| Relaxed Sanctuary Community Events at Cadbury Cottage |
| In early 2024, we began to give our smallholding back to 'nature'. Part of our long term plan was and is to involve our local community as much as we can. It is a huge privilege to own the land we do and it feels very important to share our space so other people can benefit from being immersed in their natural world and helping to improve the bio-diversity. We began by planting trees and building ponds and need to offer huge thanks to Keiran, Devon Wildlife Trust, Devon County Council, The Trees Trust and Tamar Trees for supplying us with upwards of 1400 trees (all free via a variety of schemes and grants) and for their invaluable advice, as well to Nick Benge from Roborough Rewilders for digging our ponds and creating our banks and scrapes. We are also hugely grateful to everyone who has helped plants all our mini copses and hedging. We now run a variety of community and educational events such as plant hunts, mothing mornings, habitat building, pond dipping and more, for a variety of people including adult groups, brownies, cubs, scouts and local schools. |
| Hedgehogs with Chulmleigh Brownies - July 16th 2025 The amazing Chulmleigh Brownies built some super hedgehog habitats today out of pallets, brash and straw, before then heading back to the barn to make their own pine cone hedgehogs using pine cones and clay - messy but huge fun!!!     |
| Pond Dipping with Chulmleigh Brownies - July 9th 2025 After a fab hour or so with the nets, we went back to the barn, and with the help of field guides and magnifying glasses identified (almost) all the creatures caught, before gently re releasing them back into the pond. What a great fun evening!     |
| Pond Dipping and Habitat Building with Chulmleigh Cubs - June 19th 2025 A fabulous time with the cubs pond dipping and habitat building. Huge amount of engagement and a lot of fun.     |
| Pond Dipping 2 with Chulmleigh Guides - June 4th 2025 After their first visit to us last month when we had a fab pond dipping session, Chulmleigh Guides were asked what they wanted to do for their second session here at Cadbury Cottage. They were given quite a variety of choices from making bee bricks to building habitat piles. And they opted for.... .... MORE pond dipping. We gave them the task of seeing what they could find in all the newest ponds on the land - many of which didn't look as though they contained that much life (although we knew different!!). In a mere half hour or so, most groups had found a good 10-plus species. We them had a very happy half hour looking at them under microscopes and hand lenses!! Another great session from a wondrously engaged group of young ladies - all 21 of them!!! Thanks to Mandy, Lesley, Claire, Amy and Nick for all their help .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) |
| Pond Dipping with Chulmleigh Guides - May 14th 2025 What a totally stunning pond dipping session with Chulmleigh Guides today - what a totally amazing group of young people they were. We dipped in our established garden pond and in one of our new bigger ponds (dug just last September) and discovered LOADS (full list coming soon) including whopping Great Diving Beetle larva, and zillions of froglets and newts. So much chatter and engagement and learning going on. These youngsters were a credit to their Guide group. Thanks to Mandy and her helpers for bringing them over. And hanks to Amy, Claire and Julie too. We are looking forward to another session with them all in June!!              |
| A Second Plant Hunt - April 27th 2025 Another fabulous Plant Hunt here at Cadbury Cottage this afternoon. Huge thanks to Amy, Lynda and Dorette for all their help and support as well as plant and cake contributions. Fran (from the Wren Choir that some of us belong to) turned out to be a bit of an expert botanist. She found EIGHTY species in an hour and a half - which is almost HALF of the total species we found on our Plant A Day mission last year - lots are ones we haven't found so we now need to find them and get them photographed, recorded and added to the website. The weather was perfect, everyone was relaxed, some fabulous new friends were made.         |
| Final Tree Planting - April 10th 2025 Stunning afternoon with The Amber Foundation, planting the last of our trees here at Cadbury Cottage (The Relaxed Sanctuary). Despite the lack of rain, the ground was still damp once we got the spades in (although that was hard work at times 😅). We now have around 1400 on the land - so looking forward to seeing how they grow over the next few years. HUGE thank you to the residents who came - loved our tea and biscuits in the barn afterwards discussing whether it was jam or cream first and how to mix up butter and marmalade and 'then' spread it on your hot toast!! Yum Yum...     |
| Tree and Hedge Planting - January 4th and 5th 2025 A totally fabulous weekend planting trees and hedging at Cadbury Cottage. 19 species (Beech, Bird Cherry, Blackthorn, Buckthorn, Crab Apple, Dog Rose, Downy Birch, Elder, Guilder Rose, Hawthorn, Hazel, Hornbeam, Lime, Oak, Rowan, Spindle, Sweet Chestnut, Wayfaring and Wild Cherry) and around 1200 ish individual plants. Seven mini copses of around 50/60 trees each and four new hedges were created. HUGE thanks to all the volunteers who came to help: Nick, Claire, Mike, Felix, Julie, Andy, Dennis, Ellie, Viv and Kelly and Amy and her seven Ashreigney volunteers.. The weather was kind as despite heavy rains on both Friday and Saturday nights, it stayed dry during the day.             |
| Pond Day - November 3rd 2024 When many hands make light work !! We had a great turnout for our pond margin planting day. Some of the tasks included removing a redundant wire chicken coop in preparation for planting willow, and planting perennials around the outside margin of the pond. A shallow shelf was dug within the pond itself to allow easy access / exit points for wildlife. All in all, a great days work.     |
| Plant Hunt - September 8th 2024 Despite the weather we had a good turnout for our first plant hunt today.. A walk followed by delicious cakes and refreshments in the barn. What a lovely way to spend a Sunday… another event is already being planned for spring!   |