Lockdown has been a time to take stock. So here are the first signs of renewal and new beginnings of exciting projects.
April has been a very eventful month at Chapelgarth. New beginnings have included getting under way two completely new plantations, refreshing the vegetable patch and launching our very first online talk, as part of our GlobalTees events!
With all the talk about sustainability and the need to plant more trees for the good of our planet, we felt that it was time to do our bit so we started by sourcing trees that would take to our soil and weather conditions. Two of our fields have now been turned into plantations thanks to the grants we received from the Woodland Trust. We were asked to plant 1600 ‘English trees’ and were sent an array of tree species including cherries, beech, and oaks.
With our usual 'lockdown walks' having become a bit repetitive, planting trees was a welcome diversion from the regular type of daily exercise - indeed, we had a few volunteers - all socially distanced and outdoors! They did not hold back and the whole lot of trees were planted in the space of a week - thanks to the weather being on our side..
Can you recognise which fields are being turned into woodland?
As if 1600 trees wasn't enough, we got going on the vegetable patch. This needed some serious revamping - lots of weeds and exhausted soil, so we set out to build our very own vegetable beds - or 'sleepers' as some call them. I enlisted my son Ed to do the work - pointing out that the taller they were the better... can you picture how much more pleasant it will be to weed without having to bend and stoop? Frankly, I am considering including gardening as a new 'mindful activity' during our writing retreats breaks - the vegetable patch has a beautiful view over the Cleveland hills and I expect people will be queueing up for weeding! (I may have to put up a special joining list for the 'Gardening Club!
Last but not least! Many of you will remember how during the last few residential writing retreats we started delivering some public engagement talks to our local community. The last 'GlobalTees' Talk had been on March 2020 - literally the week before we had to close due to the pandemic! - and we were missing that engagement with the local community..
We therefore decided to take the plunge and have our first online GlobalTees event!
Nadia Ostacchini (actress) and Melanie Hughes (author)
We enlisted an academic, historian Prof Claudia Baldoli (Universita’ Statale) from Milan, an author, Melanie Hughes, and an actress, the wonderful Nadia Ostacchini from the Tricolore Theatre Company, who read passages from Hughes' historical novel with great gusto! Baldoli, who is an expert in the history of the Italian community in the UK between the two wars, provided the audience with the necessary historical framework, and we had a very enjoyable evening!
There were 49 people in attendance, from all over the country and beyond! We can definitely say that Teesside went ‘Global’ with our last GlobalTees talk… So there’s a sliver lining..
