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Summer 2008 News and Events

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Coed Hills Spring/ Summer 2008 Calendar

August

02-03                 Laura Gilmore, Yoga/ Tipi retreat for families

                     

08-10                 Edie Stone Peruvian Shamanic practice  

09-10                Introduction to Permaculture Design Course

11-24                Green artists create in situ

25-31                Successful firemaking,  and an Introduction to Green woodwork

September

01>                    Green arts sculptures on show to walkers

06-19                Permaculture Design Course

This page will be kept updated. Keep an eye out for changes...

Coed Hills Rural Artspace Spring/Summer Newsletter 2008

 

In the heart of the beautiful surroundings of the Vale of Glamorgan, from out of the mists there come the sounds of birds whistling, of lambs bleating and of cows mooing their appreciation for the return of the sun after a long, cold Winter.

The dogs prepare themselves for their duties as ‘visitors’ tour guide’, whilst the rest of us here at Coed Hills Rural Artspace refurbish the kitchen, relay the front patio, erect the Tipi campsite in the woods and rush to prepare for the SUMMER.

WELCOME BACK TO COED HILLS.

AS OF MAY 1ST WE ARE OFFICIALLY OPEN!

 

This is not to say that we have stopped for a second though. We have been beavering all Winter. 

In a nutshell, here is what we have been up to…

 
The WINTER SOLSTICE Breton Ball went with a bang- DRAGONSFLY played a brilliant set and got everyone on the dance floor. Then it was out to the STONE CIRLE for a fire procession led by fantastical and fabulous story teller (from St Donat’s art centre and Storytelling festival) David Ambrose under the Full Moon. Magical!

On that note, St Donat’s need our support, since their funding has been cut because of pressure on funding from the Olympic Games. We can’t afford to lose such wonderful local resources as the St Donat's Art Centre and the Storytelling Festival. Please sign their online petition - see www.stdonats.com. Thank you.

Although we have been unofficially closed this Winter, we have still been taking visitors: students from the University of Glamorgan came for a site visit and an eco tour of the Coed grounds.  A group from Children’s Play Services roamed through our woods for two days, on a SURVIVAL SKILLS field trip. If you fancy yourself as a bit of a RAY MEARS, you can hire our woods for a day or a week, where you will be able to camp round a fire, make shelters and forage for free food. If you want to run a survival skills course, email us on info@coedhills.co.uk

We also ran a NATURE TRAIL for children from local schools which included a blindfolded forest obstacle course, finding woodland treasure, worm hunting for our wormery, tree planting, gardening and an ECO TOUR of the grounds.

The Children's tours are often followed by yummy nutritious grub made by one of our ONSITE CHEFS. The COED HILLS SHOP will be open on weekends during the summer selling home made delicious treats, soaps and lovely trinkets.

Our chefs can conjure up some miraculous meals. A local lady, Sandra Eley, from Llantrithyd organised for Coed Hills to lay on a surprise birthday banquet DINNER PARTY for her husband.  Timmo and Angharad made an almighty delicious spread for 55 people. Everyone had a great time- some of the guests had never even been here before although they lived down the road. They were very surprised at how well set up we are and all that we have to offer.

If you would like to book a meal, a party or a celebration of any kind here, you can email us on info@coedhills.co.uk.

March saw the first of three conferences from the ENGINEERS WITHOUT BORDERS students of Cardiff University, which dealt with disaster relief shelter solutions. Among lectures from some very awe inspiring and innovative speakers, students also had the chance to learn straw bale building, green woodwork, to erect various temporary structures, and mud brick making with the founder of ECO SHELTER, Gareth Strangemore Jones.  Gareth began Eco Shelter at the time of the Tsunami, but at that point it was called Tsunami Relief. He was responsible for the huge fundraising concert in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

We still have two more EWB conferences to go; one about Water systems and the other about Renewable Energy.  We are hoping to collaborate with Eco Shelter in the future on some very exciting projects that are currently in the pipeline, guided by the expert knowledge of our new onsite LOW IMPACT ARCHITECT, Mike Rhodes.  Coed Hills has been blessed by Mike’s arrival, which would have been impossible without the support of Gareth Davies from ENVIRONMENT WALES, to whom we are eternally grateful.  Mike arranged for community members to visit Ty Mawr  in Breconshire for a day of learning the ins and outs of building with lime with the Cardiff School of Architecture and Architects Sans Frontieres, which was interesting, mucky and lots of fun!  Watch this space for future low impact building projects…

We are now celebrities, since appearing on BBC3 as pioneers of peacekeeping in the documentary programme ‘Young Mums’ Mansion’, where we showed them our method of using a talking stick during meetings to avoid talking across each other, meaning that everyone has a chance to voice their opinion on even grounds. The great thing is it seemed to work for them as well as it works for us.

Some valuable members of the community have arrived this Winter.

From out of the woodwork, there appeared Pa Modou Sowe, our new artist in residence: wood carver, drummer and an African historian from the Gambia, he has been fortunate enough to receive funding from the Arts Council of Wales. This will enable him to not only run some amazing African workshops for adults and children, but also to have an exhibition of his incredible sculptures, and furthermore to carve an enormous Totem pole for Coed Hills! He will be running ‘GAMBIA DAY’ in May. You can see examples of his work on this website under ‘Artists, Pa Modou Sowe’.  

 

Another arrival is Merlyn Peter, the highly regarded Permaculturist, who has an incredible knack for making green things grow.  If you would like to learn how to do the same, you can come on a course here at Coed Hills. There are two PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSES run by Merlyn and Michelle; one on August 9-10 and the other for a whole fortnight from Sept 6-19.

 

Alongside Merlyn in the garden, we have a team of green-fingered leprechauns:

Charlotte, (who is available to preen your gardens call 07768881157), and who will be selling plants at Coed Hills throughout the Summer, Chris, who has returned home to us at long last, Berwyn, Dinky and Roy (our Hopi Red Indian friend who ran the One Heart Sacred Gathering before Christmas, www.shaketheanthill.net) When she is not busy digging, Dinky is a reflexologist who runs courses. If you are interested in learning with her, you can contact her through us on our email address info@coedhills.co.uk.  Her husband Berwyn will be running courses in dream analysis and hypnosis. Watch this space! You are beginning to feel drowsy...

If you find yourself twiddling your thumbs on a Sunday afternoon, you are welcome to come and learn some gardening skills with us, whilst helping us to grow vegetables for the community in our organic gardens.

Together the gardeners are also preparing for the arrival of a colony of BEES, which are ever-decreasing in numbers.

Did you know that without bees, human life could only continue on Earth for four years? Let’s all make an effort to encourage bees into our gardens by planting them something nice, like honey suckle or heather. There is a petition you can sign to help towards protecting bees http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BeeResearch

If you would like to WWOOF here, email us at info@coedhills.co.uk. WWOOFers now have the advantage of another new arrival; this time a 1970’s mirrored, chandeliered chrome Roama Gypsy show caravan with white leather sofas as their accommodation. Very swish, if a little bit muddy. It is sited in the Permaculture garden next to our mirror tiled yacht that artists Zoe Walker and Neil Bromich made last year and toured with as a 'pirate' radio station. They will also be exhibiting their work here at Coed Hills thanks to the support of the Arts Council of Wales.

 

Gareth John, AKA Gazza Planker because he runs the Transformation Timber Saw Mill at Coed Hills, has a new friend, Brigand, a large but still growing Shire horse for logging, who he is training from scratch.

If you would like the Tansformation Timber co-operative to mill you some planks of timber made to your specifications, contact us here on info@coedhills.co.uk.

 

This time last year, Sophie’s dog Seren had puppies. There are no puppies this year. However, Sophie and Tim decided to have puppies of her own this time round.  CONGRATULATIONS to Sophie and Tim, whose baby is due in July!  They will be having their handfasting at Coed Hills in the Stone Circle that, aptly, Tim built.

If you would like to have your WEDDING reception here, perhaps in the woods, in the Stone Circle or down by the pond, Coed Hills can accommodate any kind of CELEBRATION you have in mind. Just send us your ideas on info@coedhills.co.uk

So as you can see, we have had a busy time this Winter, working hard in the cold… apart from two of the community, Rawley and his daughter Branwen, who thought better of spending the Winter in the blusteryHills, and winged their  merry way to India, where they are enjoying sweet and spicy Chai with the Monkey God.  We think Rawley definitely deserves a break and it’s a good chance for him to have some family bonding time with Brannie! They will return just in time for the

COED HILLS' OFFICIAL OPENING date  on MAY 1st.

If you like Triban's fliers, you can contact our artist Antonia Salter on 0777 9877343

or scratchyspider@hotmail.com or here, on mixi@coedhills.co.uk

This year, members of the Community will be helping to run the LOST HORIZON  SAUNA CABARET CAFE space at festivals such as Sunrise, Buddhafield and Big Chill. However, the sauna, showers and cabaret space is available for hire for whatever purpose you would like including some rather wild and sumptuously themed celebrations with fancy dress and decoration- let your imagination and senses transport you to other worlds!

Also coming up this year, members of the Coed Hills community are offering a dog walking service. Your dog can be collected, taken for a thorough stomp through our forests and fields, and returned to you a happier and healthier mutt.  Contact 0777 9877343 or  whatdogsdreamof@hotmail.co.uk

Members of the public are welcome to come for a walk and a cup of tea, in exchange for a donation to the Artspace. We also invite you to book events yourselves- we are open to suggestion!

Please understand that Coed Hills is closed to walkers during weddings, which are labelled ‘Private Ceremony/celebration’. Thank you.

Otherwise, if you spot something you fancy getting involved in mentioned below, please phone us before arrival on:

01446 774084 or email us on info@coedhills.co.uk if you are interested in joining any of the events below. Thank you!