The Relaxed Sanctuary at Cadbury Cottage - Welcoming Nature

The Relaxed Sanctuary at Cadbury Cottage - Welcoming Nature We run community events and also make rugs from raw fleeces.

The Relaxed Sanctuary at Cadbury Cottage sits on ten acres of land, home to lots of wildlife as we carefully rewild, build ponds, plant trees and do all we can to improve our bio-diversity.

Please join Welcoming Nature to keep up with all our exciting nature news here on the Relaxed Sanctuary at Cadbury Cotta...
07/10/2025

Please join Welcoming Nature to keep up with all our exciting nature news here on the Relaxed Sanctuary at Cadbury Cottage.

26/09/2025

This is what we caught on our trail cam on Monday night!!
Am utterly beside myself with excitement - cannot stop watching this video.
This pond is just about a year old, full of life and attracts endless varieties of birds: so as well as this amazing streak of blue and red joy, we have also had snipe, a green sandpiper, mallards, grey and pied wagtails dabbling, gold and chaffinches bathing, swallows and house martins swooping, linnets, sparrows, t**s etc drinking to name but a few!
Water is such a draw - it is the lifeblood for every ecosystem - and this is true from the smallest garden pond to the largest lake and river!!
If you do one thing for nature, make sure you add water to your wild spaces.

Been thinking about my earliest childhood 'nature' memories...(Would love to hear yours too..)Aged maybe seven or so, I ...
26/09/2025

Been thinking about my earliest childhood 'nature' memories...
(Would love to hear yours too..)

Aged maybe seven or so, I had kept a caterpillar in a container until it pupated and then subsequent emerged into a beautiful Garden Tiger Moth. I was completely in awe of the whole life cycle I had witnessed and the resulting beauty of the moth itself.
I went out of the house to release the moth, putting it near the back steps down into our garden. Within what seemed like seconds, suddenly the moth was covered in scores of black ants that were marauding over the steps, and quite possibly heading for our kitchen!
I was horrified and immediately picked up the moth, shook, pushed and flicked off every ant I could, and then found an ant-free part of our small garden for the poor creature to recover.
It was the start of a life long fascination with invertebrates in particular but also with the human relationship with nature and the part we play in helping (or hindering) it to thrive.
BTW, my 'release' techniques have vastly improved since then 🤣.

Image from https://butterfly-conservation.org/moths/garden-tiger

Well, this is all very exciting!! The rather uninspiring photo of fencing and our workshop also has a cane it in with a ...
21/09/2025

Well, this is all very exciting!! The rather uninspiring photo of fencing and our workshop also has a cane it in with a microphone attached!! This is the exciting bit as the mic is attached to a bat detector, on loan from Devon Wildlife Trust.
Over the course of the next three nights, the detector will pick up any bat activity (by sound) and store them on a card. The contents of the card will then be uploaded to the BTO Acoustic Pipeline and the results analysed, giving me (hopefully) a full list and numbers of all species heard!!
We last did the DWT bat survey on 2018 and at that time 11 individual species were recorded on our land with a total number of just under 2200 passes (i.e. 2200 bats flew past the mic). 450 of these passes were attributed to 'families' of bats as with some bats, such as Myotis, id-ing the actual species through sound can be tricky, even for a bat detector.
There are a mere 18 bat species in the UK so to have 11 of them recorded here was just amazing.
The photos are of bats in our attic - we 'think' we have 2 species but are not sure - we do own our own mini bat detector for using with a phone and I plan to pop it in the attic so see what that picks up!!
As I am sure you are all aware, bats are protected and must not be disturbed. It's a good thing we have a 'no using the attic as storage' rule in our house - it wasn't an option when we moved here!!
On Thursday I hope I can share with you the full results

The ponds are certainly starting to fill up. This pond was built in February this year and hasn't really got going all a...
20/09/2025

The ponds are certainly starting to fill up. This pond was built in February this year and hasn't really got going all at all due to the very dry Spring/ Summer.
The first picture is from July 30th, the second from this week!!!
Exciting!!!

JOIN OUR NEW GROUPWelcoming Nature has been set up to inspire, uplift, encourage and educate. We need 'nature' now more ...
20/09/2025

JOIN OUR NEW GROUP
Welcoming Nature has been set up to inspire, uplift, encourage and educate.
We need 'nature' now more than we ever have done, not only because it is just so amazingly beneficial to our well-being but also because the UK is now one of the most nature depleted countries in the world (source State of Nature 2023) and unless we ALL make herculean efforts to turn this around we are, just ever so slightly (BIG understatement)🥺, rather doomed.
BUT, back to being cheery, 😃 join the group to let us know how you welcome nature into your lives, bombard us with your ideas and good news, stunning photos and experiences. And from the smallest, cutest, money spider to the largest and most magnificent red deer; from the 'ordinary' crane fly to the extra-ordinary flash of the kingfisher; from the 'common' dandelion to the rarest orchid.. ALL nature is welcome.
We look forward to welcoming you.

This is my Oak Field robin, faithfully popping out to see me most mornings when I walk round our land. Must start to tak...
11/09/2025

This is my Oak Field robin, faithfully popping out to see me most mornings when I walk round our land. Must start to take some food with me when I go...
I love how we get to know specific animals on our regular walks like this... makes being immersed in nature even more special! 😀

Address

Cadbury Cottage, Back Lane
Chulmleigh
EX187AR

Telephone

+447929204521

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