Our 'Writers' Wood' Project: Get involved!

Our spring wreath on the front door now greets our retreaters as they reach the house. We are hoping that this will be a season full of wild flowers that we can all enjoy together on our mindful walks! Our ‘wild meadow’, in the front field is now in its second year since we prepared the soil and sowed wild flower seeds, so fingers crossed! To celebrate the spring season, we have now opened up a new ground floor bedroom, with neighbouring shower, which we are calling the ‘Meadow Room’ due to the views that it will enjoy in the right season.  Watch this space!

The daffodils are about to bud along the track that lines the tennis court, and the plantations we planted during lockdown are slowly and steadily growing. Seeing how well these trees are doing has inspired me to initiate a new venture, which we hope our writing retreaters will support. We would like to devote the far end of the big field - which frames the meadow and leads into our arboretum – to a Writers’ Wood, which will be there for posterity in remembrance of all the academic writers who have come to Chapelgarth to be inspired, to be creative and to be productive. I have decided that the wood should be made of SILVER BIRCH trees (including some spectacular Jackmontii variety) only, so that the area devoted to the writers will be clearly identifiable all year round, thanks to the white barks which will set these trees apart from other woodland. The dimension of the wood will entirely depend on how many writing retreaters choose to sponsor a SILVER BIRCH to offset their carbon footprint when they attend one of our writing retreats. Writers will have the option of planting the tree themselves (between March and October), and all the names of donors will be collected in a special 'Writers’ Wood' Book, which will include the date of planting. 

If you attended a writing retreat in the past and would like to donate a tree please get in touch! It will certainly give us a head start! If the wood grows big enough we envisage to create a mindful walk through the beeches which will hopefully inspire many writers to come..  To find out more see https://www.chapelgarth-estate.co.uk/writers-wood