Late Starter?

I’m stepping into the new decade slowly! Last year was so full on for Swallowtail Hill it has taken me a moment to rest and reset. There’s a certain irony to this. After all it’s what I spend my time telling other people to do – we’ve created a place where you can come and put the rest of the world on hold for a couple of days while you go off grid, turn off your phone and focus on nothing other than being present in a beautiful landscape.

It’s our mission to help you relax and reconnect with yourself, your loved ones and the great outdoors. I’m excellent at explaining how important it is to have some down time, how much our well-being depends on it. But as it turns out I’m less good at taking my own advice. Seems sometimes I’m guilty of talking the talk but not walking the walk – so 2020 is the year in which I get better at that!

Towards the end of last year, I took myself off on a yoga retreat at a lovely place not dissimilar to Swallowtail Hill. Again, the irony wasn’t lost on me that I sought out a place almost identical to my own home/business in order to find some much needed time to reflect and decompress. It was great; a beautiful setting, cosy accommodation, time to be. A busman’s holiday perhaps. But it served to remind me well that what we offer at Swallowtail Hill is more than ‘just’ a lovely place for a short break; the experience of staying here has a value and purpose beyond anything we imagined when we first opened our doors nearly ten years ago. Of course some people discover us simply by accident or choose us without expectation, but they leave knowing they want to return. We’ve become the place where people find their rhythm again and leave feeling restored. You tell us in your dozens that you’ve made memories here, that we were just what you needed, that you talked more than you’d done in years, and that we’re your ‘happy place’. It’s our great privilege to be that place for so many of you.

So, it’s with that strong sense of purpose that we embark on 2020. Not only is it new decade but it’s our anniversary year – we’re a decade old this summer. And while we’re brimming with ideas and plans for what the next ten years will bring, I’m hanging on to the lessons recently learned (at least for now!) – I’m not rushing ahead full tilt. I’m letting the season dictate the pace – which right now means not working late into the evening and enjoying cosy nights by the fire instead. And you know what? Even if I’m not striving to tick things off my to-do list, turns out the work always get done. Who knew? Maybe I’m starting to live the Swallowtail Hill philosophy at long last!