We’ve had a short break since our last group. Mel & Steve have been on retreat and Gail’s been away to spend time with family. And Hilary and Gem have enjoyed a bit of a break from the kitchen too. We had some high drama last week when a pheasant flew into and through Gail’s sitting room window showering the place with glass. The pheasant was able to be released and flew away, seemingly with just a few scratches but leaving a trail of devastation behind it (and a rather shocked Gail who had been in the next room!). Fortunately, we managed to get the window fixed the same day and Mel & Gail spent time painstakingly shaking out throws and rugs and vacuuming every inch of the room for glass. Anyway, we hope the pheasant survived the shock….x
Later the same week, Gail had a slightly more relaxing encounter with wildlife when she discovered a hibernating hedgehog under a mass of nasturtium foliage she was removing from the veg patch whilst we were all out in the garden working. We could just see its little flank breathing through a gap in the leaves around it. Mel was raking up leaves nearby and brought over a few good handfuls to keep it warm. It was right on the path so we put up a sign and put a chair over it and a notice to avoid it being trodden on by unsuspecting guests! Steve was going to make a little shelter for it this weekend but we see with the warm weather back again, it must have woken up and moved on (hopefully to a more private spot).
There are at least 25 pairs of swans on the field next to Poulstone meadow at the moment, often delighting us with their flight overhead. Today they seem to have been joined by a flock of geese, apparently co-habiting quite happily.
It’s been lovely being out in the garden on these autumn afternoons, especially at dusk. Today started with teeming rain but now we have golden sunshine making every surface out there shine. We currently have Heart2Heart Events with us (http://heartwisdom.co.uk/events/) who arrived last night on a chilly evening. They are always a pleasure to work with and we enjoy having them in the space. They usually work quite intensively through the weekend but we hope they get some time to take in the late autumn sunshine as well.
Our minds are turning towards end of year jobs – repairs and a deep clean of areas we don’t always get time for. It feels like a nice gentle wind-down towards the Christmas break with just one more group here before we close for the holidays.
That’s all for now!
Mel & Steve xx
Poulstone Court Retreat Centre