The Garden Opens and You Can Have A Lie Down

The Garden Opens & You Can Have a Lie Down

Anyone that knows me will know my favourite pastimes are gardening and having a nice little lie down. How absolutely right then that The Sound Sanctuary has opened in the old hopkiln in the heart of the garden. Roise (pronounced roe-sha) is a lovely gentle Sound Therapist from Australia. She has created the most beautiful and welcoming space next to our mini tearoom and performs the most magically relaxing sound therapy over and around clients bodies leaving them in a state of utter peace and harmony and, frankly, pretty much good for nothing for the next couple of hours so I won’t be indulging too much this summer or else my TripAdvisor reviews could take a turn for the worse. Sound Therapy is new to me but is apparently The Latest Thing and was described at Glastonbury as Massage by Sound. How can we resist?

Roise is very happy to have found this place and her current clients say Brook Farm and our garden is the perfect place for her to have her sanctuary. It is peaceful and full of the sounds of nature and Roise says she may even do consultations outside with the brook babbling by and the sound of the birds. (I’ll just have to make sure hubby doesn’t fire up the chainsaw on those days.)

I have taken the plunge, with husband William’s consent, and advertised the garden under the name The Heartfelt Garden. Some of you will know this is the name of the little book wot I wrote and I did hesitate as it is such a personal open-hearted book. However, I really want to attract people new to gardens and gardening here, to share with them what we have created and hopefully encourage them to have a go themselves. I think the name and my actually very groovy leaflet *buffs nails* might appeal to a new sort of garden visitor.

I have this urge to share – not in a saintly altruistic sense (we’ll be charging a whole three pounds each) It’s more a “if we can do it, you can do it” sort of thing, but also a “you can feel what I feel” sort of thing too. In a frantic world we’re all looking for something – sometimes anything – that makes sense of it all. Many new and old spiritual ,mystical, new age principles and beliefs allow people to find some sort of bliss and I think it is actually bliss that we gardeners feel (as well as the cold and the thorns and the backache). I think spiritual bliss is right here outside in our gardens.

Someone do stop me if I become too evangelical about it but it seems to me if the world were full of gardeners it would be a happier and nicer place to be. I’m opening my Heartfelt Garden in the hope that it goes forth and multiplies and spreads a bit of bliss. There are worse things you could aim to do with your life I suppose.

It’s open Saturdays Sundays and Mondays through the summer and you can come to The Sound Sanctuary pretty much any time with an appointment. Roise is on 07511 621856. She’s very gentle – don’t shout J

O and of course there are some rooms and cottages here if you don’t live down the road. (Got to pay for the garden somehow)

Image from my side of the leaflet up top, Roise’s side here…