Update

Greetings, All, from the FamiLea at Gingerbread Hill!

Instead of a Christmas or New Year’s newsletter, I thought I would change things up to reach out and connect with you now, during these extenuating strange and trying times. Our sincere hope is that this finds you and your loved ones safe, well, and grateful.

Montserrat remains as beautiful as ever, and Covid -free! That, in itself, is a huge blessing for which we are all very grateful. However, one of the reasons we have no Covid is that our borders have been closed to visitors since March. So that has left us out of business for over 8 months. Recently the government has opened the borders for Montserratians and their families, property owners, and…drum roll… people who wish to come for stays of two months or longer, perhaps to work remotely from here. Gingerbread Hill has also been approved, along with one other place, as a safe place to quarantine. The quarantine is for two weeks everywhere on island. BUT…if you stay here, you can have a test done after five nights here, get the results the next day, and if it’s negative, you do not have to quarantine any longer than that.

As is the case with so many around the world, we’ve been in an evolving process of trying to reinvent ourselves. Maybe it’s quicker when you’re younger!  David and I have been looking at our collective experience and knowledge base, reviewing what we might have to offer that folks might be interested in. Our areas include the arts and both natural and spiritual health and healing.

 I, Clover, have been using all this extra time to work on my art…specializing in what I’ve branded “creative realism,” in portraits, island scenes, seascapes, and dreamscapes. My writing style is creative non-fiction and poetry, so they both work together well. (If you’re interested in seeing any of my work, you can go to cloversongs.com or my facebook page: Clover’s Art and Creativity. I’ve just sent off to the UK and US four commissioned portraits for Christmas and one painting that I created to make a statement on the times. It’s called Hands of Time, and features two elderly hands of two different races joined together, as one in prayer, on a floral background.)

This brings to mind one of the newly emerged purposes for Gingerbread Hill, which is that it really is the perfect place to enjoy an extended “working holiday” to do art, photography, writing, music, or anything else you might fancy, including doing your regular work which you may be doing remotely from home anyway and could easily do from here instead!  You could…take a break from the craziness in the world, get out of the winter cold, and nourish your souls in the serene, safe beauty of Gingerbread Hill. If it is art, writing or music that you wish to do, we can provide help and encouragement as needed. If you have a group, we could put together something more organized that might help you in your field of interest. If you love growing food, you’re welcome to pitch in with the work and share in the harvest.

That last thought leads us into the fact that David and I have spent over four decades learning and practicing natural health and preventative/alternative/ functional health care, starting with the food we put into our bodies. As you may know, one of the reasons that we opened our property to share it with others is that we are really not very good at “keeping a good thing to ourselves!” We thoroughly enjoy sharing good stuff with good folks. We LOVE to see people’s lives change for the better.

We believe that the next thing we are to do is to offer Gingerbread Hill as a place where you can come for a Creative Reset. There’s no time like the present! Our input, if desired, would be tailored to your needs, as they are related to:

1. the arts,

2. your health,

3. your spirit,

all three, or none of the above, beyond simply enjoying time spent here at Gingerbread Hill.. (We, personally, would prioritize that list in the opposite order, but that’s just how we roll.) In any case, we care and are always honoured to encourage and pray with anyone, if desired, while respecting your personal heart-space, beliefs and privacy.

We know that we’ve been blessed in order to be a blessing to others. There are some things we KNOW, and that’s one of them. This property with its stunning beauty of flora, scenery and views is one huge blessing.  We’ve labored with love to develop it into what it is so far. We moved here in 1980, and bought the land with only our little house on it, surrounded by bush and forest, after it was one of only 4% of buildings that actually kept the roof on in 1989’s Hurricane Hugo! We had been renters here, but through a pretty miraculous chain of events, we became owners in 1990. And we’ve just been a-workin on it ever since. (The latest addition is a cute little gazebo with table and bar stools on the pool deck. And we hope to finish building a new wing on our house with a more spacious studio for me and a suite on the floor above it….whenever we have a proper income again. It’s not a necessity, but a hope, hope, hope!)

If any of this resonates with you, drop us a line or give us a call. We’re here for you. We will work with you regarding what you want and can afford to spend. We can put together a package around what you want and/or need. Or…we can just offer the lodging and you can play the rest by ear when you get here. We’re open to negotiating. We need to be working. We want people to be enjoying Gingerbread Hill again!  We want you to be refreshed, renewed and restored!

Looking forward to hearing some news from you,

Clover, David, and the FamiLea