (http://theartofmeditation.org/) and we are now getting ready to welcome Bristol College of Massage and Bodywork (http://bristolmassage.co.uk/) for the residential part of their basic foundation course.

Perhaps we’d better stop blogging and get on with something!!!

More soon!

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

The Poulstone meadow is looking wonderful at the moment – full of buttercups and cow parsley – looking like the quintessential English meadow!  We’re enjoying it while we can as we have new neighbours – a herd of mainly Hereford cows and calves who are enjoying the abundant fodder.  The cattle are keeping our guests amused with their antics around the ha-ha next to the garden.  The little calves are particularly curious.

We currently have an International Gnostic Retreat here, organised by Glorian Publishing in the U.S. (http://gnosticteachings.org/about-us.html).  They are a new group to us and we have greatly enjoyed the easy-going and positive atmosphere of the group.  As we don’t get a great deal of time to travel, it’s always wonderful when the world comes to us.  The group includes Lithuanians, Americans, Dutch, Austrians, Spanish and Greeks as well as UK students and we’re enjoying this rich mix.  It’s always great when the British weather puts its best face on for guest from abroad too! – it’s generally been a really sunny week with the opportunity to work and relax outside.  They’ve had a fire most nights and enjoyed being out there till dusk.

Well, time to go off for a walk in this lovely sunny evening.

More soon!

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

We’ve just enjoyed a lovely week with teachers and students from Spectrum psychotherapy in London (http://www.spectrumtherapy.co.uk/).  About mid-week the weather picked up and they were able to get out for walks and excursions in their afternoon breaks.  We, of course, all rushed out into the garden to get some work done after the rain.  Mel brought manure up to the veg plot and planted the squash, pumpkin and courgette plants the other night.  Gail’s also been manuring ready for sweetcorn and planting out the pea and bean plants, some celeriac that Hilary has given us as well as her brassica seedlings.  Steve’s weedathon continues!

Everything is feeling lovely and fresh after the rain.  The apple blossom is looking exquisite and as the tulips begin to go over, they have opened out into another wonderful incarnation before finishing for the season.

We now have an open retreat here for Aro Tradition buddhists (http://arobuddhism.org) and are enjoying their company and their beautiful chanting.  We haven’t seen them for a couple of years whilst they put energy into their own non-residential centre so it is lovely to have them back with us.

Here are some pictures of what’s going on in the garden at the moment.  Steve discovered this little fellow whilst weeding under the barn windows.  He was pretty un-camera-shy for a frog!

That’s all for now!

Mel & Steve xx

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

Well, we’ve had a time of contrasts just recently.  We had a great week with the meditation retreat – silent and peaceful – followed the same day (!) by Gail’s 60th (yes, very hard to believe) birthday weekend.  Gail borrowed Poulstone for an “at home” from Friday to Sunday with a party on the Saturday evening and a singing workshop too!  It was lovely meeting Gail’s family and friends, and nice to catch up with old buddies, many of whom have been Poulstone-goers for a decade or two.  Also, a great chance to dust off outfits that we might not have the opportunity to wear anywhere else, given the rural nature of our general lifestyle!  Gail has been a great support to Poulstone in many ways over the years and it was lovely to have a chance to thank her by letting her use the space for her celebrations.

Mind you, we did all spend a little time wondering if Gail’s party would be snowed off, but in the event only a few people couldn’t get here due to the weather.   An arctic wind has remained since then though and only in the last couple of days has the sun broken through to offset the cold breezes.  If you’re visiting in the next few weeks, take a walk over the bridge to Sellack to see the new lambs.  Some are very new and tiny, and the older ones are already banding together into naughty little gangs for races and other lamby mischief!  They’re such a pleasure to watch and more curious than frightened at that age.  They must be very glad of a little sun on their backs these last few days after the severe coldness of the last week or so.  Mel’s just come back from a walk and taken some pictures of the lambs and the blazing sunshine on the river today.  Also, some photos of the lovely daffodils coming out under the copper beech (good to see the Buddhist approach to “pest” control (ie leave everything as it is!) has had some rewards!!).

We now have a week-long writing course in called Freefall with Barbara Turner-Vesselago.  The first morning, as we begin printing the morning’s writing for Barbara to read, is always a good test of technological know-how as we try to print Mac files from PCs, ease data off sulky memory sticks and download printer drivers for those whose memory sticks won’t work.  It was pretty smooth this morning, all in all.  It takes not a little courage to sit with yourself all morning and see what comes to you to write – freefalling into the words.  There’s a lovely quiet, focused feeling in the house.

That’s all for now.

With love,

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

Finally! a couple of glorious sunny autumn days in which to take some photos of the trees around Poulstone changing into their autumn colours.  Mel sneaked out yesterday while the group were in their session to take a few shots around the place, especially the shining yellow maple along the driveway which was positively glowing in the late afternoon sun against an iron-grey sky.

We have a group of psychotherapists with us this week and they have been shrouded in mist all week which they tell us has been perfect for the work they are doing on the “shadow” side of our nature.  For us, it has felt very cosy and internal, the beginning of that hibernating feeling as winter approaches.  However, as the course comes to a close tomorrow, they are finishing in wonderful autumnal sunshine!

It’s been a busy time with the course this week and we now seriously need to get out there with some rakes!  Steve has been also starting to put together our “new” recycled greenhouse which is looking great.  It will have to live without its roof for a while but otherwise is looking really good and sturdy.  Gail and Steve had some fun putting it together and it will make potting up and growing tomatoes, peppers, aubergines (and perhaps the ever-elusive melon…) a much nicer proposition.

Also, on an autumnal note, we’ve been harvesting our squash before the frosts come.  A rather diminished crop compared to last year but enough to have made the effort worthwhile.  The garden is full of wonderful greens which are coming into the Poulstone kitchen – Swiss and rainbow chard, leaf beet, kales and cabbage.

We’re also now the proud owners of about 5000 Spring bulbs which we’ll be putting in next week (starting to wonder if we have bitten off more than we can chew there!).  We’re hoping the daffodils, tulips and other bulbs will give you an even lovelier array of  colour if you visit in the Spring.

Since our last post, we’ve been busy with a Tai Chi group, a seven day meditation retreat and two shamanic groups.  We’ve also been joined on a part-time basis by Nicky, Alanah and Emma who have joined the team since Charmaine departed.  Everyone is learning the ropes and fitting easily into the team.

That’s about it for now except for a few more autumnal pics!

More soon!

Love Mel & Steve x

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre