So another busy time since last writing. Unusually, we have had three shamanic groups in one after another. Manda Scott re-joined us in early October for one of her advanced courses (http://mandascott.co.uk/). Manda is also a prolific author and writes under the name M.C.Scott for her historical novels. Do take a look at her website to find out more. She’s particularly well-known for her series on Boudica.
Her group was followed by Jonathan Horwitz’s Peace and Power retreat which was with us until last Sunday. A much-loved Poulstone regular, Jonathan is resident in Southern Sweden but comes to Poulstone annually in the autumn, usually with a course for advanced students. (http://www.shamanism.dk/). (One of Jonathan’s students, Faith Nolton, created the beautiful picture above. See her website for more images and downloadable pictures, http://www.soulgardens.co.uk/).
A few days off and Jan Adamson and Desiree Emery will be joining us with their shamanic group until Sunday. We greatly enjoy having all four teachers and their groups here. Respect and gratitude seem to shine out of these groups and we feel that the land and nature around Poulstone benefits from the work that the groups do here. It’s wonderful seeing trees and plants and creatures receiving a deeper kind of attention than the every day.
In the garden we’ve been busy harvesting our apples and pears, and enjoyed the final pear-picking yesterday in blazing sunshine. We even had lunch outside! Then we took a van-load of pears and apples up to Ragman’s Lane Farm for juicing (http://www.ragmans.co.uk). We shall look forward to collecting our bottles of juice next week and sitting and labelling bottles for the shop. We’ve also been picking the last of the plums from the trees on the drive for freezing. At the other end of the journey, Gail has been planting our garlic for next year which is always a nice job at this time of year. There’s still plenty of produce in the garden – the courgette plants are still going for it, the carrots are tender and tasty and we have oodles of greens coming through.
Today has been torrential rain which is rather perfect weather for getting the house ready and doing the book-keeping!
Time to get back to work!
Much love, Mel & Steve
Poulstone Court Retreat Centre