As I sit down to write, the winter sun is burning through the wind-stripped branches of the wood; seeing through, and beyond, twigs are obscured by the brightness as, squinting at the bobbing boughs, I realise, there is one vast open space out there and I am very small. And it’s been four months since Helen and I arrived in Windsor Hill Wood, having begun conversations with the WHW team and trustees since February this year.
We wanted to contact you before Christmas to tell you a little bit about us and the joys and challenges in transitioning into the warden role, and some aspects looking forward to the future. But first an insight into life at WHW: early this morning I was called out to the bins with screams of excited panic as two large rats, having their second breakfast, had been cut off by the tide – I’ll spare the details but they are now in the green compost – with our boy Emmanuel, and my brave elder sister (visiting with her husband to help in and around WHW), we had a few moments silence. And then I went back to the two kilos of dough I was kneading for lunch because our hardworking and hungry guests need bread. We currently have a great team of guests, five in total, who all have different gifts; some with animal care, or catering know-how, others with a passion for poetry and film; IT and computing talents, lovers of books and board games – you get the picture. We love them all. As we do our volunteers who work on Wednesday afternoons, coming to create; lay concrete foundations for the new biomass heater, chop and stack fire wood, help with the new compost loo and generally just work really hard!
More about us: Helen and I (known as Tobes and Hez) have worked with young people and adults in a variety of settings – education, church, streets in the UK, and whilst living in Kenya and Egypt, that has included being house parents at St Andrew’s in the highlands of Kenya, also in Alderley UK, just north of Bristol, to looking after a community of disparate folks gathered together in Cairo with all its noise, dust and life. Hez and I are survivors of various traumas and mental health issues, and have learnt to build back over a period of twenty years with some great friends that have walked with us, and our great God. Now we are stronger, aware of our limitations; learning to pace ourselves, and able to walk with others.
Emmanuel, aged 13 at The Blue School Wells, good at high jump and being tall; Hez good at everything; Tobes, good with people and bread; Grace, a world traveller born in Kenya bought up in Cairo and the UK, currently at Chelsea Art School – final year –wanting to study Art Therapy next.
Programmes, projects, strategic plans can help and sustain people, push creative boundaries, equip and empower the WHW guests in transitioning as they launch out into their onward journey – a pilgrimage in reality – our heart is for people, we drive visions, dreams and an ethos but ‘people are the most important’ – our primary saying and crucial understanding as house parents was ‘you have to be present’ – emails have to happen but primarily one has to be available, interruptible – not only to cope with that but to love it too – because it happens a lot!
Being available means the job encompasses everything! What can be delegated to others, who direct a fundraising project or organise bookings for the new Woodland Retreat, is delegated. But we wake up at work, sometimes immediately into a critical situation, at other times less dramatic but equally important and that is putting the kettle on, lighting the fire, a candle, strong coffee, strong tea.
What has been happening – life is challenging and fully full on here where time to breathe is important to take whilst you can – this may be stopping and standing in the middle of the woods surrounded by trees; trees up high over the edge of the quarry – in the busyness I like to think of one of the quotes of the guests, a quote similar to many guests, over 250 since the beginning of WHW, and that is:
‘This place has saved my life. Simply that.’
They reflect on working with the animals, being held by the space, the trees up in the sheep field above, and go further to say that regardless of the people and the wardens, Windsor Hill Wood has simply changed their life for good. The table in community is central, the table can tell stories of Toby and Francesca’s time, Chris and Katharine’s, now Tobes and Hez – and somehow the place saves people’s lives. Hez and I were fortunate enough to spend an evening with Toby Jones in August, which was a joy to talk about the original vision and ethos which endure today.
The future and 2024. The vision is to hold the place, to summer and winter, and to fix a few things. In the New Year the Woodland Retreat will be launched – begun by Chris and Katharine finished and managed by us. This retreat is the old stone crushing area turned into a room equipped for groups to come for away days, workshops, to deliver training and so on. Could you use it? It will be equipped with internet access, tea and coffee making facilities, water (outside), sunny outdoor seating area, ample parking, and a compost loo.
The need is high for folks wanting to come and stay at WHW as a guest short or long term – the reality
being that we need more facilities throughout the UK to cope with the need for people to come away and
be at rest, to work the land, enjoy the trees, eat good food, live in accepting community, chatting whilst
drying dishes. Looking after one another.
Outside is now liquid blue-black with faint liminal voids in the tree space that I could put my hand through bringing it back covered in ink. I’ve not been writing this all day! It’s just that I’ve been making legs for a cupboard
in our hallway, finishing the bread, making a large Egyptian salad, preparing ham for supper and a plan for pud that big Sis is completing. As a team we have done even more today! Tying down the tarpaulin covering the timber from the storm so that it is dry enough for one of the guests to start the frame for the biomass heater; fixing the goat fence after one got through, then retrieving two goats as the gate was left open by a guest who waved as they walked past. Games played, fires lit, stories told, a prospective guest shown round that we might be able to have over Christmas but we are full. And the need is greater than ever.
People are often at the end of it all when they arrive at Windsor Hill Wood; at the end of themselves, and quite often in the dark – WHW becomes a new beginning; a line in the sand out of the darkness… A bit like Samwise Gamgee in a treacherous and testing time in the last of the Lord of the Rings epics (one of my favourite quotes) –
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Samwise saw a
white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken
land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the
end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond
its reach.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Being involved in WHW in reality is a pointing towards the light out of the darkness – refocusing on the fact that there is light and high beauty far beyond any darkness and in the traditional story of the Greek Legend Pandora’s Box – of all the despicable, angry barbs of illness, disease, despair, shame and guilt, bitterness, greed; the last to fly out of the box (and eventually overcome all) was hope.
A very joyful k peaceful Christmas to you and yours, and a huge thank you for walking alongside WHW, for years or
not for so long; prayerfully financially, and in so many other ways.
Tobes & Hez and all at Windsor Hill Wood
Windsor Hill Wood Sort code: 30-99-29 Acc.No: 24939960
Overseas BIC: LOYDGB21398
IBAN: GB97 LLOYD 3099 2924 9399 60
Donations go towards: Guest therapy, hospitality, renovations – exciting plans coming up for 2024 - give here or
please ask us for more information. We are happy to arrange a visit and a tour with a cup of welcome.
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