Wreath Working with Yvonne Markou - Sunday 7th December 2025
A fabulous wreath workshop this afternoon here at Cadbury Cottage, Chulmleigh, led by the wonderful Yvonne Markou. It was a relaxed, warm and friendly afternoon and everyone went home really chuffed with what they had made. Yvonne was a truly excellent teacher. What made the event even more special was how sustainable it was - much of the vegetation we used was from trees/ bushes that needed some trimming (in the absence of large herbivores), from wind damaged vegetation or from dead plants such as bracken. Thanks as ever, to everyone who came - we love hosting these nature-led events and have plenty more planned for 2026.
(And thanks to the group for all these fab photos.)

Fungi Afternoon with Liz Crow - 30th November 2025
A truly fabulous day here on The Relaxed Sanctuary learning all about fungi with the amazing Liz Crow. We had a communal walk round with Liz followed by going into smaller groups on a pre-set-up Fungus Hunt (or Hungus Funt as Jack said in her intro 🤣), before heading back to the barn for refreshments and an amazing microscope session. HUGE thanks to everyone who came (all 15 of you), to Liz for her knowledge, passion and enthusiasm and also to those beings in charge of the weather!! It was a STUNNINGLY sunny afternoon. Also very pleased to announce that some of the monies raised today will be going to Devon Wildlife Trust. Many thanks to today's group for the photos.

Wildlife Watercolour with Paul Hopkinson - 6th November 2025
Another stunning wildlife craft event afternoon here at the Relaxed Sanctuary at Cadbury Cottage.
Paul Hopkinson aka The Devon Artist led a watercolour workshop enabling people to paint fungi and feather cards and then design their own gift tags!
Paul was a superb teacher and we had lots of very talented artists.
Huge thanks to everyone who came and to Jo Everitt for making sure everything ran like clockwork (and then made the tea and coffee as well). Thanks to Jo too for some of the images below!
These events are a joy to host - we love meeting so many lovely people, sharing our space with them, encouraging everyone to love and help nature as much as we do/can and seeing such talent across so many fields.

Moth Ball - 30th August 2025
We welcomed 'moth-ers' old and new to our Moth trapping morning, having set two traps the previous night.
Amy Roberts has now officially named such mornings as 'Jack's Moth Ball'. 🤣🤣 HUGE thanks to Jo Everitt and Paul Hopkinson for their ID and photo skills and to everyone who came and fully immersed themselves in studying these fabulous creatures. 24 species caught, 7 of which are new to Cadbury Cottage, total numbers were lost in all the excitement but well over 100 I should imagine. Another one is planned before winter comes knocking... You can see all the moths we have id-ed so far here.

Hedgehogs with Chulmleigh Brownies - July 16th 2025
The amazing Chulmleigh Brownies built some super hedgehog habitats today out of pallets, brash and straw, before then heading back to the barn to make their own pine cone hedgehogs using pine cones and clay - messy but huge fun!!!

Pond Dipping with Chulmleigh Brownies - July 9th 2025
After a fab hour or so with the nets, we went back to the barn, and with the help of field guides and magnifying glasses identified (almost) all the creatures caught, before gently re releasing them back into the pond. What a great fun evening!

Pond Dipping and Habitat Building with Chulmleigh Cubs - June 19th 2025
A fabulous time with the cubs pond dipping and habitat building. Huge amount of engagement and a lot of fun.

Pond Dipping 2 with Chulmleigh Guides - June 4th 2025
After their first visit to us last month when we had a fab pond dipping session, Chulmleigh Guides were asked what they wanted to do for their second session here at Cadbury Cottage. They were given quite a variety of choices from making bee bricks to building habitat piles. And they opted for....
.... MORE pond dipping. We gave them the task of seeing what they could find in all the newest ponds on the land - many of which didn't look as though they contained that much life (although we knew different!!).
In a mere half hour or so, most groups had found a good 10-plus species.
We them had a very happy half hour looking at them under microscopes and hand lenses!!
Another great session from a wondrously engaged group of young ladies - all 21 of them!!!
Thanks to Mandy, Lesley, Claire, Amy and Nick for all their help

Pond Dipping with Chulmleigh Guides - May 14th 2025
What a totally stunning pond dipping session with Chulmleigh Guides today - what a totally amazing group of young people they were.
We dipped in our established garden pond and in one of our new bigger ponds (dug just last September) and discovered LOADS (full list coming soon) including whopping Great Diving Beetle larva, and zillions of froglets and newts.
So much chatter and engagement and learning going on. These youngsters were a credit to their Guide group. Thanks to Mandy and her helpers for bringing them over.
And hanks to Amy, Claire and Julie too. We are looking forward to another session with them all in June!!

A Second Plant Hunt - April 27th 2025
Another fabulous Plant Hunt here at Cadbury Cottage this afternoon. Huge thanks to Amy, Lynda and Dorette for all their help and support as well as plant and cake contributions. Fran (from the Wren Choir that some of us belong to) turned out to be a bit of an expert botanist. She found EIGHTY species in an hour and a half - which is almost HALF of the total species we found on our Plant A Day mission last year - lots are ones we haven't found so we now need to find them and get them photographed, recorded and added to the website.
The weather was perfect, everyone was relaxed, some fabulous new friends were made.

Final Tree Planting - April 10th 2025
Stunning afternoon with The Amber Foundation, planting the last of our trees here at Cadbury Cottage (The Relaxed Sanctuary). Despite the lack of rain, the ground was still damp once we got the spades in (although that was hard work at times 😅). We now have around 1400 on the land - so looking forward to seeing how they grow over the next few years. HUGE thank you to the residents who came - loved our tea and biscuits in the barn afterwards discussing whether it was jam or cream first and how to mix up butter and marmalade and 'then' spread it on your hot toast!! Yum Yum...

Tree and Hedge Planting - January 4th and 5th 2025
A totally fabulous weekend planting trees and hedging at Cadbury Cottage. 19 species (Beech, Bird Cherry, Blackthorn, Buckthorn, Crab Apple, Dog Rose, Downy Birch, Elder, Guilder Rose, Hawthorn, Hazel, Hornbeam, Lime, Oak, Rowan, Spindle, Sweet Chestnut, Wayfaring and Wild Cherry) and around 1200 ish individual plants. Seven mini copses of around 50/60 trees each and four new hedges were created. HUGE thanks to all the volunteers who came to help: Nick, Claire, Mike, Felix, Julie, Andy, Dennis, Ellie, Viv and Kelly and Amy and her seven Ashreigney volunteers.. The weather was kind as despite heavy rains on both Friday and Saturday nights, it stayed dry during the day.

Pond Day - November 3rd 2024
When many hands make light work !! We had a great turnout for our pond margin planting day.
Some of the tasks included removing a redundant wire chicken coop in preparation for planting willow, and planting perennials around the outside margin of the pond. A shallow shelf was dug within the pond itself to allow easy access / exit points for wildlife.
All in all, a great days work.

Plant Hunt - September 8th 2024
Despite the weather we had a good turnout for our first plant hunt today.. A walk followed by delicious cakes and refreshments in the barn. What a lovely way to spend a Sunday… another event is already being planned for spring!