Endless days of blue cloudless skies and hot dry sunshine, that have left us all a little frazzled and dare I mention it, a wincy bit short-tempered at times….mentioning no names this end….

Martin has not been tempted to purchase a “Wilf skirt” despite Wilf’s endless protestations about the wonderful air flow, and his cool thighs…for which I and the rest of the family, are quite disappointed. Always nice to have something to giggle over after a hot day in the woods with small children… A modernish man Martin may be, but he’s not quite skirt material yet. But who knows what will happen to his wardrobe if the temperatures continue to soar in summers to come…

Anyway, enough of hot thighs and men in skirts…and on to some proper farm July news.

July!

… has been busy!

In an effort to be concise for you for once, here are some random numbers for July at Copsegrove:

2 people celebrated their wedding here one glorious Saturday with 75 guests in tow…

Such a happy wedding here at Copsegrove!

710 large round bales of hay were made, by Martin and Wilf, from 8 varying sized fields. over 16 long days …

35 of these have already been fed back to our hungry bellowing cattle, who have been noisily complaining about the scorched fields they are grazing, (all of which are crying out for rain, and yielding very little of anything green and juicy for them to munch)… 3months too early…yikes

594 children have visited the farm, (4 coaches got lost) , built approximately 98 dens, roasted at least 1400 marshmallows, toasted 650 wraps stuffed full with chocolate spread and bulging with baby marshmallows, found 100’s of woodlice, (each of which by the way has 14 legs) and 7 rather alarmed toads, broken 3 pond dipping nets whilst finding zillions of nymphs of various descriptions in our secret valley pond, but with most importantly, 0, YES ZERO children falling in (phew).

School children in the magical Copsegrove woodland.

123 people came to our Hoedown, shuffled, grapevined, and yee hawwed enthusiastically…there were too many cow boy hats and boots to count, but 5 bright pink ones did stand out…

1 Texan cowgirl and 1 David Bowie look alike performed rather brilliantly.

120 pot holes on the lane to the barn were photographed by Wilf and sent to the council (complete with a tennis ball in the middle of each of them for demonstration of impressive size purposes).

2 men in high vis turned up rather impressively the next day, and made white circles around 20 of them, before they exhausted themselves and their can of paint and disappeared…

And finally 31 perfect beautiful golden sunsets were admired, with 31 ( or maybe more) large gin and tonics guzzled enthusiastically.

And that’s it!

Texan Hay Hoedown

Texas hit Copsegrove, and rather suited it! It has to be seen to be believed…so here goes…please do click the video below:

Thank you so much to all who came along! It was such a fun night, and there have been several requests to do another in the future. Plenty of time for Wilf to practise his bull riding .

The Autumn Equinox with the fabulous Boss Morris!

We are thrilled and excited to be welcoming back our very special guests, the Boss girls, to take over the courtyard on Wednesday 23rd September and help us celebrate the balance of light and dark. An unforgettable night of merry making is planned to mark the end of this particularly long hot summer full of sunshine, and welcome in the Autumn with it’s crisp fresh, mornings, and it’s nights beginning to draw in.

We have a really exciting evening planned, with uplifting music and dancing from Boss Morris, delicious fire cooked food from Ian Ballantyne which will celebrate some of our local harvest, (menu to come soon!) and a poignant ceremonial burning of a giant golden globe, the building of which should keep Martin out of trouble over August!

Relaxed, and informal, and a final hurrah in the courtyard, before we hunker down back inside the barn and light the fire again for our Winter feasts. We hope so much you may be able to come and join us and Boss Morris for an Equinox celebration to remember! If I have mastered the tech correctly, there are some early bird tickets up for grabs at £20, with tickets thereafter increasing to £25. Tickets are on sale now!

Purchase tickets here!

Wishing you all a lovely August, and happy hols for those of you heading off somewhere. Huge thanks as always for your continued interest in, and support of Copsegrove!

‘Til the Autumn!

Warmest wishes,

Kate