Play.Eat.Laugh.Sleep..Pickwell: festive reflections

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

festive reflections

The festive season has absolutely flown by.

Talking of flying by, still in the Christmas gaming spirit, can you see the birds in this picture? Here are some of our highlights...

Our creative advent calender which included making food for the birds.

We followed the crowds into the village of Clovelly

a stunning village, about 45 minutes drive from us, built on a steep hill which goes down to the sea,

to watch the Christmas lights go on.

It was our first trip there and was deeply fascinating. These are the sledges they use to take shopping down to their houses.

The whole village is pedestrianised so has a really quaint feel to it. In fact the experience was so rich in colour and history that it deserves a blog post of its own.

Of course the charity ball we held was a great highlight. Its rare to see us this scrubbed up..and thanks to so many local people's generosity, we raised £4,000 for an anti-trafficking campaign. For a fab film and photos please see our Facebook page.

We did a last minute shopping trip to Exeter where we discovered this amazing artwork/sculpture (?) in the wall.

Tracey and I went on a soap and candle making course with an idea to give home-made soap to our guests...here is batch no.1.

The school Christmas fair is always buzzing with excitement largely due to the sheer amount of sweets involved. The kids create and run their own stalls.

We had a couple of special Christmas lunches with all our builders and the girls who keep our apartments looking ship shape. This is Dubsy our plasterer..

Arlington Court, a lovely National Trust property half an hour away from here,

were doing a Narnia trail through their gardens.

It was really well done, I thought, and I found myself going through the wardrobe with as much anticipation as the kids!

Santa was also at Arlington but was a big disappointment sadly. Even Dubsy would have been a better..

In fact the 'elf' who ran the paper chains craft table really should have been Santa...they missed a trick there.

(Obviously being me i told him this and he replied he'd failed the IQ test). A sense of humour too..what were Arlington thinking!

Granny took four of her six grandchildren to the Woody Bay steam train

the train lives here on Exmoor. They went on a lovely one mile trip and again met Santa!

I have discovered and enjoyed my new camera app on my Iphone!

We had the joy of my sister Beth, Sam, Martha and Elsie to stay over Christmas.

We all had the best present you could imagine when, on Christmas Day, they found two films on their camera of when the girls first met their sister Florence Briah. Florie died in the summer at only 7 days old. We thought every photo and film had been found, so it was a very precious gift to find.

We each had to provide a meal and entertainment each day.

This was Beth's entertainment. In teams we were given a box of items and had to dress up one person in all the items in a set amount of time.There were minus points if we used any other props. This is Sam, this time with the carrot in the correct place..

My Dad who again, frankly, made a better Santa than Arlington's poor offering..this team won!

My Uncle Peter as you have never seen him. Apparently he is a Christmas tree?!

We all had great fun playing 'The Cube' board game. I had to balance this on my head for 30 secs. I'm not entirely sure what my hands were doing, but it did help!

It has been my family tradition to open our presents only after the Queen has finished her speech. I have memories of my dear old Granny wobbling to her feet when it came on. We don't stand up exactly but we do keep the tradition of watching it before diving under the tree and handing out gifts.

At New Year we officially close for business, but invite our friends to come and share this special time with us. We call it 'Amity' which means friendship.

One friend in particular could not come this year as he is extremely unwell which has come as a sudden shock. A group of us went to the beach to have some time to think about him and his family.

We eat together, talk together, recharge together and go into the year feeling challenged and expectant for new things. Its become the high point of the year for all of us here.

The sunset on New Years Day.
x

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Our Story

Many people have asked what the story is, how did the Bakers and Elliotts come to be at Pickwell?

Are you sitting comfortably?

Tracey and Susannah became friends at 6th form college. Steve and Tracey lived in the same village in Sussex. Steve's dad was the vicar and Tracey's dad was Steve's scout leader. Even more wierd, Susannah's dad (also a church minister) and Steve's dad were friends, but Steve and Sus never met.

One summer Tracey took Susannah along to a youth summer camp. Steve was one of the leaders (read : heightened attraction) and a little later Steve and Sus got together. During their 6 on/off years they met Richard, a blue eyed boy from Guildford.

At a club night run by Steve, somehow through the dark and crowded room, Tracey and Richard bumped into eachother (if you have seen the shapes they pull on the dancefloor you would know how easily this happened)..

In the year 2000 they all got married. Tracey and Susannah were eachother's bridesmaids. They have remained firm friends ever since.

When Steve and Susannah came across Pickwell Manor, they knew they couldn't manage such a project on their own. They asked the Elliotts if they would give up their house, their jobs and their community to come and live and work with them and own the project together. They knew there weren't many people they could ask to do such a thing knowing they would still love each other by the end. So they all left everything in Sussex and came to Devon.

They moved on the same day in August 2008. It has been a crazy, wonderful, scary, emotional and beautiful experience so far. All of them would say they feel very ALIVE!

Since they moved they have run 51 successful and wonderful weddings (with more to come), many, many holidays, built or totally refurbished 6 apartments from scratch, updated carpets, painted white throughout, put in quite a few kitchens and bathrooms (including 2 baths on concrete plinths), changed much of the furniture, converted a laundry and have started to convert the chapel. Every year they also have a bonfire gathering in October, an Easter Eggstravaganza fundraising event, and anything else that is not-for-profit that they can fit in. Tracey has completed a dissertation and gone back to nursing for 2 days a week, Steve has started up a new company in London, Richard has mastered a lot of the running of the house as well as training as a coach, specialising in stress management, Sus has taken on the interiors and Tracey and Susannah have learnt weddings in at the deep end! All with 4 young Pickwellians by their sides.

"Our passion is for making life count. Our values lie in
friendship, celebration, valuing others, and social justice. We see Pickwell as a reflection of these things but also a place for rest, recouperation, laughter and conversation. We want to support charities and social enterprises to fufil their dreams and make a difference."

"We love Devon, we love the community here, we love seeing our children grow with nature and discovering the great outdoors. We have to pinch ourselves sometimes when we think about our life here, it is amazing".