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"Twang, twang, la, la…"

We do love a bit of music.

Over the last four years we have had some absolutely stunning musical interludes. Still the most memorable being the extraordinary rendition of a tiny chunk of Dido and Aeneas by two of our lovely guests. Their voices bounced off the glass windows of the lodge leaving us all gasping for breath as the entire site clapped from their domes.

It doesn’t happen every week, and sometimes not for a while, but there have been loads of others. From a full scale gospel choir singing 4-part harmonies to single people with single instruments, strumming simple tunes to tiny children singing nursery rhymes around the fire.

It doesn’t have to be huge and it doesn’t have to be amazing, we’ll still love it. And more power to your elbow – or your larynx – if you want to step up, or sit down and join in.

And, as we’ve always said, a free rounds of drinks for those who do!

"Chop chop chop"

“No! Surely you can’t call this a play area! ” you may say.  But after you’ve been here a while you will notice there it’s definitely one for the boys – again!

You may, at some point, notice that you are missing a member of your party. Normally Male. It may even have been for some time. Well, just stop for a moment and have a listen.  You’ll hear it over the other side of the site, like some demented wood pecker, the unmistakeable sound of our lovely little chopping device… tap tap clonk tap tap clonk… That’s where you’ll find them. Clustered in a block with others of the species.

Now tell me it’s not a play area!

"We’re not sexist!"

We aren’t sexist in the slightest” is normally a precursor to some outrageous, gender-stereotyping, sweeping generalisation. And we really aren’t but…

Men and fires. What are they like?

“Stand back, leave it to me”. Pretty much always results in charcoal sausages and leathery steak that you could line your shoes with, two hours after everyone has lost their appetite.

Well, the Dome Garden is no different. Men love to play with fire. Strictly speaking we should be more circumspect and not encourage it, but some things you just can’t fight!

So, there are room stoves, water heaters, rockets stoves, hurricane kettles, rocket mass heaters – and a lovely firepit in the centre.  

If that’s not enough to play with… well, it’ll just have to be!

"Bar in a shed – Where adults play!"

We had a complaint the other week.

“I have a complaint” said a slightly bleary looking man wandering around The Garden in his pyjamas!

“That bar of yours never shuts!” he grabbed his forehead, massaging it vigorously. “That said, we did have a rather jolly evening with the guys from the Green Dome. Think we drank the bar dry though.”

We keep moving this around. One year it was indeed the Bar In The Shed, a cosy old timber shack used for two hundred years by forest workers seeking refuge from the elements, where you could sit and soak in not only the atmosphere but also a number of local and international brews until the proverbial, well, chickens come home.

Then it became the Bar Next To The Kitchen, The Rocket Bar On The Deck and now The Bar In The Cafe… but wherever it is, it does the same job.

Run away from the kids, stoke up the fire and pssscht…. relax.