Owl watch!

We’re having a wonderful time with tawny owls at Poulstone this month!  Last year we bought some night viewing binoculars and we think word had got round in the garden because no wildlife was ever to be seen whenever we went out!!  We kept hearing them calling after dark and went out to take a look. We have been able to watch them whenever we’ve gone out at night this week. And they have been watching us – from the Wellingtonia tree, from the cherry tree in the walled garden, from the telegraph poles and from the roof of the house!  We’ve seen them in flight and we were also amazed to see one of the three pouncing on worms on the back lawn! Very exciting!

Of course, lots of birds are nesting around Poulstone at the moment but we were particularly delighted to find not only a swallows nest in the open garage but a wren’s nest too – the tiny babies are almost spherical!  We have to remember not to put the light on in there after dark so nobody gets woken up.

The garden’s enjoying lots of rain and we had two thunderstorms with pink sheet lightning this week.  In between times, it’s been sunny and fresh and we’ve been out gardening and enjoying walks along the Wye in this break before the next groups start coming.  A pair of swans down by the bridge have cygnets already.

Our cut flower beds are yielding some nice offerings for the dining tables.  Favourites at the moment are white and pink irises, purple salvia, nigella and the blousy peonies are making their brief but lovely appearance.  Around the side of the house by the group room, the white roses are out in profusion and our dream of rose scent coming in through the open windows has arrived at last!

Manda will be back with us on Friday (www.mandascott.co.uk) and then two massage groups at the end of June and beginning of July – Bristol College of Massage and Bodywork (www.bristolmassage.co.uk) and their Worcester branch which has just got large enough to bring their group here.  We’re looking forward to seeing them all.

 

More soon

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

 

Just sitting still and being quiet…..

The veg garden is now nearly fully planted – Gail just has some peas and basil and some kale that she is bringing on up in the barn cloakroom where it gets nice and warm throughout the day. Mel planted out the courgette, squash and pumpkin plants in the gap between Manda leaving us and Burgs arriving, and Steve did some major weeding of poppy plants out of the cut flower bed to make room for dahlias and sweet peas. We began making the wigwams for the sweet peas today and will be planting them out with the dahlias over the next few days if the weather isn’t too wet! We’ve had some very nice days all out in the garden together in the short space between courses, joined by robins and blackbirds looking for worms and masses of bees enjoying the pollen on Gail’s green manure (called phacelia – it attracts bees like almost nothing else and is extremely pretty too!).

It was like high summer here last week for Burgs’  seven day silent Healing Meditation Retreat .  We were lucky to be able to join this retreat and it was gorgeous between sessions to lie out and doze on the lawn in the sunshine or sit quietly enjoying the hum of the bees in the flower beds or the birds nest-building and catching insects on the wing. Even the first applications of suncream occurred!

Friends who don’t meditate often ask us why we might want to be silent and “just sit there” all week! There  is often so little space in most people’s lives, with so much pulling on us, that the very idea of being quiet and having that much space for so long seems wierd.  The only break that people get is when they’re asleep! Nearly everyone has felt the urge to have more peace and serenity in their life and so we often answer with something to this effect.

However, the truth is that when we do sit still with ourselves – without a drink or a snack, without a book or the radio, or the TV or daydreaming about the past or planning for the future, (or in many people’s cases these days, without checking their phone!) – it isn’t very peaceful or serene at all!  In fact, what we see immediately is how restless we are, how unable to settle, how the mind is constantly hankering after something to keep it amused and distracted from the moment it’s in. This is not a comfortable revelation!!  Taming the restless mind is not easy and it doesn’t happen over night, but with skilful instruction and by patient repetition in our attempts to concentrate, it begins to happen. We start to access a different reference point, glimpses of peace, of just being able to rest quietly with ourselves and for that to feel enough, to feel complete. When we have access to this feeling of completeness within, then the need for external distraction becomes less, we are less likely to feel bored or need things to be a particular way to feel happy. Gradually a feeling of contentment arises out of this simplicity where we experience the world more spaciously and as a felt experience rather than a collection of ideas. It’s a lifetime’s work, of course, but we start to get the feeling of the freedom that lies ahead.

Because freedom lies not in having to have what we want in order to be happy, but being content regardless of what we have. And without the ability to sit quietly at peace with ourselves, this is often just an idea rather than something that actually starts to happen to us.

Much love

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

Getting wisterical…

Sorry!  Couldn’t resist that!  The wisteria at the front of the house is looking wonderful right now.  It’s a lovely sight for guests sitting out on the front step in the Spring sunshine having their cups of tea.  Also, the clematis that we planted to cover the old conservatory at the front is finally maturing after a few years and showing huge dark pink flowers. In between showers Steve has been busy trying to manage our beech hedge which has over the decades expanded to an unworkable depth without dangerous goings-on with the electric hedge trimmer!  He’s managed to take alot of growth out from the back so the visual impact is minimal.  We had a pleasant afternoon cutting the debris up into lengths for kindling and use around the garden, surrounded by all spring green-ness of early beech leaves.

Gail is out and about in the veg garden planting out seedlings and bringing up the muck ready for the squash, pumpkin and courgette plants that are being raised in the old conservatory.  Steve’s been cracking on with the weeding today in a high wind!  It’s been beautifully sunny though most of the day.

We’ve just said goodbye to Jan Adamson and Desiree Emery’s shamanic group on Sunday and welcomed Manda Scott and her shamanic students on Wednesday evening (http://www.mandascott.co.uk/).  Both these groups are old hands around the house and it’s lovely having them return here year on year.  Manda is also a historian and author of many historical (and other) novels.  The new novel  in her Rome series is now out and you can see details about it and her other works on her website.

Right! time to check on the kitchen before supper!

More soon

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

Spring giveaways!

We’re still very much blessed with Spring weather here.  No stock has been put on Poulstone meadow as yet and so it looks beautiful with dandelions and buttercups coming up all over it (we’ll try to remember that when the dandelions start popping up in the garden!). Burgs’ Towards Samadhi retreat was in for seven days and really saw the blossom in the garden at its peak – drifts of petals came down like gentle snowfall against impossibly blue Spring skies.  Very lovely.  The group were able to do their Qi Gong sessions outside and enjoy the gardens during their breaks, walking meditations and rest period. The swallows and martins arrived on the Sunday of that week too, adding their chitter-chattering song to the dawn chorus.

Burgs was followed by Barbara Turner-Vesselago with her annual Freefall Writing course here with us for a week.  Half the group were new to Freefall and Poulstone and many have already asked to sign up again for next year!  The group has a long break after lunch while Barbara studies their daily manuscripts and there was plenty of time for people to go walking and explore the gardens and along the river – or do more writing! Everyone said their writing benefited hugely from the week and Barbara’s expertise and the support of the group.

We stock both Barbara and Burgs’ books in the shop and are giving away some free copies.  We have two copies of  Barbara’s “Writing without a Parachute: The Art of Freefall” **and five copies of Burg’s “Beyond the Veil” book to give away as gifts. We also sold a lot of recipe cards during Freefall for the newer dishes in the Poulstone repertoire and are giving away five sets of the illustrated recipe sheets (unlaminated in a plastic wallet). To claim a free gift, all you have to do is email the name of your choice of gift (one per person) and your full postal address to info@poulstone.com together with the answer to this question: what type of tree grows in the new Japanese style stone garden at Poulstone? The first emails received will be sent the gifts. Good luck!!!

With much love

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

**please note, for Freefall gifts, we will add your email address to the Freefall once-a-year mailing list unless you ask us not to**

Blossom and sunshine

Still enjoying the Spring weather and all the cherry, plum and pear blossom is starting to come out in the garden. Lovely and bright and fresh.  The cherry tree in the Japanese-inspired garden we made last year is looking particularly good.  And the pheasant eye daffodils around the small apple trees are also looking beautiful and smell gorgeous.  We went out last night at dusk for a wander round the garden and walked into the walled garden to waves of beautiful scent.  The last light in the sky was picking out their pale petals against the dusk.  Magical.  All the tulips are beginning to come out in the long border and the round bed near the back porch too. Everything feels like it’s coming alive!

Gail and Mel have been planting potatoes this week and preparing some of the other beds ready for seedlings we’re bringing on indoors.  Mice have had their wicked way with our courgette and squash seeds, so we re-sowed them last night in slightly more protected circumstances on a trestle table they won’t be able to climb (we hope)!!

Following on from Burgs’ introductory course last week, we were joined by Manda Scott this weekend, again for an introductory course, this time in shamanism (www.mandascott.co.uk). It was very nice to have so many new people arriving at Poulstone over the last week or so and from their enthusiasm for the courses they took, we expect to be welcoming them here again before too long.  Burgs (www.theartofmeditation.org) is back in again from today for a Towards Samadhi retreat for advanced students which will take us right up to Easter.  We have the Easter weekend off before our Freefall writing course returns for its annual residential starting Easter Monday (www.freefallwriting.com).

That’s about all for now.  Enjoy the sunshine!

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

Intermittent basking!

Well, we’re intermittently basking in Spring sunshine between the odd thunder storm.  Last Friday afternoon as the group was coming in we had thunder rattling the sash windows in their casements and a hailstorm, which then gave way to the most blissful weekend of Spring sunshine!  We’re all getting drawn into the garden.  Mel has finished tidying the kitchen yard and planted up some baskets and tubs with edible flowers which we use to decorate our salads at lunchtimes.  It’s nice to have a splash of colour out there after the winter gloom.  The little faces of the violas are particularly lovely.

Steve and Dave have finally admitted defeat in their battle against the invasive plants in the flower bed under the barn and abandoned the ideas for a new planting scheme there. Despite the best efforts of Ian and others on the work retreat last year, the plants have come up as strongly as ever so we’re going with that and instead  have grassed it over to provide a pleasant sitting area under the apple blossom in springtime.  In the autumn we will plant some spring bulbs to come up around the bench that will go there.  

Mel & Steve have been weeding in the veg garden ready for planting and Gail’s been busy moving muck and compost up onto the raised beds.  Mel’s just off to sow her courgette and squash seeds in the potting shed once her stint in the office is over for the day.

Mel’s also been busy with the year end stocktake so anything not actually moving has been counted!  She finished in the shop today and has placed an order for some of the popular Japanese bowls that some of you were asking about earlier in the year.  They’ll be in soon!  We’re also featuring some new cards by the talented artist Anne Thomas.  Hilary first came across her work and told us about it.  We particularly like her nature mandala cards which are now in stock here.  Here are some examples and her website for buying direct is: http://www.shiningedge.co.uk/.   'Samhain' or 'Oak' mandala  'Midwinter' mandala by Anne Thomas

We’re on our third group since last writing.  We had a very lovely yoga group in two weekends ago with teacher Rowena Harris (http://www.herefordshireyoga.co.uk/rowena-harris) who lives nearby in Longtown in the Black Mountains.  Rowena hadn’t been with us for a few years and so it was nice to be reminded by her and the students of all the changes that have taken place in the house and gardens since that time.  A week later we were joined by Chris Luttichau and an advanced shamanic group.  We had met Chris when he taught here with Manda Scott a year or so back and it was really great to have him return here with his own students.  We very much hope we can host them again at some time in the future.  Chris’s website is http://www.northerndrum.com. We now have Burgs in with an introductory meditation retreat till Friday (http://theartofmeditation.org/).  In between the meditation sessions and discourses, there’s been some lovely weather for sitting quietly outside and letting the work settle.

That’s probably it for now.  More soon!

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

Yayy! Spring is here!

How wonderful to be writing with the office window wide open and sun pouring in! Everything feels very alive as we are approaching the Spring Equinox.  Days of dazzling sunshine, clear, fresh air and very pretty cloud-strewn blue skies.  The cherry plum tree near the meadow gate is absolutely covered in blossom and is vibrant with bees.  Every now and then one of us is seen under it, bathing in its scent and wonderfulness!!!  The bumblebees seem to be favouring the pulmonaria near the Wellingtonia tree and we’ve seen Peacock and Red Admiral butterflies and masses of ladybirds out enjoying the warmth.  Birds are busying themselves everywhere – blue tits, finches, sparrows, field fayre, pheasants, partridges – and the woodpeckers can be heard around the valley.

We’ve been busy doing some Spring tidying outside – Steve has been tying in the white roses on the walled garden walls and Mel has been tidying the kitchen yard ready for planting up our hanging baskets.  Everyone’s minds are starting to turn towards seed planting – Gail is getting out all the veg seeds and soon we will be sowing this year’s crops, and we’ve potted up our sweet pea seeds and dahlia tubers ready for our summer and autumn cut flowers.  We’re cutting daffs at the moment for the dining tables and the scent is wonderful (as well as the general cheerfulness)!

Joining the daffodils and crocuses, the primroses are coming up everywhere, and the helibores planted a couple of years’ ago have spread and have been providing wonderful winter colour since mid November.  If you’re here over the next month or so, do take a look in the walled garden at their exquisite flowers (you need to turn their faces towards you to see all the delicate details).

We’ve had two long retreats in since last writing.   We had Burgs’ seven day silent meditation foundation retreat (http://theartofmeditation.org/) in at the beginning of the month and were lucky enough to sit in on the retreat that week.  A very peaceful and transformative week.  We are now hosting Christian Pankhurst’s Deep Dive Retreat (http://christianpankhurst.com/) which uses group process in the work of awakening.  Lots more noise coming from the group room this week!  Both teachers are very highly regarded in their respective fields and we are always delighted to host them.

Coming up in the next month and a half we have yoga, two shamanic groups, two more meditation retreats and our annual week-long writing course, so we shan’t be twiddling our thumbs!

The writing course, Freefall, has been booked up since the end of last year but for any of you who have been interested over the years but not taken the plunge, Barbara is offering a short taster workshop in Bath in April.  This is a great way to find out more with very little financial outlay – and maybe, who knows, you might be inspired to join us at Poulstone in 2015?!  For details, follow this link:  http://www.valapublishers.coop/bathfreefallworkshop. 

More soon!

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

We’ve put the ark on hold…

Just when we thought it might be prudent to start building an ark, the waters have receded from Poulstone meadow and we’ve been blessed with several lovely sunny, blue-skied days!  The crocuses, daffs and snowdrops are out in profusion. Also, the swans have suddenly become very active and we noticed as we walked down to work this morning that lots of birds are being tempted out into the sunshine.  There was a very loud squabble of sparrows in the holly hedge as we came by! 

Steve has been able to get out into the garden today with Dave and do some weeding and general tidying up after the storms.  We’ve had a week and a half between groups which has given us an opportunity to do some of the jobs that don’t generally get done when groups are coming through on a rolling basis.  Gail has been mending one of the sofas in the living room which was showing signs of wear and tear and we’ve finally got some beautiful prints framed which were donated by artist Lydia Kiernan (http://www.lydiakiernan.co.uk/).  This one, called “Windswept”, is now gracing the front hallway and we love it!

Windswept (2007)

Following Bristol College of Massage and Bodywork, we have had Poulstone regulars Jan Adamson and Desiree Emery in with their advanced shamanic students.  And we were delighted that our hunch about Jessie’s felted animals proved true – several got snapped up enthusiastically and Jessie now has a list of animals to make which they would be interested in buying.  Yayy!

We were very impressed by the group’s stoical and intrepid approach to the stormy weather they arrived in on the Friday night – hardly a murmer from anyone – impressive; it was a really wild night!

In a couple of days we will be welcoming Burgs (http://theartofmeditation.org/) for a seven day silent meditation retreat which we love having here in the house.  Let’s hope the weather keeps nice and sunny for their stay.

Anyway, that’s all for now.

More soon!

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

Apples & pears, and all things shamanic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Too busy to blog!

We do seem to have packed a lot into the last couple of weeks.  Burg’s meditation group (http://theartofmeditation.org/) went out last Wednesday, Clare Gennon and Richard Farmer’s Metatronic Healing weekend came in on the Friday (http://www.metatronic-life.com/) – and Burgs returned for his seven day retreat on the Monday!  Phew! Interestingly, these quick changeovers, which are very frequent these days, seem to get easier and easier as we get more used to doing them and trust more that everything will fall into place if we just stay quietly engaged with what needs to happen.  Anyway, Burgs’ retreat is now in till next Monday so a chance to catch our breath!

Steve has taken a bit of time off recently, roaming the Brecon Beacons with a back pack.  He’s come back looking very aired and extremely bearded!  He’s been easing back into work with some mowing and mending, and cleaning all the outside windows of the house now that the swallows and martins have finally left their nests in the eaves (making it now worth doing!).

We continue to be inundated with produce.  Hilary has been using up some courgettes that we accidentally let grow to marrows, spinach and chard, turning it into delicious minted pea, spinach and courgette soup.  A wonderful colour as well as taste!  Not quite time to pick the apples but we continue to freeze the windfalls for puddings next year.  We’ve been juicing windfall pears too which make a beautifully tasty, sweet juice.

There’s still a fair bit of colour in the garden – pink, orange and yellow dahlias, cosmos in various pinks and whites, nasturtiums, heleniums…..Today’s so warm, you can hardly believe autumn is here.

Well, time to turn our attention to next week’s menus and collect up today’s windfalls,

More soon!

Much love

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre