The decorations are up, the Christmas playlist is on and the Reindeer trail is out. It's safe to say Christmas is nearly upon us.
The full range of gifts for all the family is on display in our shop and selling fast. Much of the Christmas stock is selling fast but we do have a number of 2024 Trebah calendars, available while stocks last. Christmas lunches in Trebah kitchen run from the 11th – 22nd December and there are still tables available on many dates, please get in touch with the team if you’d like to come along with friends or family.
If you’ve visited recently you may have noticed the lack of fencing and signs in the Lodge gateway after storm Ciaran hit us last month. With new signs and hedging ordered the garden team are continuing to clear this area as we prepare for a new investment project at Trebah - the development of the Lodge into our first holiday cottage. Vacant since our former Director, Nigel Burnett, retired in June and now in need of some updating, the trustees and I have agreed a plan for renovating the Lodge, so there will be a lot of activity once our contractors start in the new year. We hope to welcome our first guests in summer 2024 and we’ll keep you up to date as we progress.
I need to give you advance notice of some dates when we will need to close Trebah in January for essential maintenance work. The Garden and the Visitor Centre will close from Saturday 6th January – Thursday 11th January inclusive and you won’t be able to visit at all during those dates. We will re-open the Garden and Visitor Centre on Friday 12th January. I appreciate this may be disappointing to some, but we need to complete some quite disruptive works during this short period, including installation of a new floor in our commercial kitchen.
Thanks to all who came along to the successful volunteer open day which we featured last month, as a result we are welcoming thirty new volunteers into a variety of roles in the new year. Great news.
As 2023 draws to a close I would like to take this opportunity to voice a huge thank you to all the staff and volunteers at Trebah for their hard work and loyalty through what has been a busy year and one that has brought a lot of change to Trebah. To allow our team a well-deserved rest Trebah is closing on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. We will re-open on 27th December at 9.30am.
Finally, on behalf of the board of Trustees, the team and myself thank you for your support this year as our members, it’s very much appreciated.
Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Best wishes, Jon
Jon's Journal is a monthly update from Trebah's CEO Jon Cummins
