Written on Saturday 25th Jan 2025 – 5:34pm
Sometimes in life you visit a place, quite by chance, with fate leading you there. Today was one of those days.
It started off as a fairly usual Saturday with our delivery route planned. We had made a later start than usual but the sun was shining and the sky was blue. The promise of Spring in the air for sure.
We had done a few deliveries by this point and next up was a brand new one. Visiting somewhere we had never even been before – let alone delivered to. This place was Derwen College.
I had already had the pleasure of speaking with Pete on the phone and had learned so much during that call – then followed it up with my own research – I was so excited to visit the place in real life that Freya was like ‘calm down Mummy!’ But my excitement is infectious and soon all 3 of us were rather hyper singing along to Moshi Monsters (Freya is in charge of the music…) on the road to Derwen College!
What a wonderful and inspiring place – offering such great opportunities to their students. We enjoying shopping there for lots of treats! I found a wonderful VW campervan onement (I am obsessed) Freya got a Princess doll toy, we got interesting flavoured crisps, mead, freshly made Battenberg cake, shortbread…..loads – can’t remember it all – oh Gingerbread too – they have 50% off Christmas stock right now so it is well worth a visit – not to mention their freshly made bakes and breads etc.
We also visited the Walled Garden Cafe and sat in the Walled Garden for a while to do the RSPB Bird Count. Well – the cafĂ© is well worth a visit too! The staff are so friendly, the coffee was delicious, the cakes on offer were blindingly gorgeous and the Gardener’s Breakfasts were yummy! You can find the full menu here.
Please take a moment to read up about them and of course visit if you get chance. They even have a hotel – please take a read about it here.
So then we start to head home. But on the way to Derwen College we had seen a sign for Babbinswood Farm Shop…. we were all like wow what a lovely name. We happened upon it on the way home too and I insisted we stopped. I felt almost pulled there to be honest. Tired as we were – I knew we had to go take a look. and boy am I glad we did.
What energy there. The vibe. The sheer potential. I am so excited to watch how this special place evolves and help as much as we can with that too. I could feel in my bones that they will achieve something really amazing here – they just need the help of community to do it. That is where you come in. Please do take some time to read the links and read their story. Lisa was fantastic to chat with today and we can’t wait to visit again soon. They have a Wassail event on 8th Feb.
Serendipity has always occurred throughout my life when I am on the right path. Today is no exception. Only last night, Richard was telling me that on Ancestry he had received a notification. He had been working on his family tree while I was pregnant with Freya some 6 years ago and had struggled to find much on his maternal Grandfather’s line. Well – yesterday he got this notification and – he now knows about that line 8 generations back!
How very exciting. What is more exciting is that we were due to go to Derwen College the next day and it transpires that his Grandfather’s line lived and worked the land around Oswestry! There is even a possibility that his Great Great Grandfather may have LIVED at Babbinswood Farm….. and that is why we were pulled to it today….. who knows …it needs further investigation but it is all really fascinating. Richards Mother’s Father’s line was a total mystery until yesterday and the fact it links him generationally to the land around Oswestry – that we were due to and did visit today – before we even knew of his family connections to this area – just blows my mind!
My soul feels full up right now. A day spent around inspiring people – doing great things – in inspiring places. Please, if you can – visit both of these places and take a read of the links above. It would mean a lot to me, and them. If you can share this Blog around – also – that would be much appreciated by us all.
Lefevre Chocolate 