Our first summer season has rushed by and we are now into one of our favourite times of year here at Pengelly Retreat. Autumn! I keep seeing the hashtag autumn vibes on social media at the moment and it always makes me smile because I love this time of year.
We’ve had a real mixed bag of weather in September and October with some gorgeous hot sunny days and some days when the rain just didn’t seem to stop. But this means the gardens and land are looking lush and lovely, with all those autumn red, orange and yellow tones coming through.
Jim has been hard at work on the land as usual with his latest project planting a wetland garden round the oxbow lagoon, just beyond the Boat House. He’s planted umbrella grass, irises and reeds, sown bog meadow mix and planning to put in silver birch trees and gunnera plants. We can’t wait to see how it looks next spring. He’s also made a new compost area so we can properly compost our leaves and leftovers.
The wildlife has been flourishing too. We’ve got a hedgehog hibernating in the barn – it gets quite feisty if you go near it and hisses, so no photos. Jim and Aggie have built a beautiful hedgehog house by the stream in hopes a hibernating hedgehog might move in but no luck yet. Picky customers those hedgehogs!
Lucky guests staying at the Sail House yurt have been enjoying watching a kingfisher who likes to perch near the lake looking for fish. Apparently you can watch him from the comfort of the bed in there – now that’s luxurious bird-watching! We also had a couple of sets of guests earlier in the season spot an otter in the lake. We are thrilled that an otter has visited our lake at Pengelly Retreat.
We’ve had quite a few guests try their hand at fishing for the wild brown trout in the lake during their stays – catch and release policy. All I can say is those brown trout are VERY clever and you have to be a top fisher-person to catch them. There’s lots in there, but the only guest who had much success was a pro fisherman who competes and wins in high profile competitions. This doesn’t seem to put other guests off from trying, we all like a challenge!
We’ve been busy throughout the year and are already rapidly booking up for next year which is great. Thank you very much to all our lovely guests who’ve stayed with us so far in our first year of running Pengelly Retreat and we look forward to meeting all those who are booked in with us for the future. If you’d like to squeeze in a stay at the Boat House or the Sail House this year there’s still a chance! We have a few dates available in November and first half of December, take a look at our availability calendar for details and prices.
Happy Halloween everyone and look out for your next Postcard from Pengelly 🙂