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We are a couple in our 50's, our children are grown up and live away now, although we still see them often.
Our daughter Lauren lives in London with her partner Angus, they have a new baby. Our son Jonny is a professional sportsman, married to Sophie living in the Midlands. Pete is a veterinary surgeon specialist in bovine reproduction so he works on farms doing embryo transfer and insemination work; he works long hours most days and travels away quite a bit. Hazel is Director of a charity based in London that supports family carers of people living with dementia. She is away in London for 3-4 nights most weeks and spends every Monday in London with Lauren and her grandson Ru .
We have two gorgeous dogs Bessie aged 6 years and Mildred aged 2 years who need walking every day. We need some help with dog walking, gardening and with some general maintenance such as painting and cleaning in the house. We would welcome help with food preparation and clearing up too. There will be some short periods when we may need to travel away and you would be trusted to look after our house and our dogs.
We live in the beautiful Wiltshire countryside with amazing walks and views out over the fields in a small group of friendly neighbours of all ages. We socialise a lot with our local friends and neighbours. There are good bus and train links to London, Bristol, Bath, Gloucester in fact you can travel almost anywhere in the UK very easily from here. However, it can feel quite isolated, especially during winter months and to go into town you would need to drive or cycle. We have bicycles and may be able to drive you or lend a car to get to the station.
Gardening
General Maintenance
Cooking / shopping
Help in the house
Animal care
They would learn to speak English and how to cook and care for dogs. We cook fresh food every day using produce from our garden where possible. Also, about how English communities live and share. We socialise with our friends and neighbours a lot. There are many cultural attractions within travelling distance such as London, Gloucester, Bath and Bristol.
The house is a big one and help with cleaning, minor repairs and some decorating is needed. Dog walking cleaning and DIY are also regular tasks that we need help with. In the summer Pete appreciates help in the garden with weeding, watering and trimming. He also needs help sometimes with his embryo records, updating them, basic data entry. There are no deadlines or schedules and so we can be flexible regarding when and how often the help is provided by the volunteer.
English
Bedroom with easy access to toilet and bathroom. Use of downstairs living and kitchen areas and garden.
Avebury Stone Circle, Stone Henge, museums, cathedrals etc in London, Bath, Bristol, Gloucester. All are 1-2 hours away by car or public transport. We cook fresh food every day, walk the dogs . We spend a lot of time socialising with friends and neighbours and all their children so, a really mixed age group. We also like music, we listen to music and we play guitars and sing. We go to Gloucester most weekends to watch rugby. We also take part in keep fit and pilates every week. All of these activities would be available for the volunteer too.
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
One
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week