THE DRUIDSTONE GOOD TIMES

2008        note the new style to go with the celebration of moving on……… ________________________________________________________________________________

CELEBRATIONS AND REMINISCENCES

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF DRUIDSTONE   or   THE HOTEL THAT WASN’T

From caterpillar to butterfly

For years we have been referred to as a bunch of old hippies, so, were we living in the past? Perhaps, but I think the hippy era came up with some of the best and most innovative progressions made in the last thirty five years. Grown up Hippies are responsible for lots of “Off the Wall” thinking. Now known as “left field” the Hippy generation seems largely responsible for many advances in alternative technology, celebrating difference and supporting lateral thinking; peace makers, architects and artists, working against poverty and climate change. Druidstone is now not a hotel – in the eyes of the ruling bodies we do not have enough lavatories on the first floor so we have to be called a “Restaurant with Rooms” To be honest I prefer that classification. A recent guest, on returning to Druidstone after an absence of 15 years or more, said “thank God you have not decended into the realms of Spa and Jacuzzi provision.” Well spotted Suzanne…..

There are some changes in the air for Druidstone. Over the last few years our confidence has grown in the “outside the box” development we have instinctively run with for the last 36 years. With the support of our ever growing fan club and Angus’s enthusiasm for offering continuity by taking over as we (slowly) retire, we now feel we can really celebrate with a year of special events to let all of you join us in our move back from the front line. The younger generation, Beth and Angus will be making all the decisions from next year. They are already very much in the driving seat but so far have not managed to dump me on the grass verge of retirement. Once a back seat driver, always a back seat driver. (Rod will be flinching at my use of cliché!) Now the house is looking good and I want to get to that garden and to my bike so from March 2009 you will definitely find me in my greenhouse or exploring the estuaries of Britain. Strangely when I was about 11 my hobby was what I called “streaming” – you started at the sea and did not leave the stream until you found it’s source! I think now it might be easier to start at the source and finish at the sea!

Angus wants to move forward improving the environmental sustainability of the old place and visited the Eco Build Exhibition. We all want to develop the right technology to reduce the carbon footprint but it is difficult to find the right direction to move in. Maybe now with grant aid and interest free loans this might be easier. There seems to be very little on Hydro power and we are seeking further information on that if anyone has any experience.

The Prince’s Trust work that we have undertaken for the last 20 years finally received the patronage it deserves. Soon after we started working with Vivienne Bowen Morgan in Llanelli we devised a way of making the provision for youngsters from difficult environments sustainable financially. Many organisations have helped by providing mentors for the young while on team and personal development courses that are run at Druidstone. In March we were organising one for the Defence Estates Department headed by Vice Admiral Tim Lawrence. A few weeks before the visit, much to our delight he asked if he could bring his wife along. HRH The Princess Royal landed by helicopter on the croquet lawn and spent two hours talking to the young people and their mentors as well as meeting Rod’s mother on her 90th Birthday. They enjoyed a cup of Honduras Ethical Coffee from Capital Roasters and Welsh Cakes made by Matt Ash, asked for Druidstone Chocolate Brownies to take away in the helicopter and graciously accepted a pot of wild daffodils from the corner of the drive to plant in Gatcombe Park woods….. The memory is almost surreal. HRH in our house….. The Vice Admiral is good news too…..

DWELLING ON THE PAST…….. I was listening to a family of musicians playing guitar, accordion, saxophones and bass in the bar and I was reminded of the massive number of musicians who have passed through Druidstone in the last 36 years. Ranging from Trevor Pinnock who directed The English Concert from the harpsichord, through Elkie Brooks (of “Lilac Wine” fame) wowing the builders as they rehearsed in the *engine shed to the recent rehearsal time and concert from Bellowhead we have certainly had our fair share of stunning performances. We do not need to go out, concerts simply come to us. (See the back page for this year’s calendar of scheduled entertainment.) We have very little notice of the spontaneous events but you can be on an email list for updated information if we have time to make an announcement.

*The Engine Shed is now Angus’s home. It was the building that housed the diesel engine that made electric light when we first came to live at Druidstone in 1949. At that time the fridge was paraffin with a little blue light underneath. The lights dimmed in cold weather as the diesel cooled. We were snowed in with the Rudders and the Bastians (still club members here). Our van was stuck in a snow drift for a week – another vehicle got abandoned in a river in mid Wales. Thereby lies another story of a lost pony, eventually found in foal, of sheep farming in the 1950’s, NO Television, NO phones (let alone mobiles) NO X Box. Oh yes! My sister passed her driving test first time because the Old Bedford Van she took it in had wooden floor boards and the slush from melting snow spurted up through the gaps straight up the examiners trouser legs. ( I am only saying this because it took me three tries to pass.) I remember the feeling of liberation on passing. It only lasted until I bent the bumper on my mother’s new generation of Hillman Husky and got grounded!

WHO NEEDS CENTRAL HEATING ANYWAY!….. We lived here as a family from 1949 until 1972 with a coke boiler the size of a small car. I think we could count the times we lit that boiler on the fingers of one hand. We lit the fire in the sitting room on cold nights and spent a lot of time in the kitchen round the AGA. We went to bed in cold bedrooms and only had hot water bottles if we were ill. My mother had a two bar electric fire for cold mornings. And we had snow, we were snowed in, the lane above the house filled completely with drifted snow in the east wind. Sheep were dug out from under snow drifts at Easter. We were probably far more healthy than any similar family today. I cannot remember being ill except with Chicken Pox. We climbed cliffs without ropes, we swam and climbed “round the bottom” to Broad Haven, we rode without riding hats or body protectors, we rowed into Coal Cave without any thought of how we would get our again against the surf. We climbed up the front of Rickets Head and felt the draught through cracks in the middle. We did not have television until I was 12.

Wind     by Ted Hughes

This house has been far out at sea all night,
The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills,
Winds stampeding the fields under the window
Floundering black astride and blinding wet

Till day rose; then under an orange sky
The hills had new places, and wind wielded
Blade-light, luminous black and emerald,
Flexing like the lens of a mad eye.

At noon I scaled along the house-side as far as
The coal-house door. Once I looked up -
Through the brunt wind that dented the balls of my eyes
The tent of the hills drummed and strained its guyrope,

The fields quivering, the skyline a grimace,
At any second to bang and vanish with a flap;
The wind flung a magpie away and a black-
Back gull bent like an iron bar slowly. The house

Rang like some fine green goblet in the note
That any second would shatter it. Now deep
In chairs, in front of the great fire, we grip
Our hearts and cannot entertain book, thought,

Or each other. We watch the fire blazing,
And feel the roots of the house move, but sit on,
Seeing the window tremble to come in,
Hearing the stones cry out under the horizons.

News of the Dru Crew! The worst news for us is that dear Carol, who, for years, baked cakes and made banoffee pie, suddenly lost her little farm cottage to holiday letting. She fought tooth and nail to stay and managed to see us through the season before giving up and moving back to the Welsh Borders. She is nearer her parents and Bex, her daughter, who had already given up the tussle for affordable housing in Pembrokeshire. As in many beautiful places, housing is a serious problem for those who need to rent. It is having an effect on all those who want to work in hospitality and chose to live in beautiful places, year in year out for the foreseeable future. Those who are not chasing the, now, less than mighty dollar. Industrial development and larger projects have unbalanced the sustainable nature of development for farming and tourism. Larger industries bring boom town wage packets that have a limited life. Smaller scale developments like Druidstone – thirty six years in the trade and not going anywhere, have difficulty in competing. We are here to stay moving onwards and upwards, fuller in figure and numbers visiting us – 15 weddings in 2007 - plenty of 60th birthdays and wedding anniversaries, and handing over to the next generation in the not too distant future. News of other: Right Arm Rosie had a lovely baby boy, Finley Michael, on 21th October. Poorly Pete is much better now. Jonno got a double first and is marrying a Mexican girl. Ben wowed Brazil with his bleached blond hair and bronzed good looks (unfortunately the pictures are unsuitable for family viewing!) New Boys include James Kimpton who works when he has time off from his Welsh Cob Stallions and Tom Walter, who can hire you a wetsuit or surfboard while you are here.

Trade descriptions gone mad - I admit that it is necessary to make sure that products are described accurately but the catering trade are now being asked for absurd detail. A comma in the right place should mean that any one who has studied English Grammar gets the gist. A bar that describes its food as “locally sourced” when they mean that they sourced their produce at the local cash and carry who, in turn, had imported it from the other side of the world, should be taken to task but asking for a full description of every dish is taking a sledge hammer to crack a nut. We use chicken from Capestone Organic Farm whose day old chicks are bought in France. So, “born in France, locally reared to organic standards and, in our case cooked to a recipe from any one of maybe, 40 recipes from many different countries.” We decided that Roast local organic chicken from French day olds, stuffed with bacon from locally cured, Welsh pigs that are not organic, celery and tomatoes from Holland, onions from Spain, Olive Oil from Kalamata, rock salt from Malta, pepper from the West Indies, was a bridge too far.

without Leon (mass panic broke out which proved completely foundless as the rest of them rose to the occasion with great gusto) beautiful spine chilling music by Chorea from Poland, the staggeringly good 3 to 5 Caballeros at New Year and then, joy of joys Bellowhead came to rehearse for 5 days…. One particular high light was the now famous Gwyneth Herbert who, with outstanding guitar accompaniment from Will Rutter, held an audience in the palms of their hands after supper one Sunday in June. Added to this cornucopia was a new addition to the Midsummer Jamboree of Café Music in the tent on Friday provided by Tim “the voice” Williams and his band The Crook Family. (just heard that the Crook Family supported Jethro Tull at St. David’s Hall in Cardiff.) Their insistence has spawned a new fixture for the Friday of the Jamboree so get here in time. We will be starting at 8.30 p.m. I think I now know what I want for my retirement party: the trouble is I cannot get them all here together!

PAINTINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS GALORE ….. We had a great day at the private view of the RA students, Graham Hurdwood, Jes Walton and Graham Stewart who have visited Druidstone since they shared a studio in the 1980’s. It was good to see all those old friends again and realise that they are willing patrons of the arts. The work or all three artists now grace walls all over the country. It seems to be the time of the photographer. David Wilson, who has sold so much work through Druidstone has been joined by Kersten Howard, Alex Mathias and Adrian Hawke, all of whom are producing passionate and beautiful interpretations of the coast. Chris Tancock, who cheffed here for a while when he first came to Pembrokeshire, has achieved great things with five pictures included in the Photographers Year Book and a Landscape Award for a picture of Druidston Beach.

AFTERTHOUGHTS - We were recently approached by an “agent” who wrote on behalf of a private buyer wanting to “improve” a property portfolio” ! Heaven forbid that this carefully nurtured and quietly developed home, should ever end up as part of someone’s “Property Portfolio”. It would seem like a betrayal of all who sail in her.

HUMAN BEINGS NOT ROBOTS….. We hold our hand’s up to occasionally mis-interpreting the need of a new arrival. Those who do not know us may find the informal atmosphere a bit disconcerting but we spend a lot of time measuring the needs of visitors – some genuinely want to be left to their own devices, they may be grieving or have had a bad day; they may need time alone or with friends without interruption. Others ask for the fullest and most detailed attention – We will all spend time describing the grounds, discussing politics, revealing the history of Druidstone or the wider area. We have much information on boat trips, ancient sites and best walking, but please excuse us if we miss your particular need. We are human beings and try to treat others in the same way.

There are likely to be many spontaneous events and themed evenings during 2008 so get your name on the Email list for updates. I am waiting to hear about a Puccini night with Italian food. Interested ???

STOP PRESS: an outbreak of stinky green paranormal activity at the creepy Druidstone Hotel has forced Nanceabout Theatre to cancel its performance of the sparkling musical romp ?Look Back In Ongar? featuring the evergreen Monty Cul-de-Sac and Bunty Underpass. Tight-lipped Director Merridew Cottage-Quilt commented: ?The entire company has been transported to another dimension in space and time where audience expectations are even lower than usual. A performance will take place as scheduled but it is impossible to give any details about it or to expect it to make any sense at all in the generally accepted meaning of the term.? Biff Weetabix (B.W.S.) added ?It?s gonna be weird out there people. Better stay at home.? Blah! Blah! Blahdi! Blah! Love Paddy (see bottom of the page for Globe theatre details)

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