Five minutes south of the gate, a gravel pull-out and a short walk through the trees puts you on Bannock Point: a rocky spit into Slocan Lake with deep, clear water off the end and a shallow bay on the sheltered side. It's where the valley swims.

The lake is fed by glacier melt off the Valhallas, which is why it's that colour and why the first plunge takes your breath. By late July the top metre is warm enough to stay in; the rest of the year it's a cold plunge with a view. Locals jump from the rocks on the point; kids paddle in the bay; someone is always reading on the flat stone.

Bring: a towel, shoes for the rocks, a thermos of tea from the wheel. Leave: nothing. There's a small provincial campground with pit toilets and no services. Go early or go at six — the light down the lake toward Slocan village at that hour is the reason people move here.

From the castle: turn right out of the drive, follow Highway 6 south along the lake, and watch for the pull-out on the lake side. Ask us — we'll draw it on the map.

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You arrive the day before your group. Walk the house with us: the studio (mirrors, straps, live-edge doors), the two practitioner rooms (dark, warm floors, fresh air), the great room, the turret, the kitchen. Decide where the circle happens — most groups choose the great room in the morning and the wheel at dusk.

Rhythm we've seen work: a movement or breath session at 7:30 in the studio; breakfast slow, in the turret and on the deck; the main teaching block in the great room until lunch; afternoons open — trails, the lake, one-to-ones in the practitioner rooms, sauna rounds; dinner at the long table at 7; the fire circle after. Two afternoons fully off. One dinner cooked by the group from the garden.

Kitchen: quasi-commercial — a long island, a big range, a walk-in-sized pantry. Bring a chef or split the group into cooking teams; both work. In season the greenhouse and beds can supply greens, herbs and berries; tell us early and we'll plan a harvest.

Numbers: the house sleeps 22 including the loft; most retreat groups run 12–18 so people get their own rooms. The yurt is a second breakout space or a facilitator's quiet suite. The work room downstairs runs the back office on fast internet. Ask us for the facilitator's checklist when you inquire.

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The land was farmed before it was ever a lodge, and it still is. A 1,000-square-foot greenhouse and three indoor grow rooms keep greens going through the snow; fenced beds on drip irrigation carry the summer; the hundred-foot medicine wheel is planted with more than two hundred species of herbs, medicines and berries.

Winter — greens, sprouts and microgreens from the grow rooms; stored roots and squash; herbal teas from last summer's drying racks. Spring — seed-starting in the greenhouse from March; first salads and radishes; nettles and wild greens on the trails. Summer — the beds in full swing: lettuces, brassicas, beans, tomatoes and peppers under glass, herbs everywhere; berries in the wheel from July; flowers for the table. Autumn — squash, roots, the last tomatoes; preserving, jam and tea-blending days in the kitchen; garlic in the ground for next year.

Guests are welcome to harvest with us — ask when you inquire and we'll match your week to what's ready. No sprays, no chemicals; two water sources (a well and a licensed spring) keep it all alive.

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