Month: November 2012

Books, books, books!

Many of the teachers who come to Poulstone Court Retreat Centre are published authors in their various fields.

Barbara Turner-Vesselago who has been running her successful Freefall writing workshops annually here for over a decade has her new book coming out early next year.  She will be holding a launch for the book, “Writing without a Parachute: The Art of Freefall”, on 2nd February 2013 in Bristol (more details coming soon).

Barbara teaches all over the world and has a wealth of experience and insight to share.  For anyone interested in the writing process, with or without a view to being published, this book is an absolute must.  It gives you all the guidance you need to follow the Freefall Writing™ process and may even inspire you to come on one of Barbara’s workshops.  For more information about Barbara’s work, visit her website: www.freefallwriting.com.  Details of her Spring workshop at Poulstone can be found on the Courses page of the Poulstone Court website.

To pre-order a copy of her book, visit: www.valapublishers.coop/writingwithoutaparachute 

Burgs brings seven-day silent meditation retreats here for beginners and advanced students throughout the year and has taught widely in Europe and Asia.  He has also recently published two highly detailed books on meditation.  The first, “The Flavour of Liberation” which is published in two volumes, covers everything from your first sit through to developing insight and concentration practices at a more advanced level.  The book is so clearly written and conceived that it’s very easy for the novice meditator to follow and, for those with more experience, provides a huge amount of clarity about how to practise.  The second book which comprises the third volume is for more experienced meditators and covers advanced practices including Vipassana.

The books are made up of Burgs’ discourses over the course of several years of retreats, many here at Poulstone, and as such are very enjoyable to read as well as providing probably the only meditation manual you’ll ever need!

For Burgs’ full programme of retreats at Poulstone, visit the Courses page of the Poulstone Court website.You can find out more also at Burgs’ website:  www.theartofmeditation.org and order the books there on-line.

The website also has video and audio discourses and is a wealth of information on meditation and Buddhism.

We definitely recommend a visit!

Mel & Steve xx

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

5000 bulbs (what were we thinking?!)

We had a fabulously sunny morning to start our bulb planting day on Tuesday. Despite the prospect of 5000 bulbs needing to be planted (!), Steve and Elaine Hackett from Hereford joined us for the day and Gemma and Gail kindly volunteered their time to help as well. We planted several varieties of daffodil around the apple trees by the tennis lawn and within the walled garden. We have also put a drift of crocuses around the silver birch tree by the box hedges, and Steve and Dave have finished planting up the new white border with bulbs for the Spring.

We also planted daffodils and tulips in trenches above the vegetable plot for cut flowers  next year for the dining tables.

It was a lovely autumn day and really nice to have good company as we planted all these marvellous little promises of Spring colour. After making and filling hundreds of holes, we ate a welcome hot lunch outdoors under the pear trees in our wellies, and then in the afternoon made hearty inroads into a wonderful coffee and walnut cake Elaine had brought us, with our cups of tea.  Perfect!

Steve now “just” has the area under the copper beech to plant with daffodils.  He was still making holes as dusk fell last night and Mel came to get him to join the welcome talk for the new group arriving!  Bye the bye, there was a rather striking sunset last night too:

More soon!

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre