Life At The Retreat - Planning For August And September

We’re pleased that the relentless rain has finally paused, although our beautiful hanging baskets have thrived this summer.

We’re busy planning for a very busy August and September at the moment, with a mixture of residential and one-day retreats to organise. Author and positive ageing influencer Siobhan Daniels will be hosting our Retirement Rebel weekend with one-day workshops on both 2 and 3 September to share her unique perspective on surviving, thriving and ageing positively. She’ll also be talking about how she combines her writing career with her retirement adventures in her motorhome. These sessions are open to everyone, and we’re hoping lots of guests will join us to hear from Siobhan and enjoy afternoon tea. We reckon people of all ages will leave feeling that anything is possible! You can book here.

It's Afternoon Tea Week this week, something we can get behind wholeheartedly as our chef Shane prepares Afternoon Tea from scratch DAILY for our guests. It's a ritual everyone has grown to love, providing a much-needed focal point for writers, academics and business guests who've been working hard all day on their projects. Our stunning location of North Yorkshire makes it even more special. Although legend has it that the 7th Duchess of Bedford created this custom in the early 19th century, Yorkshire does it best, surely?

Last weekend was steak night. Sometimes our guests want something a little bit special, and when we're working with high quality ingredients sourced by local suppliers, we're only too happy to oblige. RM Kealey Farmer and Butcher in Snaith really came up trumps and our guests were duly impressed!

Finally, it was International Coworking Day this week too! Celebrated in August every year, it’s a day meant to encourage the concept of coworking around the world. Now the norm for many of us post-Covid, working remotely is great for staff retention, but it can be harder to convey information clearly and quickly – and maintain healthy relationships – when team members aren’t physically present in the same location.

We offer a monthly business brunch as a great way for businesses to meet face to face in a professional yet refreshing environment that won’t give people that ‘back to the office’ sinking feeling. We even have a new exec minibus to take people to and from their nearest commuter hub in style. We took delivery of this earlier in the summer, and as you can see, our pug Noodle was pretty enamoured with our new mode of transport.

Speaking of the mini-bus, Tony used it to take a recent retreat guest to the local Parkrun on a Saturday morning recently. He was a keen runner and thought his stay with us was a great way to engage in some Parkrun tourism! That’s the beauty of being a family-run business – we can accommodate more unique requests to create a home from home feeling for our lovely guests.