Pastures new

Over the last eight years I have been looking after guests who visited our holiday let on the farm. The little, cosy, unique building that used to serve as an accommodation for hop pickers a few generations ago, was busy and loved. Holidays with dogs, Wedding nights, Birthday stays, Christmas hideout, even a Covid exile during the pandemic, the Hopper Hut did it all.

Hopper Hut in summer

Now she takes a deep breath.

The door opens to new beginnings, to fragrant oils and incense. A new treatment room for my clients and the clients of a few other practitioners.

With trepidation I put away the five sets of bedding, the supplies of coffee and eggs. I replace the king size bed with a treatment couch. I fill the place with blankets, candles, plants, and - trying to restrain my enthusiasm - a very few crystals. We want the place calm and cosy, not chaotic with pretty trinkets.

The poster is in the village shop window, my social media is buzzing with all that I have to offer as a herbalist and a Reiki master teacher, as well as the more 'witchy' meditation circles and plant spirit medicine. All I need it throngs of people who love plants or want to love them from now on.

This shift from creating a new business while working with a regular income to fully embracing herbs and Reiki is nerve-racking. Scary. It affects my sleep. It makes me very poor company because all I can talk and think about is Nettle Garden as a fully functioning business as well as passion. It means that I make my cuppa at home rather than going out to a coffee shop. It means that I need to 'baseball bat my impostor out of the back of my mind' (my friend Anna's words, not mine) and get my head above the parapet.

So here we are. Wish me luck, worship plants and trees, use what they have to offer, look after yourself, enjoy Reiki, and massages, and saunas, support your local businesses, and if you need me, I will be in the Hopper Hut.

Hopper Hut leaflet