Wellness

A Lifestyle Choice

We love every moment of life at Whitby Log Cabins, developing the site and the day to running of the business which involves meeting amazing people on a regular basis. But when we moved to this special place, Valley View, it was a lifestyle choice, a desire to live in a certain way, where we could work with nature, not against it, and do our bit to care for the earth. We strongly identify with what is known as the Permaculture movement.

The word Permaculture derives from the concept of “permanent agriculture.” The official definition is ‘a mindful approach to managing every aspect of life to minimise consequences and nurture regeneration’. As a yoga teacher I find it simpler to work with the principle of AHIMSA – do no harm. Or as little as possible.

In the gardens surrounding our house, at the top of the woodland, you will see our extensive vegetable plots, and a menagerie of rescue animals. As a former professional grower, Mark is very aware of how many commercial growing environments rob the soil of nutrients. Good soil is alive with billions of things you can’t see like bacteria and fungi to big things like worms and beetles. Feeding the soil to create a natural growing environment is not complicated, just a little more time consuming than some modern methods….and involves rotation of crops, use of natural fertilisers (thanks to the horses and chickens), and minimal digging.

A walk round our site will reveal birds and bugs in great numbers. We are passionate about wildlife but also know that but encouraging and supporting all life forms we foster a system of natural pest control. And it makes us happy to know that we have created a safe haven where species can replenish their numbers. At the same time we can enjoy observing the changing seasons and circle of life.

A Balancing Act

Permaculture is not just about growing food, its whole philosophy of life; its about awareness of the effects of our actions and minimising harm.

Customer comfort is very important to us. When we built the cabins we we wanted our customers to be warm and comfortable so that they could relax into their restorative break. So while we did what we thought was practical to minimise the impact of development, including building The Hideaway on a raised platform to protect the tree roots, we did choose to install central heating in the cabins.

Because of the location and geology of our site many ‘sustainable’ options were not open to us. We have solar panels on our house but have no option but to use fossil fuels for heating.

So we try to offset the impact of these systems by the way we live ourselves. We don’t eat meat and choose not to holiday abroad and (why would you when this country is so beautiful?); and by growing practically all our own produce we significantly reduce plastic waste. And of course there is so much to do here that we seldom leave the site – so our fuel consumption is minimal!

We do encourage guests to conserve heat wherever possible and to enjoy the many options to walk from the site rather than using the car.

While we appreciate that most guests who stay with us want to rest and restore in the seclusion of the cabin, if you are interested we can talk to you more about these subjects……advise on growing herbs, fruits and vegetables at home whatever the size of your plot. And offer some ideas of how to work with them in the kitchen too.