The Rotary Club’s Festival of the Fleece

Sophie Grigson, declaring the day open.

On Monday 4^th May, Cogges played host to a special event organised by the Rotary Club of Witney; the Festival of the Fleece. This event was organised in honour of the Rotary’s Diamond Jubilee. The event was free and attracted an estimated 2,500 visitors. In fact, it was so busy that the people organising the barbecue ran out of food by 1.30pm. But worse than this, the bar appeared to run out of beer. Fortunately another barrel was discovered and saved the day. There were activities and events for everyone, including wool weaving, craft stalls, a teddy bears picnic and a cookery master class, by the celebrity chef, Sophie Grigson, to name but a few. Ms Grigson herself cut the ribbon to open the celebrations and the fun began.

Sue Tucker demonstrating her skills.

A host of attractions, stalls and displays recalled Witney’s heritage and links to the wool trade, including a fascinating, vintage film, demonstrating how blankets were made 100 years ago. The wool theme continued, with Sue Tucker, a local artist and one of Cogges’ many volunteers, sitting in the sunshine, demonstrating how to weave using a wooden, table top weaving loom. Those who wanted, could choose their own hand spun and dyed wool and decide for themselves, what they would like it made into. 

Teddy Bears Picnic in the orchard.

Unusually for an English Bank Holiday, the sun shone, adding to everyone’s enjoyment of the day. The teddy bears picnic took place in the peaceful surroundings of the Cogges orchard, although with so many families attending, it didn’t stay peaceful for long. Once everyone had finished their picnics, the children enjoyed activities, such as playing old fashioned games or trying their hand at making sheep masks or a fish on a pole. John, the husband of Sue Tucker, ran a sketching session for children, using an antique spinning wheel. 

Traditional games in the farmyard.

The months of hard work and planning on the part of members of the Rotary Club and Cogges' staff and volunteers, really paid off. Sue Tucker wrote, 'Bathed in sunshine the whole day was delightful, with families and people of all ages , enjoying Cogges at its best.' Indeed , what better venue could have been chosen to celebrate a Festival of the Fleece, than our own Cogges Manor Farm.

Part of Sue's exhibition, Cotswold sheep.

"I will always love you" 2015 Neil Cap.

Cogges is also taking part in the Oxfordshire Art Weeks, which runs until the 25th May. Sue has an exhibition of her craft work in the café and Neil Cap BA (HONS), another volunteer and local sculptor, is also displaying some of his sculptures in the courtyard.

Photographs courtesy of Cogges and Sue Tucker.

When doing nothing is the best action.

Ever struggled, when in a difficult situation, to figure out what's the best thing to do? I know I have. There's been many times when I literally found it hard to, 'see the wood from the trees.' I also found that at times like that, struggling to find the answer, or the way out, only seemed to make things worse.

This morning I decided to wear a necklace my hubby had given me as a present. It's four small rubies surrounding a small diamond, on a fine gold chain. As I mainly wear either pink or purple, I don't wear it very often. When I took it out of its box, the gold chain was all tangled and knotted. At first I tried to untangle it in my hand. I was getting nowhere. Then I remembered that in the past when this has happened, I've found it easier if I laid the chain on a hard, flat surface and use something sharp, like a needle, to gently tease the knot apart. I placed the necklace on a table and fetched a needle out of my sewing box ready to begin.

One of the ways that I'm affected by Lupus is that I have very dry eyes as I don't produce sufficient tears to moisten them. As a result I have to put drops in my eyes several times a day. Rather stupidly, I decided to put some drops in, before trying to untangle the chain. This only served to make the task more difficult, as the drops initially make my vision very blurry. At first I tried to persevere, but instead of untangling the chain, I seemed to be making things worse. Eventually I decided to wait for my vision to clear before trying again. This time I was able to untangle the knot in the chain very easily.

As I fastened the chain around my neck, it struck me that there was a lesson to be learned here.  Some of the situations we find ourselves in can, metaphorically, blur our thinking. When we're stressed, suffering a bereavement or have been hurt by the actions of someone we care about, maybe the best thing to do, is nothing; to let it go and just wait until our emotions are less intense and we're able to think more clearly and rationally.

I have heard this before. but somehow having this practical demonstration seemed to really make it hit home. 

Waiting and doing nothing can be very hard to do, especially if you're in a situation that you desperately want to get out of. But by waiting until the time is right we can save ourselves a lot of unnecessary stress.

Like all of life's lessons, this might not always apply. sometimes the right thing to do is to remove yourself from the situation, and then do nothing for a while. I guess learning what's the right thing to do at any given time is all part of life. But I believe that deep down inside us, we know when we're doing, or not doing , the right thing for us at that time.

I did at one point think of putting the necklace back in the box and wearing something else, but I'm glad I persevered. Next time I can't, 'see the wood for the trees,' I'll think of this necklace and the lesson it taught me and hopefully save myself from some unnecessary stress.


Photos Isabel's own plus,

Letting go a courageous thing.jpg courtesy of:- lessonslearnedinlife.com

Best in Witney

I’ve been a volunteer at Cogges ever since it re-opened to the public on the 17^th June, 2011. I remember the opening day very clearly. It was a typical English Summer day, the rain never stopped. But this didn’t seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the hundreds of people who turned out to support us. There were lots of events going on. I remember that I was given the task of standing beside the enormous head of the Wicker Man. After a five minute briefing on the history of it, I was then expected to answer any questions asked by members of the public. One example of the many challenges I've faced by being a volunteer over the years.

In its former life, the farm had been run as a living museum set in the Victorian era. At that time there were lots of animals such as, sheep, cows, chickens, a horse, rabbits and not forgetting the pigs. The 'new' Cogges didn’t have as many animals and by the end of the first season, the question that I, as a volunteer, remember being asked the most was, “Where are the pigs?” There was a mixed reaction from the public. Some of those who remembered it as it was were disappointed, but others who loved the place, were delighted to see it being used again. Those who’d never been before seemed to fall in love with the place and who could blame them. Where else would you find such a peaceful, idyllic place in the heart of a town?

In 2012, when Cogges once again opened for the season, much to the delight of the visitors, not to mention the relief of the volunteers, we were happy to greet the arrival of some piglets and pygmy goats.

Patsy, one of the farm cats, keeping an eye on things.

Four years later and, thanks to the hard work on the part of the staff and volunteers, Cogges is thriving. Already this year we’ve exceeded visitors numbers from the same time last year. When visitors comment, it is to say how much they have enjoyed their visit. We have a large number of season ticket holders who are regularly to be seen enjoying a drink and a chat in the courtyard area while their children play on the tractor, or down in the woodland in the adventure play area. 

But the public haven’t just shown their support by their continued presence.  They’ve recently taken the time to vote for us in the Best in Witney awards, for which we won in the ‘Most Family Friendly’ category. Not only that, but we were also been nominated for the same category in the Muddy Stilettos award. We didn't win this one,  but we’re still honoured and thrilled to have been nominated.

We still have pigs.

We have a lot more to offer than we did in 2011. Colin and his team of staff and volunteers have worked hard and I'm proud to be part of that team. But a large part of the success of Cogges is down to the members of the public who have, and are still, giving us their wholehearted support. We're very grateful for this and I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you. We really couldn’t do it without your support.

Photos courtesy of Isabel and Cogges.

Wickerman courtesy of:- 335 x 448 | 53KB juegosinteractivospme.mx

Video courtesy of Oxbox.tv

Brief encounter.

A few years ago, I was on a plane bound for Edinburgh. I was going to attend a reunion with my school friends and was travelling on my own. Sitting next to me was a tall, blond-haired, American gentleman, aged about 40. Shortly after take off, we fell into conversation and what he told me has never left me. In fact, it is probably one of the biggest factors in my deciding to 'get off my backside' and start living.

As we chatted he told me that he was on his way to Gleneagles for a golfing weekend with some friends, also Americans. I remarked that his wife must be very understanding to let him fly all this way, just for the weekend. It was what he said next that has lived with me ever since.

On September 11th, 2001, he was working in one of the Twin Towers when the planes struck. He described to me in detail just what it was like. The noise, the dust, the people screaming and the intense heat. He was lucky. He managed to make his way down the stairs and escaped with very little in the way of injury. 13 of his friends and colleagues weren't so lucky. As you can imagine, this had a profound effect on him. 

He told me that, prior to this disaster, he had been a workaholic. His wife and children hardly ever saw him and even when he wasn't at work, he spent very little time with his kids. But after 9/11 he decided that this had to change. Surviving the disaster when so many of his friends had lost their lives, brought home to him just how fragile and precious life is. It also made him realise what's really important in life and for him that was his family.

He took the decision to give up his career as a financier in New York, and move his family to Vermont. There he set up his own business as an accountant. He finishes work at the same time that his kids finish school in order to spend time with them. He told me about how he takes them skiing in Winter and plays basket ball and other sports with them in Summer. He obviously doesn't earn as much as he did in New York. But he and his family are much happier.

Playing golf at Gleneagles was something that he'd always dreamt of doing and now he was fulfilling that dream.

Little did I realise when I left the house that morning that I would meet someone, if only briefly, who would have such a profound effect on me.

It must have taken a lot of courage for him to completely change his life in this way. The memory of what happened will never leave him. But he told me that he tries to life his life for his friends and colleagues that lost theirs that day. That too must take a lot of courage. 

Life has been a little difficult of late. But remembering that brief encounter has helped me to realise that I've still got a lot to be thankful for.


Photos courtesy of:-

http://lessonslearnedinlife.com/keep-shining/

Isabel Johnstone 2015 ©

Dancing in the rain.

'Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.'

I read this quote on Facebook and fell in love with it. I've now adopted it as my new motto and am trying to put it into practice. My website has the title, 'Sunshine after the rain.'  I called it this as I started writing my blog when I had not long come out of a difficult period in my life. I've been through many of life's 'storms' and have been content in the past just to congratulate myself on having survived.

I'm not quite as old as Meryl Streep, but I have been aware for some time that life is indeed a gift, and a very precious one at that. But life isn't always easy and it can be hard to keep walking, let alone dancing, when things get tough.

One lesson I've have learned over the years is, that worrying doesn't change anything. It's time and energy wasted; time and energy that could be spent learning to 'dance in the rain.' Now don't get me wrong? I don't mean this literally. You won't see me dancing down the street when I'm going through some crisis or if something sad has happened.

The way I interpret this is, instead of dwelling on the negative side of our situation, we should look for the positives. Sometimes that can be hard, or even seem impossible. Little things like being thankful for those around us who are supporting us, can help to bring a smile and make us feel better, if only for a moment. But our lives are made up of moments and I believe that is what it means to embrace life. To try to make every moment count. I haven't always done that in the past.

This is especially relevant for me at the moment. Easter is fast approaching. But for a long time I dreaded this time of year. My daughter was born on Easter Monday. Easter is the time that Christians celebrate Jesus dying, then rising again to give us a new life. My daughter passed away, 17 days later.

People told me that I should try to remember the happy times. For a long time this seemed to me to be an impossible goal. She was so sick and every one of her 17days seemed to bring a new crisis. But now I remember how happy I was when she was born; the feelings of love that overwhelmed me as I sat beside her incubator, singing little songs I made up, just for her. I can even still feel her tiny hand grasping hold of my index finger and that too makes me smile. We didn't have photographs of her without tubes and wires, but a lovely lady drew this from a photograph, and this too makes me smile.

If only I'd been able to do that sooner.

One of my favourite things is a rainbow. They only appear when the sun comes out after it's been raining. Perhaps if we can bring some sunshine into our dark times, even if it's only a tiny flicker, we might make our own beautiful rainbows, out of our stormy times.

Over the past few years I've been learning to embrace life, but now I'm going to try to learn to dance in the rain too. This year I'm not dreading Easter. After all, Life is a gift.

Photos Isabel's own, apart from:-

https://www.facebook.com/AARPIllinois/photos/a.10150193683836312.307388.48774131311/10152448661796312/?type=1&theater

Isabel Johnstone 2015 ©

How Cogges becomes Downton’s Yew Tree Farm.

Cogges Manor House

Anyone who follows my blog will be well aware of the fact that I'm a Downton Abbey fan and that I'm immensely pleased that Cogges is used as the setting of Yew Tree Farm, the home of Farmer Drewe and his wife, Margi. Having seen Lady Mary and Tom Branson visit the farm in series 4, in series 5, we found out that Farmer Drewe and his wife, were looking after Marigold, the illegitimate daughter of Lady Edith. The filming took place at Cogges over several days and I was lucky enough to be around for some of it. But how do you go about turning a grand Tudor Manor House into a lowly farmer's cottage?

Yew Tree Farm

Having featured in 6 out of 8 episodes of the popular period drama, Yew Tree Farm is now an established part of the Downton Abbey estate. So how do you make this lovely Manor house look like a small farmer's cottage?

Dairy yard before

Dairy yard dressed as Yew Tree Farm

The day before the filming takes place, personnel from Downton's Art Department arrive to transform Cogges into Yew Tree Farm.  This is achieved by a combination of set dressing and clever camera work. By only filming a small section of the house, the oldest part, this gives the illusion of it being a small cottage.The technical term for this is 'close filming'. Then with the addition of some milk churns, a mangle and wash tub, plus a child's wooden cart, the dairy yard is transformed into an early 20th century farmer's yard.

The kitchen as it is normally

False sink

Inside, by adding furniture and other bits and pieces, to give the impression that it is a multi-functional living space, the large kitchen is transformed into a lowly farmer's cottage. A settle, an old-fashioned type of sofa, and an armchair are placed either side of the black leaded range. Even a false sink is put against the wall where a large wooden cupboard usually stands.

Cogges kitchen after the transformation.

Using an Ipad, photographs are taken at every stage of the process. This ensures that each object is placed in exactly the same position every time and also helps when it's time to put everything back in its rightful place, when the filming is over. It usually takes about a day to set up for filming and another day to return the house to normal.

Lady Edith and Marigold with the Drewe family

All in all, it's a fascinating process to watch.Unfortunately, we're not allowed to watch the filming itself. But as I'm such a massive Downton fan, I find it quite thrilling just being on site when it's happening, especially if one of the actors says 'hello' on their way to and from the set.


Marigold is now living with her mother up at the big house, so Lady Edith no longer needs to visit the farm. But, as I said at the beginning of the blog, the farm is an established part of the Downton estate. So who knows what might happen in series 6. I can't wait to find out.

Photographs Isabel's own. The photos of Lady Edith, Marigold and the Drewes, are photographs Isabel took of scenes on the television. With grateful thanks to Downton Abbey.

The next step along my path of New Beginnings

Well it's almost a month since I decided to take my own advice and be kind to myself. The relief I felt at taking the decision to defer from my Open University course for the time being has stayed with me. I did the right thing. It wasn't until I removed that stress factor from my life that I realised how badly I had been affected by it. For a while there, everything I needed to do seemed impossible to achieve. I lost all confidence in my ability to do anything well and was deaf to the assurances of my friends and family that I was indeed a capable adult. What did they know? They weren't the ones who were expected to do it,

Sound familiar?

Rainbow over Cogges

5 weeks on and I'm in a much better place. I'm once more the happy person who smiles and says hello to people I pass in the street. I sing around the house and as I go about my job of feeding the cats at Cogges. I've also stopped snapping at my poor elderly cat who follows me around the house demanding food all the time, despite the fact that there's actually food in her bowl. Now I just play the game of picking up her bowl, waggling a fork around pretending to put food in it, before she'll eat. Bless her.

The funny thing is, I'm just as busy as ever.

In my blog, http://isabelj327.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/when-one-door-closes.html  I mentioned that I'd been asked to write a new guidebook for Cogges Manor Farm and to become a Downton Abbey Tour Guide when Cogges opens for the season in March. If I hadn't been taking a break from my studies, I would have had to say no.

Yew Tree Farm

For the past 4 weeks I have been dividing my time between doing research for both. The first week was spent watching DVDs of Downton Abbey, series 4 and 5, and making notes on the scenes filmed at Cogges. I used these notes to plan a tour of Cogges, including any anecdotes and interesting bits of of information about the filming that I know from having been around at the time. I've also been seen walking around the site talking to myself, practising. My first tour is happening at the end of the month when I'll be showing around a group of Japanese Tour Operators. They're visiting the site to see if they think it's worth including on there Downton Abbey Tours. No pressure then. I'll also be using the notes I made on Downton to write a section on the filming at Cogges for the new guidebook.

Old guide book

Doing the research for the guidebook has been a bit more difficult. The new guidebook is going to be a mixture of the old and new. My job has been to edit out the bits that are no longer relevant and write about the new. The old guidebook told the history of the site up until the beginning of the 20th century. I was asked to fill in the gap between then and the present. Unfortunately, there wasn't really much about that time, recorded anywhere. I found bits and pieces from different sources; an old photograph; a reference to a Woman's Land Army volunteer who stayed on as housekeeper. But nothing really concrete enough to write about.

Then I had a breakthrough. I managed to contact a member of the Mawle family, the last family to work it as a dairy farm. Despite her protestations that she didn't know much, what she was able to tell me, put together with the scraps of information I already had, gave me enough material to write about. It was almost like finding the missing pieces of a jigsaw.

I've recently submitted a first draft. I've never done anything like this before and I know that there'll probably be a lot of editing and re-drafting before it'll be ready to send to the printers. But I'm feeling very excited and pleased to have achieved as much as I have.

Now to find my next project. 

Photo's Isabel's own apart from:-

Don't be too hard on yourself jpeg, courtesy of:- rawforbeauty.com