About

A view of the house November 2013

Trevor and Georgina bought the finca Navasola in 2005. The old part of the house is still visible in the picture. With low ceilings and a very draughty roof it was very cold and gloomy through the winter months.  After many years of going through the planning procedures needed for a Casa Rural, country guest house, we have gone ahead with just renovating the old house.

The land around the house is part of a U shaped valley and has many old chestnut trees, olives, oaks and pines. It is rich in biodiversity and in 2006 we had nature survey compiled by Theresa Farino and Trevor Bending. In 2007 and 2008 we organised two courses about the flora and fauna of the Sierra Aracena. These were very helpful in enhancing my knowledge about the range of birds and wild flowers in this part of Southern Spain. I was mainly organising the food at the time but I kept my ears open! Since then I have become more interested in learning more about the amazing variety of life in our local areas.  I have become a member of local wildlife trusts in the London area and very much enjoyed being involved with activities in Minet Country Park; a flagship achievement of the organisation Arocha and the local council.

In 2013 I finally made the decision to retire from my teaching career and embark on this new journey. I have been learning Spanish for some years but will still struggle to produce a coherent and grammatical sentence. My first experiences with the Spanish language were based on using the BBC’s Get By In Spanish. This worked quite well but I felt I needed more for my long awaited trip to Peru. I now need a lot more but hope that practice will make for slightly easier communication on all sides!

From the spiritual angle I am a long term practitioner of Transcendental Meditation and have always been interested in the scientific validation of meditation as well as the spiritual development regular practice supports. I have always been interested in different traditions and spiritual practices. At present I am very interested in the Quaker approach to life and spirituality.

I have spent time in India and learnt some Hindi and Sanskrit. It was also one of the most important experiences of living within another culture for me. I have also had an interest in Tai Chi , acupuncture and reflexology.

I hope my life living at the finca Navasola will help me continue these interests and to develop my creativity with more writing and art work. I also hope that by sharing aspects of this others too might find support and encouragement in moving towards a more sustainable and peaceful world.