Winter at the St Madoc Centre

The previous couple of months have brought with the snow and ice, causing country-wide travel issues, water to be cut-off and airports to be closed. We were very fortunate at the St Madoc Centre that we were saved from the worst of the weather, with not a single group having to miss out on there stay because of the snow.

lots and lots of snow

That being said, Winter was not an especially busy time at the St Madoc Centre, with significantly fewer groups staying on site than during the warmer periods of the year. This does mean that we can begin some much needed maintenance on areas of the site where it is not possible during busier times, and also allows us to catch up on other areas of work, like lesson plans, woodland management and tree-planting. These are tasks that are important to the ethos and work of the St Madoc Centre, but are also areas that can tend to get over-looked during busier times of the year.

At the St Madoc Centre we are working towards having as little carbon-imprint as possible, this may take us some time to achieve, but a large step toward this goal will be the planting of around four hundred saplings on site and the forming of a new woodland area. Whilst this will not totally off-set our carbon-footprint it will help us on our way.

Over the last year or two we have managed to clear our woodland of a lot of the more invasive species of plants and reinstate footpaths and walk ways throughout our 5 acres of woodland. Over the Summer these species have begun to sneak back on-site and to stop the work of the last year being wasted it is important we keep on top of our woodland management plan and keep the area maintained, in order to keep our woodland useful and well looked after.

With Spring getting closer and closer, and our School season coming with it, lesson and activity plans are being written, and re-written in preparation for several hundred children arriving, ready to be entertained. The School season is, without a doubt, my favourite time of the year at the St Madoc Centre. Seeing the joy on children's faces as they figure out the solution to a particular game or activity, or as they get to soak their favourite teacher with a water-bomb is one of the best things about my job here, and makes the hard-work we put in before their visits very much worthwhile.