I realise that January is almost over but from where we are at the moment the news in the last blog seems a long way away. Having recovered from working out who one could or could not have for Christmas, January has thrown us snow, sleet and rain, flooding and ice.  I was walking with the dogs this afternoon and, although not flooded, the water lies right on the surface. It does make Lockdown 3 less fun.

I have had my mother to stay and as part of her daily exercise (sorry Joe, you weren’t quite what she wanted) we wandered round the garden. Regardless of the weather we would wrap up warm and inspect the growth. The colour was slow to appear, hidden by the damp and cold and then, bit by bit, green shoots have been appearing and now we have snowdrops all over the place. And it isn’t just snowdrops, the yellow Lesser Celandine is flourishing, banks of purple dog violets and we even spotted primroses. I have not stop to look at the garden much in January before. It has been a real treat.

The Cultural Recovery Fund for Heritage (#hereforculture) has kept everyone very busy here. The Barn has an earth floor at the moment  and is about to have recycled glass insulation foam lumps spread across it. The Barn looks enormous now. We were asked to keep a regular update going, so people can see what is happening. My husband has taken to this like a duck to water. He has been borrowing drones and delay cameras, movement cameras and using his phone to compile quite the library of the pictures. If you aren’t following our Instagram or Facebook you are missing the fun of “watching other people work”.

We are staying ever optimistic and that the warmer weather will allow us to return to going on outings. Currently, we are planning to open on Sunday 24th March and then on every Sunday and Wednesday until our normal close on Sunday 26th September. During both the Easter and Summer school holidays we will be open everyday except Fridays and Saturdays and for us to put on some of our events (Kite Flying perhaps). We don’t think life will be just like it was in 2019 but hopefully with all the Covid precautions we had in place last summer will be enough for everyone to enjoy a bit more freedom this summer, with less stopping and starting. If you are anything like me you aren’t wanting much; a cup of tea in the garden with friends would be enough!