It is now February 2009 and my goodness what a difference a year makes. This time last year we were just starting work on the gardens by taking down some of the trees. Now I am constantly surprised by the comments of friends and visitors who express amazement when they see the transformation.
There have certainly been times when I wondered if we would ever get the work completed; times when even the very seasons I love, seemed to be against us. Would we get the potager finished in time to plant the seeds? Yes we did. Would we get the trees in the ground before the sap began to rise? Well yes we did (just). And now we wait with baited breath to see what the spring will bring in our new gardens. We have completed The Apothecary´s garden, the Cloister Garth. The vine arbours, The woodland walk, The medieval courtly love garden, The Flowery mead, The Shakespeare bank. The Orchard, The Potager, The hen coup, The pond edge/native planting. We still have The Tudor Knott gardens, at the front of the house, and The Simples gardens to complete, and of course the ongoing planting and maintenance, but as they say ‘Rome wasn´t built in a day’, We do have a couple of would-be Houdini hens intent on their bids for freedom, so if any one comes across a pretty but confused hen strutting about the streets of Halberton it is probably ours, and I can only offer apologies; we are doing our best to restrain them, but I think they took to heart that I said I wanted ‘free-range’.
On a slightly more serious note, we have had a mixed year of fortunes with the work to be done; many successes but also many delays. We were hoping to be open long before now, but many let downs, have delayed us considerably. We now have a real chance of opening this summer perhaps even spring, The B&B rooms are nearing completion, and the kitchen and dining-room are looking superb.
Our Holistic therapy room will be opening in April, with aromatherapy, reflexology, and crystal healing, on offer.
We will soon be announcing, the date of our open day, so watch this space. This summer we will open for afternoon teas, and for a list of courses, talks and workshops, please look here on the page on the web-site.
We have also been accepted into the prestigious, “Alistair Sawday, Special places to stay for garden lovers” which is now on sale.