Norwegian Cruise Line is celebrating educators by offering discounted cruises and rewarding 20 teachers with a free cruise on the company’s newest ship.
29.04.2024 - 11:23 / theguardian.com
The honk of the geese as they take off from the lake is comically loud, reeds quiver and the reflection of the clouds on the water is momentarily fractured. A butterfly flits by, landing on my boot. We’re on a guided walk at 42 Acres, a regenerative farm, nature reserve and retreat centre near Frome in Somerset – and the whole place feels vibrantly alive.
Our guide Tasha Stevens-Vallecillo, a font of knowledge on plants and wild food and one of the visionaries shaping the retreat, stops to point out yarrow, ribwort plantain and a giant white reishi mushroom as we walk. “There’s medicine everywhere on the land. You just need to know where to look,” she says.
The farm’s name is, in fact, a misnomer. What started 10 years ago with the original 42 acres and farmhouse (where private retreats are still held), now stretches to 173 acres (70 hectares) with new accommodation options. Run on 100% renewable energy by sibling owners and keen environmentalists Lara and Seth Tabatznik, it’s an inspiring place to wander.
There are ancient woodlands, an outdoor sauna and the seven-acre lake for wild swimming or taking out a rowing boat (the best way to see resident beavers at dawn or dusk). Fresh produce comes from the no-dig garden, “edi-mental” walled garden (where everything is both ornamental and edible) and full-to-bursting polytunnels. There’s a micro-mushroom farm, a bee garden with wild and locally raised bees, and thousands of nut and medicinal trees (from super-power sea buckthorn to rosehip).
We’re staying in the newly restored 13th-century hermitage. A former monks’ retreat, it’s sumptuous yet simple, full of natural light and open fires. My room is calming, with muted colours, a huge bed, sheepskin rugs and stained-glass bathroom windows. Cottages, barn conversions and a houseboat offer alternative accommodation. Everything is conducive to relaxing.
“The aim is to provide a refuge for people to slow down, reconnect to nature and learn about how we can live in harmony with the land,” says Tasha.
I’m here for a Rewild retreat, one of three new themed Wild Weekends. While all three offer the chance to disconnect from technology and spend time on the land, Rewild focuses on nature restoration. The Renourish retreat concentrates on the soil-to-gut food philosophy, foraging and cooking; Restore offers more pampering, including yoga and massage. There are also self-guided retreats, where guests book a room and dip in to activities, from gardening to meditation, as they choose.
Experts in different fields join the retreats too. On our stay, maverick rewilder Derek Gow, author of Bringing Back the Beaver, shows us where beavers, reintroduced here in 2016, are changing the landscape, helping increase wetlands and
Norwegian Cruise Line is celebrating educators by offering discounted cruises and rewarding 20 teachers with a free cruise on the company’s newest ship.
"Where locals go" is our series featuring under-the-radar holiday destinations that are often overlooked by visitors but cherished by locals. In this edition, our NYC experts showcase their favorite holiday spots at home.
Lübeck – Queen of the Hanseatic League – has a fading charm and vulnerability absent from the likes of Berlin, Munich and Hamburg … and most of Germany. I loved my trip there, wandering the cobbled streets, climbing every brick gothic church tower – generally alone! Thomas Mann wrote the unbearably sad novel Buddenbrooks there, then fled to the US from nazism in 1939. The Tin Drum author Günter Grass lived and worked in Lübeck in later life. Visit their former houses, now museums, the Grass-Haus and the Buddenbrook Haus. A singular German city, full of history and significance.Martin Charlesworth
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