This week saw the arrival of writers for our January Writing Retreat - and what a wonderful group they were! From the morning goal-setting meetings through to lunchtime discussions, the afternoon walks and the evening dinner table conversations (with plenty of writing time and mentoring/feedback through the day), this retreat was one of the best yet. As we said goodbye this morning, I reflected on the delights that this particular writing retreat has delivered...
Among the delights that this writing group brought to the retreat table, aside from much superb fiction and playwriting, were ideas and insights that have transformed some of the ways in which our retreats will operate going forward. Chief among these was the candlelit reading session on the final evening. Since my own PhD research focuses on candlelight (80,000 words very nearly complete!), Isabella's suggestion - and then insistence - that we have our final-night shared-reading session in candlelight, proved inspired. We all agreed that the enhanced atmosphere, and lack of visual distraction, combined to create a truly memorable session in which the quality of the writing could be fully appreciated. From now on, as Rhiaz proposed, this candlelit session will be an integral part of our retreats at A Place to Write. Though I'm not sure I'm ready to take on the instagram handle '@phdcandleman' yet!
Another inspirational idea came from Tracey, who has solved the problem which has beset not only Wendy and I, but also the previous owners of the property: what to do with our slate quarry? Our slate quarry rises high above the main house and grounds, on the very edge of the Berwyn Mountains. The exposed mountain face betrays the quarrying past and the name of the property - 'Bron Y Graig' - translates as 'almost the rock' - the rock, literally, being the quarry face! Anyway, since we first saw it we knew there was something special about this area of the grounds: looking down on, and across the Dee Valley from a semi enclosed position which makes the ancient hill fort of Caer Drewyn the centrepiece of the vista. But it is wild. Overgrown. And has a stream that runs through it after heavy rain. In the past, talk of a garden (difficult to maintain, given the nature of the soil there), and an orchard (a very long term project), and even a hot tub (impractical, perhaps, both from a planning and utilities angle) have dominated the suggestions for the space. Tracey's wonderfully simple proposal has won the day though: a wild garden with a circle of around a dozen sitting stones as its centrepiece, that will not only provide a unique group meeting space but also potentially provide a magical arena in which to hang out and even perform poetry, book readings and the like. Plans are already underway for a spring transformation, ready for our summer season.
Yet another delight, developing out of the stone circle concept, was the thought that we might add one - or even two - writing huts in separate areas of our extensive grounds: one to be named Isaf (lower) and the other Uchaf (upper). An alternative name for the first one might be 'The Tool Shed' - with the tools in question all related to writing and publishing. It is another inspiring, achievable idea which is also now firmly in our plans for the coming months. These sheltered writing huts with stunning views will not only provide yet more places to write, but they will also provide distinctly different spaces in which to break your writer's block or simply look out on the natural world while pondering the direction of a story...
There were many more delights this week, both within the writing retreat and beyond. A wonderful walk up Caer Drewyn in a mixture of rain, sunshine and hail; a hugely entertaining game of Perudo on the second evening; a superb lecture by Professor Tiffany Stern (my PhD supervisor), from the Shakespeare Institute, on Richard Tarlton and his contribution to clowning. Once again, Wendy and I are both delighted to have hosted a hugely successful retreat with a wonderful group of writers. Roll on February!
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