Blog Spot

JULY 22 2010

We are tidying up after a moving and extrordinary weekend. About 30 people turned out for our Friends weekend to work in the grounds and share the weekend together. Kim estimates it would have taken her eight weeks hard labour to achieve the same results. The Friends Garden was created ( see news item), the rock garden was restored, the quiet garden pruned and tidied, the cold frames cleared and the wooden benches repainted.

It was notable that very few people knew each other when we got together on the Friday evening but a real sense of purpose and enthusiasm emerged as the weekend went on.  We were lucky to recruit some very skilful people - not least our next door neighbour who lent and drove a mini digger - but everyone mucked in and achieved a great sense of pride in what was achieved.

We had some fun along the way with a BBQ and a band on Saturday and rounded off with a communion service in the Friends Garden on Sunday afternoon when we were joined by a group from Sunderland Minster. For the staff, it wasnt just the progress we made in restoring the grounds - though we are as pleased as punch with the improvements. It was the sense of a shared purpose and fellowship with all our friends and their willingness to contribute their time so generously. There is already a date to pick apples on 26th September and others are welcome then as well.

JULY 01 2010

You can buy deckchairs but you cant buy silence. The refurbishment of Shepherds Dene continues apace. This week, there is some bright new garden furniture on the south lawn for our guests to enjoy the sunshine.  We ve also added a volleyball court. At this time of year, the gardens are a real asset and we want our guests to enjoy them.

But maintaining and building a spiritual sense of peace of quiet is a more subtle processand it cant be delivered in a white van. I felt it last week when the house quietened down for a retreat with woodcarvings and music led by Christopher Lewis. There were periods of silence as well as times of good conversation around the dinner table. The quality of engagement grows day by day and there is a real sense of loss when everyone goes home.

There was a similar atmosphere throughout  the STOP! weekend when most of our guests came and went for a few hours and took part in a workshop. It showed us that you can get closer to God though gardening, walking or birdwatching - which was especially popular. The circle dancing  appealed to all ages and the whole weekend was held together by a cycle of prayer developed and led by Sue Degnan.

The staff joined in as many of the workshops as we could. It helped me realise the privelege of working in such wonderful surroundings and how crazy it is to dash from one thing to another without taking some time out to appreciate them. So my resolution is to disappear into the garden with my book and my thoughts for half an hour each day.  I can often be found in the gazebo by the iron gate.

We have also welcomed the Menzone group from Monkseaton who had a thought provoking programme led by Geoff Miller and somehow found time to watch Englands opening game in the World Cup.  The teachers from Villa Real Special School had a great weekend of fellowship and joined us for morning prayers. This week we host the silent retreat for those preapring for ordination at Petertide. It is one of the events in the calendar that we all  look forward to as we want to support them as they prepare for their ministry.  I  just hope the weather cheers up and the retreants get to sit out in the deckchairs.

MAY 27 2010

We had a wonderful evening of chamber music on Friday with the Andantino quartet. It was a glorious sunny evening and many of our guests took their supper out on to lawn - just like at Glyndebourne. The string quartet was lead by our neighbours Colin and Di Dickinson who kindly inspired and organised the evening with the proceeds going to the continuing refurbishment of Shepherds Dene.

I often meet people who have special memories of Shepherds Dene stretching back over the years. Friday was no exception. One of the guests told me that she had attended a retreat here 40 years ago as a member of St Basil's and St Jude's  and had received a proposal of marriage from her future husband in the course of the weekeend. . it just shows  that you never know what may happen on a retreat!

For those of you following the progress of the improvements here, the Terrace Room balcony has now been rebuilt and can be used again and we are about to install a badly needed new dishwasher. Our painting of Durham Cathedral has been sent off to be restored and the area outside the front door has been opened out in  preparation for a new wood carving - which will installed during the friends weekend in July.

The big schemes take longer but we are on course to seek trustees approval in June for new bedroom furniture, and more ensuites - though these will have to wait until next January to be installed. Trustees  will also consider plans from our architect to bring the potting shed back to life as a further meeting space. which will have an especially peaceful location in the walled garden and  a spectacular view across the valley.

George Hepburn

APRIL 04 2010

I started work at Shepherds Dene a year ago on Easter Day - though, in fairness, I have only been working full time since September. It has been very rewarding for me. It is a joy to say morning prayer with my colleagues and to be able to more up front about my faith than I might have been in another job.  But, by the way, this doesnt mean that good employment practice isnt required. We have taken on HR consultants and are about to introduce a new staff handbook.

I have become more and more interested in the role of  Christian hospitality and how Shepherds Dene can offer that hospitality and support to our guests in appropriate ways. Some of Henri Nouwens writing have been especially useful to reflect on. Of course, it is a privlege to host an ordinands retreat for Cranmer Hall but it is just as important to look after the flower arrangers well on their residential weekend.  They had their own sense of  fellowship that I found very moving. And they worked incredibly hard on their projects as well!

One of the highlights for me was  a dinner and conversation with a group of senior business people about their work and faith which was run at Shepherds Dene with After Sunday. I hope it will become a regular event as the facilities at Shepherds Dene lend themselves extremely well to that kind of thoughtful and confidential conversation. But other highlights included the overnight retreat for local authority leaders and the away day for a regional charity that I facilitated for them. Both groups are tackling serious issues with courage and a sense of  purpose and we should support them in doing so as  witnessing Christians. I am less and less convinced that the traditional way of counting heads as 'church use' and 'secular use' makes sense as both are on a journey that deserves our support and prayers.

And, alongside everything else, it has been stimulating to plan how to improve the facilities at Shepherds Dene. Sometimes the improvements are small steps like serving coffee in Denby mugs and having the Guardian in the front hall.  Other projects are more ambitious and will take time. The schemes to bring the potting shed and walled garden back into use, for example, are ambitious.

There have been frustrations and disappointments. Despite quite a lot of advertising, we are not getting a good enough response to our events.  We may have to accept that it takes time to build a reputation. We would like to get more new newcomers across the threshold and have plans this summer to do so. But when Michelle Dalliston makes a point of telling me how much she enjoyed her weekend with Cranmer Hall, that the food was excellent and  the coffee drinkable, I realise we must be getting some things right and know that, by and large, our guests are benetfiting from their time at Shepherds Dene which is what it is all about.

George Hepburn

FEBRUARY 19 2010

The most spectacular moment of the week was on Tuesday afternoon when a huge cedar tree was felled just outside the front door. It had become dangerous and needed to go but we all felt the loss of a 70 year old tree as it came crashing to the ground.  The cedar is part of our heritage and I am hoping we might be able to use some of the trunk to make sculpture for the house. It was the last of 10 trees expertly felled by Tom Richardson and Peter Bedford. I could have watched them at work all day.

Tree felling seems an odd place to start but is part of an evolving plan to restore the grounds of Shepherds Dene. The original Edwardian ground plan is still apparant even if overgrown in parts.  The real delight of the week has been the arrival of Kim Sinclair to join the staff as our gardener. Kim has worked at Beamish and brings lots of experience of historic gardens and all the determination and energy that will be needed to put ours back in order.

We would like to involve more volunteers as well to help in the grounds. Julia and Paul gave us a day of their time the other week. Will is restoring the summer house and Grace came along for the day yesterday. We hope that others will join in as well. In July, we are throwing the house open for a friends weekend on 17th and 18th July to work on a project and will offer hospitality to a growing band of friends. Please let me know if you would like to get involved.  

JANUARY 14 2010

Well you have to talk about the snow. It is a national pastime but it is also extraordinarily beautiful at Shepherds Dene because the ground around is largely undistubed - apart from a whole series of animal prints.

There is also a very social aspect to the ongoing snow. People talk to each other. They use the bus. They help clear each others footpaths. It seems to bring out the best in people and builds social capital.

At Shepherds Dene, our neighbours in the Lodge towed out my pathetically small car with their 4 x 4. Our new neighbours at West Cottage are moving in as I write this in icy conditions. And the staff have been marvellous in picking each other up, walking up from the main road, often in a group, to keep everything going.

Our guests for a quiet week over the last few days have said there is a special quality to the peace that a snow bound landscape brings. OK, it is tiring and frustrating but there is another side of wonderment at God's kingdom that we dont often experience in this way. And after all the build up to Christmas, it seems especially appropriate for Epiphany.