Category: Out and About in the Garden

The apple-fest continues in amongst our other jobs.  Gemma is becoming a dab hand with the rotary apple peeler.  We are also picking plums, mulberries and damsons.  The two plum trees donated by Spectrum Psychotherapy’s Women in the World group have yielded the first fruit we can pick from the new trees.  They have a very nice flavour and we have frozen this first harvest so the group can enjoy them in a crumble or almond sponge pudding when they come in November.  Our squash harvest is a little disappointing – only six (admittedly pretty large) squash from 10 plants!  Ah well, they are very beautiful and there’s something quite magical about them even if there aren’t very many.  Recent groups have also been able to enjoy home-grown rocket, beetroot, spinach and chard, kale, dwarf beans and potatoes.

We are probably saying goodbye to our sweet peas now as autumn arrives – we’ll be picking our last nostalgic few bunches before the first frosts arrive.  The dahlias are now coming into their own and will take their place in posies on the dining tables during the autumn.

The Reiki Gathering enjoyed their stay last weekend and we hope we shall see them here again.  On Monday we were joined by Ruhani Satsang (http://www.ruhanisatsangusa.org) and are greatly enjoying the silence and feeling of peace that their meditation practice is bringing to the house.  Many of them have been students of their Master Sant Kirpal Singh (deceased) since the 1970s and meet annually to meditate and listen to discourses, travelling from Europe, Canada and America.  It’s very inspiring to see such devotion to their practice.  They will be departing tomorrow and we will be joined the following day by another silent retreat with Burgs (http://theartofmeditation.org/).  So pretty busy for us today and tomorrow!

More soon!

Warm wishes

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

 The veg garden is really flourishing with the rain coming after so much warmth.  The blackcurrants need picking so we’re hoping for some dry days to get on with that again. The squash are beginning to get big enough to net on the garden wall, the courgettes are epidemic and Gail has just harvested our first lot of white onions this year.  Our cyclists last week enjoyed oodles of spinach, kale, mixed leaves, rocket, beetroot, courgettes, chard and blackcurrants from the garden.  They went out every day even when it was rainy and were rewarded with a couple of beautiful dry days towards the end of the week.

We now have our Holotropic Breathwork group arriving tonight, led by Marianne Murray and Michael Harris.  For information about their work, see http://www.grof-holotropic-breathwork.net/profile/MarianneMurray.  Marianne has been coming to Poulstone annually for many years and we always enjoy having the group here.  The forecast is fair for the week so we hope they have a chance to enjoy the gardens between breathwork sessions.  The grass is beginning to recover from its prairie-like state of a few weeks ago!!

Well, time for a bit of tea before the welcome talk!

More soon x  Stay dry!

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

We’ve had three bee swarms in the last couple of months and on the last occasion, Steve managed to get close enough for a photograph.  It’s wonderful to see wild honey bees thriving like this and we can easily give them a wide berth until they fly off to make their new nest.  The noise is tremendous and it’s quite an interesting sight to see them clustered together like this:  

It’s been really hot and sunny here now for weeks and Alec Jones’s Dragon Spring Tai Ji school (http://www.dragonspringtaiji.co.uk/index.htm) was with us last weekend, enjoying being able to play their forms and do their exercises outside.  Their practices included cane and fan forms which were lovely to watch.  After dark one evening we kept hearing a cracking sound on the tennis lawn and eventually realised it was the crack of the fans being opened and shut!  Two of the students were kind enough to let Steve photograph them whilst they practised their fan form.

 Meanwhile, the final touches to the stone garden have been happening.  Some sempervivum plants have been nestled in amongst the rocks and look rather good against the stone.  

As the weather has cooled off a bit and some rain has finally come, we now have a lot of lycra around the place with the very wonderful Bicycle Beano vegetarian cycling holiday.  These guys laugh in the face of British weather and bring a lovely homely and communal atmosphere to the place.  Jane Barnes and Rob Green have been running these holidays for years and attract a really great crowd of people.  They always enjoy themselves whatever the weather.  If you’re ever tempted, their website is http://www.bicycle-beano.co.uk/.

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