Blaithwaite Life - The Year So Far

A Sunny Winter's Day In The Courtyard

Its been a while since anything has appeared on the blog about Centre life, so I thought a brief update might be in order. 2012 has got off to an exceptionally hectic start, hence slightly fewer posts about days out in the fells & underground, hopefully the balance will be re-dressed as the year progresses.


Visitors
January is the sketchiest month of the year for visiting groups, however, we enjoyed a full Centre over the New Year period itself; followed by the In2venture weekend and  a midweek student conference - some new visitors to the Centre from a Church in Lancaster came towards the end of the month.
February has been very much back to business as usual with every weekend occupied by Church groups and the first of two mid-week schools already having visited.
The weather for our visitors has been a real mixed bag with an unseasonally mild start to the year being followed by a fine spell of dry cold conditions in which we missed the snow that affected the majority of the country.


Projects
As reported earlier the newly upgraded power supply is working well with no hitches - a welcome conclusion to the biggest project undertaken during our time here.
The Stables bedroom upgrade is almost complete now with just re-carpeting to go & once again Richard has worked through an epic painting and decorating programme over the winter.
Recent weeks have been dominated by some un-scheduled maintenance as we have had to deal with some dry rot in the Main House this has been a very significant & unwelcome piece of work but is now just about complete. 
Our website (www.blaithwaite.co.uk) has been refreshed with some new photographs & a new events page. On the events front we are looking forward to: Activity Weekend (first weekend in March); Spring & Autumn Retreats; and several new events being organised by Rob & Margaret Bianchi including over 50's walking & activity weeks in September / October.


We received some welcome news today regarding Kay - latest scan all clear, which will allow her course of treatment to continue. Thanks to everyone for prayers, help & support over the last couple of very tense weeks.


The Centre calendar is looking very healthy for 2012 and increasingly into 2013 - so once again we look forward to what I'm sure will be a busy & rewarding Spring and Summer at Blaithwaite!