Spring Newsletter

Finally spring is here -then it’s gone and now it’s back again! We have had beautiful sunshine through to snow over the last few weeks, but back to sunshine now, so let’s hope it lasts for the sake of our seedlings! Everything seems to be late this year, the nettles are just about coming up and the bracken fronds, which are always a sign of spring to us, have only just decided to poke their heads up above ground.

Glen Affric in May

With spring comes change and there is plenty going on here. We have started our courses for the year, the first being one of our new alternative hen weekends, which was great fun to run and we had a lovely bunch to celebrate the first course of the year. We organised prehistoric cookery, felting with a pony and local walks. The group stayed nearby at Kerrow House and feasted on Saturday night in the yurt; on Sunday evening they had a lovely meal at the Struy Inn, while local musicians played. We have since heard from the hen, who is now stitching the wall hanging her friends and sisters created for her from local fleece and with a little help from Nutmeg the pony.

The yurt has been a great success this year. We have managed to put a lovely little burner in it, so it is cosy and warm, as well as having a proper raised floor. Alex has been hanging on to the burner for years, as we knew it would come in handy at some point. It was a lovely space to use last weekend when we ran our first natural dyeing weekend of the year. We were able to sit in the snug yurt surrounded by fleece, while I showed the dyers how to card.

I don’t think I can write a newsletter without mentioning our new additions, Christina and Phyllis, two 6 week old goats, one Anglo Nubian (long lop ears) and the other a Saanen (classic white). They are such characters and at the moment seem to take up quite a bit of our time, as they still need feeding 4 times a day. The kids follow Thora every where and she now wants to live in the goat shed! We hope next year to put them to kid and then we will be able to milk them (if they stand still) and produce our own cheese and yogurt.

Other new additions this year include Ellie, Liz and Craig who will be helping us on our craft and hen weekends, as well as Julie who is a local massage therapist who will be offering therapies on our Relaxation Retreats. It is lovely to get others involved and bring new skills to our courses and holidays.

If you have enjoyed any of our courses or escapes in the past, please feel free to nominate us for a Responsible Travel Award (economic responsible tourism) http://www.responsibletravel.com/awards/nominations/ as all these little things help us along the way!

Things are getting pretty busy for this summer, but we still have some spaces on a few of our weeks and weekends if you are interested in joining us or for any last minute offers have a look below.

Prehistoric cookery weekend May 11th-12th Come and learn to cook the way our ancestors would!

Spring Relaxation Retreat May 18th-25th 2 spaces left (£75 off per person!)

Join Joany and I for morning yoga (all levels catered for), stunning walks, wild food foraging, craft and delicious healthy home-cooking, all set in beautiful accommodation.

Fleece to Felt Weeks July 6th-13th & July 27th-Aug 3rd 2 spaces left

Shearing demos, foraging for dye plants, making natural dyes, dyeing your fleece and felting a final piece, as well as an evening spinning demonstration and lovely local walks.

Prehistoric cookery July 20th-21st

Felt-making weekend August 10th-11th

Natural dyeing weekend/ Prehistoric cookery August 17th-18th

If you want to have a peek at what we get up to more regularly join our Facebook page, which I have actually got quite good at updating! https://www.facebook.com/WildRoseEscapes

If you feel like escaping this spring or summer or know someone else who might, just get in touch on:info@wildrose-escapes.co.uk

Or call us on 01456 415454

Yours

Rosie

www.wildrose-escapes.co.uk

Ellie and Thora feeding the goats.

The goats are finally here! We have now had Christina and Phyllis for a week. They are both very young only 5 and 7 weeks old. We are bottle feeding them 4 times a day, so it’s pretty full time at the momnet, no more family days out for a while! So far they have been so rewarding, very gentle, fun, naughty and characterful. Thora our two year old daughter is in heaven! I’m not sure if the goats think they are toddlers or she now thinks she’s a goat, but they follow her everywhere.

Christina is an Anglo Nubian goat (black and white) and Phyllis is a Saanen (white). They are both going to grow up to be pretty big, but gentle we hope! Their characters are very different,  the Anglo Nubian is very relaxed and not interested in moving far, with a quiet little bleet. The Saanen is the one full of beans and in to everything, everything she shouldn’t really be eating she goes for, she has even taken on our Cheviot tup!

Today we put them into their new goat shed, secure and warm and draft free. An exciting day, as up till now they have been inside, as the weather has been pretty cold.

We hope next year to put them both to kid and then milk them once they have had their babies. I am keen to make cheese and yogurt from the milk, but we need Alex to build a mini goat dairy first! We will let you know how it all goes.

We will be trying out the peg loom on our fleece to felt craft holidays; July 6th-13th and July 27th-August 3rd. We still have a couple of places available if you are interested in joining us!

We have a couple places available on our spring relaxation retreat if you feel like escaping in May. The retreat is running from May 18th-25th and is based at Polmaily steading; beautiful accommodation in a stunning area. We have glen Affric and loch Ness on our doorstep and we are also in easy reach of Inverness, making transfers easy.

The week includes morning yoga with Joany and walks to areas of outstanding natural beauty, including Plodda waterfalls and glen Affric. You can also join a craft session, learning to make felt using local Shetland fleece.  In the evening you can choose to listen to  Bob Pegg and his amazing ancient instruments,  join a relaxation session or a massage workshop. We also provide delicious healthy home-cooking and a cosy, warm, relaxed, homely place to be for the week. Whether you feel like curling up with a book or getting out and seeing some of the areas beauty, you can choose to do as much or as little while you are with us.

“This is so much more than just a yoga retreat!”

The Scottish Highlands are the perfect place to unwind, relax and revitalize.

If you feel like escaping please have a look on our main pages for more information and pictures and get in touch.

Building the pit oven

I had prepared and left supper for them on Friday night and left them to catch up with each other. The next morning we  picked everyone up at 10am and went up to the woods. The morning was spent building an outdoor pit oven and preparing their evening feast, lighting fires, lining the stone oven and enjoying the sunshine. Some of the group worked on the hen’s wall hanging, carding and laying out fleece ready to be felted later in the day. We cooked lunch outside over an open fire and then enjoyed it in the cosy Mongolian Ger (Yurt).

After lunch we took our fleece hanging out the Cougie trekking centre, a beautiful drive into the wilderness! Once there everyone met Ian and his boys as well as Nutmeg the pony. We prepared and rolled up the wall hanging, ready for Nutmeg to pull it along Mongolian style. This type of felting is a great fun way of making larger pieces of decorative felt.

The group decided to go for a walk while Nutmeg got on with the felting. A stunning walk out to see the mountain views. The group could have chosen to go on a pony trek but decided to walk instead, as one of the members was heavily pregnant.

After a couple of hours and a lovely relaxing time by the edge of the loch, we returned and the wall hanging was revealed. A beautiful piece of felt made by all of our hens friends!

We headed back to Kerrow house, which was welcomingly warm and cosy, where I left the group, to relax and enjoy a glass of wine, cups of tea and G&T’s. Later we uncovered the pit oven and took out our feast which had slowly cooked over 5 hours. The lamb had been wrapped in dough, which had sealed in all the juices making it tender and delicious and the vegetables had cooked beautifully, sealed in a cast iron pot. The group snuggled down in the yurt for a candlelit feast.

The next day our hens enjoyed a relaxing morning at Kerrow house and then we headed out to glen Affric, where we went walking. There was a covering of snow, which made the glen look even more magical.

That evening the group had dinner at the Struy Inn and enjoyed the sounds of a local music session.We dropped the group off in Inverness on Monday morning.

It was a lovely start to our season and a real joy to meet everyone and organize Christina’s hen do. If you would like to find out more about our Alternative Hen weekends please have a look at the main website.

Wet felt-making

This year we have decided to put on an extra Fleece to Felt week, as our early July week is now full. The new week with run from July 27th-August 4th and we hope anyone who was unable to make the earlier week can come!

The week will be a very similar to our original fleece to felt retreat, the only part that is a little different will be that we won’t actually be able to do a shearing demonstration,  as it is a little late in the season and the poor old sheep will need their fleeces off before then! But everything else will be the same, processing the fleece, making and foraging for dyes, natural dyeing, felting with a pony Mongolian style and of courses felting your final piece. We will be based at Stalkers again in the lovely Kerrow house and all the usual people will be there, lending a hand. So if you fancy doing something slightly different this summer and learning a new skill come and join us for a week of craft in the Highlands of Scotland.

Spring Relaxation Retreat

Felt purses (craft workshop)

We still have a couple of places left on our relaxation retreat if you would like to join us.  May is one of my favorite times up here and last year the weather was so good to us we even managed a spot of wild swimming in the river Affric.

If you feel like you need a little time to relax, unwind and revitalize our spring retreat is the perfect tonic to get you set up for the summer ahead.

The Highlands of Scotland have so many beautiful inspiring sights,  just down the road from us is Glen Affric, Plodda falls and Loch Ness, all places we visit during the retreat. Mornings are spent at Polmaily Steading, stretching out with Joany doing a spot of Hatha yoga. Afternoons can be filled with walking or indulging in a little craft and evenings can be spent curled up with a book around the fire, listening to traditional music, taking part in a relaxation session or just enjoying being at the Steading. You can choose to do as much or as little while you are with us.

If you do feel like escaping this spring we might have just the thing for you…

www.wildrose-escapes.co.uk

Roses, petals and a Blue tit.

some work tucked up inside, by the burner. I enjoy needle felting as it can be really quick and easy with great results.  I am terrible for not leaving enough time to make presents, so needle felting something is always a great saver for me! I can always quickly knock up a needle felted badge or brooch. This week I ran a workshop for the Craigmonie craft club. It was a lovely evening, with a talented group, who all produced something beautiful in the 2 hours we had.

I showed the group how to make a needle felted Rose or other flower, which is very simple and effective. I hope next week to make a little film to show those who are interested how to do it, so please watch this space! The Blue-tit is also quite straight forward, although, it is always best to start with something 2d and then move onto 3d -but soon we will all have little  felted Blue-tits on our mantel pieces.