Today we welcomed guests to a very special local event with SAM LEE’S SINGING WITH NIGHTINGALES in local Barcombe
Featuring Special Guests: Sasha Siem, Cosmo Sheldrake, Abe Brody, Alice Eldridge, Max Baille, Emily Portman, Lisa Knapp, Jamie Doe AKA The Magic Lantern, Matan, Alice Zawadzki, Hyelim Kim, Rachel Musson & more TBC
Peter and Sue we lucky enough to get one of the 20 places were they are to join folk singer Sam Lee and other celebrated musicians for a very intimate journey deep into the Springtime Sussex forest to experience the rare and intoxicating song of the Nightingale, be regaled with songs, stories, folklore and ornithological wisdom on this magical bird. Included in the evening will be a gourmet backwoods feast round an open fire and music from some extremely special guest artists.
They are looking forward to an evening of two halves: To be welcomed at nearby Barcombe secret farm location to the woodland clearing and woodsman’s shelter to find our camp by the fire. With a lovely walk round the lake and through the woods.
We will gather at the fireside and dinner will be served around 8pm after which and once darkness has fallen and the nightingale singing time starts ( this does vary as the season progresses) we will journey through the forest and fields for 30 minutes to the habitat of the birds where more songs and the ‘Singing with the Nightingales will happen. We aim to be finished around 12.30am but this all depends on the birds singing time. The time around the fire will be a social evening, we will have music and some talk about the birds especially from our resident ornithologist Tom Stuart who will be joining us to share his detailed knowledge of bird language and lore
For a few short weeks from mid April onwards a few thousand Nightingales annually fly to the southern UK from the Central African forests and can be heard, in a just few special locations, taking up sonorous residence after dusk. The male birds territorially serenade about the scrubs and field margins with their magnificent and highly venerated song. Folk singer, song collector and nature lover Sam Lee has built a reputation of celebrating this ‘very African bird’ with his annual sell out excursions. This year he invites you not just the chance to listen to these birds in ear tinglingly close proximity but to share his own fund of rare songs and improvised collaboration along with some very special guest musicians. Sam’s 2014 BBC Radio 4 documentary ‘Singing with the Nightingales’ was nominated for a BBC Radio Award in 2015 and this year he returns for a few special nights of immersive guidings offering a deeply wondrous, romantic and very potent experience like no other.
After a night in the woods our bird watchers will be ready to be tucked up in a lovely 6ft bed in the luxury of White Lodge bed and breakfast Cooksbridge Lewes.With a hearty breakfast to look forward too after an evening in the woods! They may have the pleasure of seeing one of our many owls this evening before they go as the barn owl is out hunting each evening and you can hear them hooting all night if you have your windows open as they live in our old oak wood behind the house.
For all Lewes music festivals, musical evenings, Glyndebourne Festival, Charleston Literary Festival and weddings in Lewes, Barcombe and Cooksbridge White Lodge bed and breakfast is a lovely luxury retreat. Or if you fancy visiting Brighton but want the peace of the countryside we are just 15 minutes from the centre!
Contact Ann stay@whitelodge.gb.com or visit us at www.whitelodgebedandbreakfastlewes.com or call us +44 1273 400151. We are proud to have been voted as the number one luxury B&B in Lewes - as voted by our Trip Advisor guests, May 2016