Since May 2015 we’ve hosted Workawayers to help us build our harps. They live with us and we also feed them and train them in new skills, and in return they help us out with 4 hours work each day, 5 days per week. Mostly they help out with all the sanding that needs to be done!
First we hosted Alban and Roma, a newly retired Australian couple who sold all their belongings a couple of years ago and have been workawaying their way around the world ever since. Having built their own home a few years ago, they were not only hugely helpful in the workshop, but also helped out a load with building work in the house we had moved into just a couple of months before. Initially booked to stay a month, Alban and Roma ended up staying for 10 weeks.
Then we hosted Marika, a friend of Creag’s from his schooldays in High Wycombe. She was looking to escape life so close to London, and after a chance meeting with Creag’s parents while they were out walking their dog, she liked the sound of Stroud and idea of working with her hands and came to join us.
As I write this she is still here 🙂 As are…
ShĂ hrom and Filippo. A couple of friends from an engineering course at Bologna University, these guys have been with us over the Summer. Together with Marika they’ve worked their fingers to the bone to make a double batch of 8 harps. They’ve been showing us why Italian workmanship is held in such high regard the world over!
And next? Well, for now, we’re not looking for anyone to come live with us. Our next arrival is currently cooking away in Morwenna’s tummy, and we’ve decided to have some time with the house to ourselves, probably for the rest of the year while we get to grips with being parents.
Next year, who knows!