SCRAP RETREAT 2020

 Not that I scrapbook these days....

These days I do photo books more than the paper and scissors version... I still love to record the memories,  but I find that the photo books are a lot cheaper to make and only take up very limited room...

Whilst the other girls worked with paper and bought down suitcases and boxes full of stuff,  I arrived with my laptop and a hard drive. 

Still although I don't scrapbook conventionally, I wouldn't miss this weekend away with the girls for anything....

The setting at the Haven is perfect for our weekend away... The views are breathtaking...

 This are the views that we have from our scrap room.. It doesn't matter what direction we look in, there are beautiful views of the Capricorn Coast....  The new caretaker there has also done an amazing job with all the gardens too, they are looking stunning...

Because of Covid this year, we were unable to have our meals in the houses but rather up on the verandah of the scrap room.  This worked so well this year that the girls have opted to do this next year as well.  We obviously didn't loose as much of our scrapping time as we did when we would leave and head down to the houses for the meals...

Because we didn't have an oven or stove up in the kitchen we used our slow cookers for our Friday and Saturday night meals.  Friday we had a choice of three different soups and then Saturday night we had a choice of three different curries.... All very delicious...

 

This years we rostered the woman on for meals and morning and afternoon tea as we could only have two people in the kitchen at any one time.  It also meant with the Covid restrictions that all our meals had to be served by the one person.... Normally we would do it buffet style and let everyone serve themselves..

Our retreat starts at lunch time on the Friday and the woman arrived and set up their scrap area pretty quickly.  We had asked them to wait before setting up as we weren't sure whether their would be restrictions with our table set ups but we were fine as the tables were socially distanced apart anyway...

Ann, Heather and I were on dinner Saturday night...  The girls all wanted our theme to be a Pajama Party as they just wanted to scrap in their PJs...  We initially were having our meals on the verandah but it was a little windy Saturday afternoon so we set up ourside the scraproom on the path and John the caretaker offered to light up the grounds with his festoon lighting for us to enjoy our sweets out on the lawn... It created a lovely atmosphere...

Instead of desert, we decided to set up a chocolate bar with chocolates, fruit, chocolate sauce, pretzels, button biscuits and all things naughty and we would serve hot chocolate drinks with this...

Ann and I spent the afternoon in the kitchen preparing for this...

Before Ann and I headed to the kitchen and straight after lunch we took our yearly group photo out on the lawn.  It is a lovely area out there now, and is a major venue for weddings now... Who wouldn't wnt to hold their wedding here with views like this....

I also like to photograph all of the girls working so I have a record of those that attend each year..

This year we only had twelve ladies but it was a great group of woman,  all very easy going, there was lots of chatting and even more laughing.... I always think that weekends like this are like medicine to the soul...

Saturday night dinner was scheduled for 6pm and we had most of our preparation done by just after 5pm, so it actually gave us a bit of time to duck down to the house, have a shower and get in our Pjs before we had to set up and set the table....

Beautiful sunset hues in the sky over the coast as I made my way back up to the scrap room.

 

Whilst the others were off having their showers and getting ready for dinner,   Ann and I set up the dinner table ready for our evening meal.

The setting was quite lovely once all the lights were turned on...

It was a lovely evening outside... Not too cool and we were out of the wind, so it was quite pleasant and everyone seemed to linger over their meal...

Before enjoying our chocolate bar, we decided to clean up after dinner and reset our table with all the goodies.... One of the things with Covid, was that we had decided to use disposal plates, cutlery etc as part of our restrictions, so this made cleaning up easy and quite quick

Once everyone had gathered their goodies most of us gathered on the lawn under the lights to enjoy our feast... Everyone was pretty chilled out and no one seemed to be in a hurry to move... I think that this retreat was one of the most relaxed we have had in a long time...

We were all ready for bed now... everyone dressed in their Pjs.. We went back to scrapbooking, and also played a few games...  There was lots of laughter, lots of chatting, and lots of very inspiring work done...

It was probably close to midnight before most of us headed to bed....

You can tell we are getting older....

Gone are the days when we would sit to two or three am in the morning scrapbooking...

My accommodation in Joseph's Place this year was lovely... I had one of the front rooms with both windows overlooking the beach.  Gorgeous views, lovely sunrises over the ocean..

Once again, the views whilst eating breakfast on the verandah were delightful...

no wonder we all love coming down here for our weekend away...

It is so relaxing, and refreshing to be in such a beautiful and quiet environment and we always go home feeling refreshed and relaxed...

The venue down here is becoming more and more popular and we are now finding that we have to almost book  a couple of years in advance to even manage to book a weekend...

But then if we love it so does everyone else...

Our retreat worked out well this year.... normally we come in May, but this year May was booked out so we had to take an August booking.... it was a good thing we did as due to Covid our May weekend away would have been cancelled..

Next year we are back to May once again..

There is a distinct possibility that I may not make it next year if our overseas travel goes ahead...

We had two big trips booked for this year.... both have now been put on the back burner till next year now.