I’ve just realised that I haven’t written anything about our new office!

It’s become increasingly difficult to run the BGI efficiently over the last few years without a real office. I have worked from my kitchen table,  from volunteers’ kitchen tables, from an office that we couldn’t afford to keep, from a garden shed and (most difficult of all) from the space underneath my stairs.

Apart from the ‘office we couldn’t afford to keep’ (early 2008) none of these has been an easy place to work from - especially once we needed more space for the lovely volunteers who help on the admin side of things. This is why I decided to include a request for office funding when I asked TFN: http://www.thefundingnetwork.org.uk/ for help earlier this year - and now, thanks to the generosity of TFN members, the BGI has a beautiful office in a refurbished barn at ‘The Fold’ in Bransford near Worcester: http://www.thefold.org.uk/

It’s great to be able to work in a building where everything has been refurbished with minimum impact to the environment.  As you can see from this link: http://www.thefold.org.uk/eco-building-work/, the water is heated by the sun and the space heating is provided by a wood chip boiler using locally grown willow, but even more exciting is the fact that we are now a part of a wonderful community of other like-minded people rather than being on our own. It couldn’t be more perfect!

We are taking a break for a few weeks over the summer but will be back in the office from mid-September, so if you’re in the area later this year and would like to come and visit, please drop us an email because we’d love to meet you!