Finally this week we saw a slight change in the weather and where once we were greeted by rain, we now can look forward to crisp blue skies above and white frosts under foot. Despite the mud we have remained busy and there has been much activity. On Tuesday Men in Sheds joined in a meeting to advance the plans for our big project, which concerns the pond, and in the coming weeks more will be revealed as we hope to start work in the new year. More updates will follow...
The Wednesday gardeners were busy preparing for two big events that take place this week - the Christmas Tree exhibition in St Andrews Church and the Town Christmas Fayre.
Our Christmas tree looks brilliant and will be in place by the end of this coming Monday. The event runs from Wednesday until Saturday and we encourage a visit as the church will be filled with 150 trees, put up and decorated by a variety of organisations in the town. It will be a fantastic spectacle!
The Christmas Fayre is on Sunday 8th - next Sunday - and our stall will be situated outside Poundland. We will be selling cakes, our wonderful door decorations and raffling a stunning hand decorated bird box made by Men in Sheds. This is a wonderful chance for us to talk to the town about space2grow and hand out literature and encourage even greater participation with the community. Please put aside an hour to visit and get the volunteers manning the stand a cup of tea!
Anyone coming through our gate will have seen the transformation underway at the entrance. The Thursday Gardening Club are creating a new experience, a garden based upon a Japanese model that gives a sense of serenity in the creation of a planted gravel path with additional planting in a newly made bed by the wall. This is a great example of how the acre encourages vision and imagination and the Thursday Gardening Club have truly embraced this core principle. Just brilliant!
The Cookery Club has had four well attended sessions and this week the year 6 pupils, together with a parent/guardian, left with turkey burgers and chocolate brownies for supper. The club is proving to be a tremendous success and everyone involved greatly looks forward to the next session!
On Friday night a group of us were guests of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association at their headquarters in Tilford. It was an inspirational visit as we were given a tour of the mosque and our guide answered a range of questions with a simple honesty that helped us to understand more about their faith. We could not have been made more welcome and the food was incredible, especially as they were catering for about 350 guests! The closing speech was very insightful and we felt truly humbled by the amount of work they do to create harmony in communities where discord exists. They also presented our Mayor with a most generous donation to her Mayor's fund which will be shared between us and the Hale Community project.
