Autumn Reflections
Some Autumn reflections after another amazing Summer season
Author: Julian Davies
The clocks went back this weekend. Spring forward, Fall back, as they say… With that, we always like to take a moment to reflect on the season just gone, the change towards colder weather, and the darker (but equally beautiful) months in front of us.
The summer was another momentous one for us. We’re all living through a period of reinvention in so many senses: out in the big world we’ve observed the chaos of a government in flux, the continued pressure on daily lives we all face, stress, war…. Westerlands remains an island of relative calm within all this but nonetheless, we are also reinventing ourselves, continually evolving from our former pattern dominated by horses and more traditional farming, with Olly leading our drive towards regeneration and healing the land – and in so doing healing ourselves.
Woodfire Camping
Practically, this summer was another busy one for our dear friends Stella and Griff and Woodfire Camping. They do the most fantastic job of welcoming hundreds of guests to their place over the summer, and giving them the most amazing, natural experience, combined with the best food, beautiful walks, and generally enjoying the Downs. Staying with them truly is an incredible experience and we encourage you all to try it!
We’ve now got some other amazing options for staying here – having “launched” (if that’s the right term!) Lower Barn House – which is our 5 bedroom, more “luxury” offering. Additionally, Emma’s cabins welcome walkers, nature lovers, even some fairly extreme long-distance runners, whilst our new Shepherd’s Hut, Aspen Leaves, is up and running for people who really want to get off the grid for a day or two. Combined with The Annex and The Hideaway, we’re proud and pleased that we can offer a full range of staying options to people – all of which you can see on the website and book via a variety of platforms such as AirBnB.
Lower Barn House
We’ve seen multi-generational family groups come together here to bond, eat, relax… some of whom have not been together for more than two years – it’s so heart-warming for us to be able to offer this.
Our team also welcomed a number of company groups to spend a day or two with us – bonding, enjoying nature, the outdoors, thinking strategically, and addressing their challenges… We’ve found it such a beneficial experience – for them and for us – when groups come here and invest in that time. It’s been incredible to see, and we’re very keen to expand our ability to welcome groups here – as you can see in the “away days” section of our website. Please – do get in touch with us if you’re looking for inspiring spaces or ways to bring your teams together!
Team Away Days
From poetry or art sessions on the South Downs, to clay pigeon shooting, to team-building challenges, to strategy sessions…. From black-tie dinners to outdoor feasts, from foraging to cocktail-making… We think we can cover most activities you could think of.
We’ve started our process, working with the South Downs National Park, of creating our Whole Estate Plan (WEP). A WEP is a really useful thing to do for places like ours: helping you get visions down on a piece of paper and actually start to have a proper plan. We’ve got so many amazing ideas bubbling away under the surface that we can’t wait to get started on – but doing a WEP will help us organise ourselves, prioritise things, make choices, and mostly, set us up to have an amazing plan which will help us invite as many people as possible (and reasonable) to share the benefits of nature with us. One of our mantras is around the idea of “democratising access to nature”. What this means is coming up with plans that enable us to open our doors to as many people as possible and importantly – to potentially see groups of people here who might by default feel like they wouldn’t be welcome. We’ve seen this thought be overcome during visits to Westerlands, and we love it.
A couple of other personal highlights would be the visit of the Weald to Waves initiative in late September. We were blessed with a sunny evening and welcomed a group of landowners or managers stretching from The Ashdown Forest in East Sussex all the way down to Climping – the sea nearest to us.
Weald to Waves
Weald to Waves is an amazing initiative which aims to create a corridor of well-managed land which is farmed in a responsible, low-impact manner, and which can demonstrate a different approach to land management in many different contexts. It was a privilege to host this group!
The other highlight for me was our end of season party, where the whole team, families, community and friends got together, drank excellent vermouth, had a hog roast and a dance – and generally celebrated Summer. It was amazing to be able to find such joy in community, to embrace the little world we are building and the place we are guardians of, and we all left with full souls….
Our aim continues to be to work out ways we can share this joy with people for as many different reasons as possible – and to invite folks to share with us if only for a brief moment. What a great mission to have, and what an inspiring place to be working.
We welcome any opportunity to see you here.