Bring it on…
I find it hard to believe, but it’s very nearly a full year since I last wrote a blog to capture and record our journey here at The Orchard. Just like everyone else in these strange times, I’m easily confused about which year we did what, what month we are in and some weeks I have more than one Wednesday or think it’s Friday when it’s only Thursday. However, we have just received a most amazing and auspicious piece of news that absolutely puts a marker in our timeline and turns the page to close one chapter and puts us on the brink of the next.
In my blog ‘When the universe takes over’ I shared how the first lockdown in March 2020 was the catalyst that meant I moved my counselling practice from my counselling rooms at home in Blackburn to our smallholding in Reedley Hallows. How a move borne out of necessity had been the most amazing and life changing happening for us and for all my therapeutic work.
It finally came in May 2021 when on opening our mail box we found a letter from Pendle Planning telling us that they were aware that we were running a business from The Orchard without the proper consent. I don’t mind admitting that my tummy did a flip and I felt a flutter of anxiety in my chest, however we are not stupid people and were well aware that this was exactly what we were doing and that we would have to answer to it at some point. This had not been how we would’ve like to have done things; however, we didn’t have time to seek planning permission for change of use, we had responded in a crisis and didn’t regret a thing.
We spent the first bank holiday weekend in May writing a letter to the planning office, giving a full and comprehensive explanation of what we were doing and why we were doing it. By the end of the week a planning officer had called us to arrange a visit and by the end of the following week, there we were walking the site together. It took me totally by surprise how much I enjoyed that planning officers visit!!! The only people who had been able to visit us were clients and school’s groups so really this was the first chance we had had to show someone all that we had done and explain the progression and where were up to now. It really was at this meeting that we properly got hold of the enormity of what we had achieved and the huge risks we had taken to do so. I secretly believe that he too enjoyed the visit and was not a little impressed by our conviction and commitment.
Our next move was to contact Stuart our very ace planning consultant. After our first discussions we understood that our application would probably be turned down in the first instance and that we would then have to appeal to have our application heard by a wider audience including the local council and community and this would be our best hope of getting it passed. After a couple of months of Stuart putting together the case, guiding us through writing a statement, more discussion, some tweaking and culling and more discussion we finally had something that captured it all and was ready to present for our change of use application.
Alongside this, on Stuart’s advice I had asked for support in the form of letters from some of those who receive their counselling or supervision from me and my faithful woofers here at The Orchard. I asked the schools who use us, my supervisees who work in this area, a local counselling service where I have given training and supervision, my own supervisor who had held the space as I worked through crucial decisions and a small handful of clients and parents who I was sure would not be affected negatively by this request. What happened for me as I read those letters was quite extraordinary. As you know we are passionate about ecology and I have a deep belief and trust in the power of the land and wildlife for eco and outdoor therapy and I expected good things from this change of use on our smallholding. However, I learned so much more about my clients’ experiences that I may never have known without this hurdle to jump and told me the impact was much greater than even I had envisaged. Wherever in a counselling career or lifetime would I get this deeper insight into my practice? I was fascinated and moved to my boots to read how the land, the trees, the wildlife, the hens, the bees, the weather, the open space and even my love for The Orchard had impacted and increased the power of the work. What follows are a tiny snippet from those collected testimonies.
‘I wasn’t quite prepared for how Wood End would transform my experience.’
‘That something so beautiful can grow and flourish after being abused, neglected and discarded gives me hope’.
‘The space feels big enough, and strong enough to hold my difficult emotions. It feels like "my space", a space I can leave part of me safely until I return the next week’.
‘To experience the last months of therapy in this natural oasis has been the most impactful self-development I have ever experienced’.
‘I felt ‘held’ as we sat under the old oak trees with the branches arching over us and the solid roots beneath us. I felt cradled by trees so grounded and deeply rooted as the oaks witnessed my story, feeling my sorrow, keeping my secrets and giving me their strength’.
‘The hour spent in nature, listening to sounds, smelling the flowers, surrounded by the animals, walking and laying on the wooden bench at the river reduced my anxiety and became a real oasis for me as a parent while waiting for my child’s session to finish’,
Not only was I blown away by these sincere and beautifully authentic experiences committed to paper and willingly given, but Stuart on reading them made a brave decision to include them in our application rather than hold them for the expected rejection and appeal.
It was a full six months later when we heard that the planning office had finally even accepted our application to be looked at!!! This then was the start of a further eight weeks wait to the 18th January 2022 for a decision. At around 5pm on that very date we got the amazing news that our planning application had been approved!!!! First time, no appeal, the job was done.
For a few days I struggled to really connect with the reality of where we were. The feeling was strange, I should be leaping about and shouting from the rooftops, or the top of the oaks, but here I was quietly calm. It took a few days for the excitement and realisation that we had finally got here to sink in and then I understood that the biggest lesson I had learned in all the years it took to get here, was how to wait.
As I look back now, I see years of waiting for the right time in our lives to take such risks. Four years to find our land, eight complicated months to seal the deal, nearly three years to clear, and build and plant and then eight more months awaiting a decision that our whole future will rest on. Often, I felt like we were waiting for something that might not happen, but mostly our mantra was
Trust the wait, Embrace the uncertainty and Enjoy the beauty of becoming.
And so at the turning of this page, I savour the previous chapter of clearing and restoring, of building a barn with a counselling room and a lovely big group space. We’ve grown a bee garden in the meadow, have a little flock of rescue hens-a-laying, and a little patch of woodland well on its way to full restoration, food beds producing crops and an orchard yielding fruit. The therapy work is thriving both indoor and outside and schools work is developing nicely. As we turn the page, I find myself on a new brink as I have been totally taken by surprise by the reception of my Wood End inspired wood and wool creations. This emerged out of my own self-care as I immersed myself in learning new a craft as I sat cocooned by nature through the turning of the seasons. I dream of workshops and retreat days where others can experience the therapeutic value of crafting, or jam making, of growing food and foraging, of watching the bees and listening to stories while lying in the meadow or with their back against a tree. I am excited talking to brides about honey and handmade jam favours that add to the specialness of their day.
New chapter, we are ready…
Bring it on
